Lockdown connectivity woes: Kritika Kamra says the dream of digitisation is still a far fetched one

The actor talks about how challenging it is to get decent internet and mobile connectivity in small towns of the country

In times of lockdown due to novel coronavirus pandemic, having a decent internet speed and mobile network connectivity “is a luxury which not everybody has”. And this realisation hit hard actor Kritika Kamra when she saw the students of her mother’s charitable school in a small township in Madhya Pradesh struggle to have basic internet facilities to continue their studies online.

Actor Kritika Kamra shares her lockdown tales from Madhya Pradesh

Like many others, Kamra, 31, is also dependent a lot on the Internet for her work and is facing similar challenges.

“I don’t get 4G network on my phone over here, so I’ve bought a local number to get a good hot spot. We’ve got multiple devices and WiFi connections because of which I’m able to do script reading on video conferences with the director and co-actors of my next project. I’ve also enrolled for an online course on Happiness at Yale University. I get all my news online. So, it affects my work as well when I don’t get the internet,” she says.

Though lockdown has forced many people to go digital, Kamra says, “It has brought to light the disparities that exist in urban cities and smaller cities, and the need of the hour is to bridge the gap of inequality with a bare minimum digital infrastructure to operate things online.”

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