Digital Adoption Amongst the Elderly People in Odisha

The digital technologies have become integral part of peoples’ daily lives in numerous ways, in their communication, health care management, shopping, financial transactions, and leisure activities. However, some of the previous studies observe that the benefits and access of digital spaces are not distributed equitably. Especially the older generation tend to use less digital technologies in comparison to younger generations, GenZ and millennials, thus giving rise to a digital division amongst the population. This paper tries to study the digital engagement of elderly people in Khurda district in Odisha with a specific interest on observing how the people adopt and use technology in their everyday life. In this study, a mixed-method methodology was used that incorporated the use of structured questionnaires and focus group discussions. The sample population was obtained as 292 respondents aged 60 and above drawn in Khurda district, Odisha. The rural, urban, and urban slum communities are found in the district and the state capital, Bhubaneswar, provides powerful digital infrastructure. The focus group discussion has been carried out with some people from these three groups belonging to different socio-economic back ground, who can give a better insight of the phenomena. To determine the impact of five independent variables age, gender, education level, location and income on digital technology adoption in three areas, which are entertainment, financial transactions and online shopping, three binary logistic regression models were used. The research underlines that income, education, locality, and gender are the factors that influence digital adoption among elderly people.