Closing the digital gender divide could help improve adolescent girls’ health and nutrition across South Asia
BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-080812 (Published 03 March 2025) Cite this as: BMJ 2025;388:e080812Read the collection: Tackling the triple burden of adolescent girls’ malnutrition
South Asia has the world’s largest gender gap in mobile internet access. Adolescent boys are 1.5 times more likely than girls to own a mobile phone and nearly twice as likely to own a smartphone.1 Unequal digital access between adolescent boys and girls reinforces nutritional and health inequities, and closing the gender gap in digital access is fundamental to safeguarding adolescent girls’ health and nutrition.
Change is possible. For example, in 2017, the Kerala High Court, India, declared internet access a basic human right.2 However, the challenge across the region remains substantial: in 2023, South Asian women were 31% less likely than men to access mobile internet.3 Adolescent girls often have to rely on borrowed digital devices, limiting usage. A 2018 survey in Bangladesh revealed that 95% of adolescent girls borrowed phones for digital access, with nearly half borrowing from a brother.1 This limits their familiarity with digital tools and reduces confidence in developing basic digital skills compared with boys.2
Societal norms further restrict girls’ digital engagement. For example, in India, mobile and internet use by girls is seen as challenging traditional gender norms, with general concerns that digital access could lead to promiscuous behaviour, threatening their “purity” before marriage.3 After marriage, normative expectations that girls prioritise household responsibilities further reduce their engagement with digital technologies.3 In Pakistan, among those aware of mobile internet, 42% of men and 28% of women believe it is more important for men.4 The digital gender divide reinforces patriarchal norms driving nutrition inequities and limits adolescent girls’ access to essential information about their nutrition, health, and rights. Patriarchal norms also contribute to South Asian adolescent girls’ exclusion from food and nutrition decision making.5
Potential of digital technologies
Digital technologies offer a scalable, cost effective way to support nutritional health among adolescent girls in South Asia, particularly those in rural and remote areas, those married young, or those facing gender barriers to accessing schools and community events. For example, in Bangladesh an eHealth anaemia education programme targeted rural adolescent girls, improving their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding anaemia.6 Similarly, the Bhalo Khabo Bhalo Thakbo (Eat Well, Live Well) initiative uses social media to enhance nutritional awareness and attitudes nationwide.7 Co-designed with adolescents, the programme has improved understanding of the importance of eating nutritious foods and avoiding unhealthy snacks.7 However, inadequate digital access, disproportionately affecting adolescent girls, has limited the programme’s reach.7
Digital technologies have the potential to empower adolescent girls by enhancing their independence and equipping them with knowledge and skills needed to exercise autonomy, make informed choice, and assert agency.8 This empowerment is critical for challenging the entrenched gender inequities contributing to poor nutrition. However, the digital environment also poses risks, including the spread of nutrition misinformation, unregulated health advice, and targeted marketing of unhealthy foods, all of which can negatively affect nutrition and health.910
Closing the digital gender gap and mitigating digital risks
The digital gender gap remains a substantial barrier to equitable nutrition and health for adolescent girls in South Asia. Reducing this gap requires an approach that combines revising and developing policies, community engagement, and the active involvement of girls themselves.
One critical step is for governments, civil society, and UN organisations across South Asia to collaborate on policies that tackle the gendered barriers to digital access and literacy. For example, in Bhutan, Unicef is working with Innovate Bhutan to provide girls with multimedia skills training,11 while the Ministry of Education and Skills Development in Bhutan is strengthening digital access and literacy in schools and youth centres.11 These efforts should also include measures to create safe online environments and tackle misinformation and the digital marketing of unhealthy foods.
Equally important is involving adolescent girls as co-creators of digital interventions. When girls are engaged in designing programmes, these initiatives become more relevant and culturally sensitive. A good example is the Oky mobile app, which provides sexual and reproductive health education while enhancing digital literacy and was adapted for Nepal and India. Through involving girls in its design, the app incorporated low tech features, offline access to overcome connectivity issues, and data protection measures to address privacy concerns.11 Similar approaches could be applied to develop programmes focused on nutrition and digital literacy.
Challenging societal norms and the perception of digital technologies as a male domain is another crucial component of the solution. Educating and supporting parents, community leaders, and educators about the benefits of digital access and literacy for girls is essential for shifting the stereotypes that digital technologies may distract girls from their education, compromise purity, or conflict with traditional gender roles. Programmes such as Women in Tech in the Maldives have built girls’ digital confidence through training and mentoring. Initially facing parental scepticism, the programme engaged with parents and teachers to highlight the empowering potential of digital skills for girls. This engagement led to increased acceptance and demand.11
Unless the digital gender gap is closed, adolescent girls in South Asia will continue to face barriers to realising their right to equitable nutrition and health. This issue is not just about technology but about supporting a generation of girls to overcome systemic inequities and claim their rights.
Footnotes
AI use: The AI application Consensus was used to assist with sourcing relevant literature for this article.
Competing interests: We have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and have no relevant interests to declare.
Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
This article is part of a collection developed in partnership with the Unicef Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) and Deakin University, Australia. Article open access fees were funded by Unicef-ROSA. The BMJ commissioned, peer reviewed, edited, and made the decisions to publish the articles. Rachael Hinton and Jocalyn Clark were the lead editors for The BMJ.
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