Barriers of Vernacular adoption

The barriers towards widespread adoption of ICT can be divided into two major groups. Firstly, infrastructural barriers in using computing technologies and secondly, barriers in using online content. The former sets of barriers are enumerated, below:

Limited PC penetration in the country:

Though falling prices of PC have fueled the growth of PC usage in the country, but this growth is limited to the affluent sections of the society. At the current price level, PC remains a far fetched phenomena for the ‘not so affluent’ sections in the country.

Availability and awareness of local language applications:

In most cases localisation is considered synonymous with translation. There is limited awareness as well as availability of localized applications beyond translations. The need is to acknowledge that localisation also encompasses significant, non-textual components of products or services in addition to strict translation.

Non-standardization:

There is absence of proper standardization in Indian language computing with respect to the following:

• Script level standardization
• Font level standardization
• Standardized transliteration

This absence of standardization leads to "a usage propriety technology" which further deters standardization. Also, this limits the scalability and flexibility of the solutions and creates dependence on a single vendor.

Lack of formal language based IT training:

In India all computer based training is imparted in English language. Not only this, in most schools and colleges where the medium of teaching is vernacular, computers are taught in English. There is no formal training in vernacular language for usage of Computers.

Difficulties in product design:

Since inception computers have been using a Western-centric product architecture with keyboards in English. Countries with localized offerings on keyboards have successfully created keyboards in their vernacular language. But for a multilingual country like India the situation of language standardization is difficult. All relevant input methods must be supported if local users are to have access to the equipment.

Belief that PC and the Internet are for English literates:

A common perception amongst the non English speaking population is that PC and Internet is only for those who know English. This is more rampant especially among the house wives and older men. They feel that there is a limited scope of what they can do online as they associate Internet and PC with the English language.

Low awareness level for availability of content in local language:

As per I-Cube 2007 data, almost 35% of the Internet users are not aware of the availability of content in the Indian languages online. This number increases to 53% for Internet users in Non-Metros. In order to increase the usage for Indian language content and in turn drive more traffic online, the masses need to be made aware of the content and applications available in their language.

Lack of supporting hardware:

Even though content and applications are available in vernacular language, the absence of adequate infrastructure creates a hurdle for its usage. For example, for inputs related to text in vernacular language the user has to type the phonetically similar English alphabets so as to get the right word in vernacular language. So it is more of a trial and error rather than systematic input of text through supporting hardware.

Lack of websites offering interface along with content in Indian language:

The most popular technology used by various websites providing content in Indian language is transliteration. It requires user to type Indian text in English language, which is then converted in the desired Indian language. The current segment of the Internet users using Indian content online is the English speaking population. However, to attract and retain the non-English speaking population, the platform needs to be provided in the Indian language. This is currently being provided by very few players.

Limited revenues from advertising:

According to a leading portal, there are few Indian language specific websites. As a result, advertising on Indian language sites is yet to take off. The web versions of newspapers have an edge over others since they already have relationship with advertisers. But stand-alone sites may take some time to get any traction.

Lack of contextual delivery:

At present transliteration and machine translation are the most popular technologies used by major websites in providing content in the desired language. However, such translation lose the context around the message that is being communicated resulting into a non-cohesive delivery.

These are by far the most plaguing problems restricting vernacular adoption in India. If you know of some more, please make me cognizant of the same.

Sources of my report:

IAMAI Report on Vernacular adoption - Click here
IAMAI Report on Vernacular content - Click here