[ Kadem Taku and Mingkeng Tamut ]
Barely an hour’s drive from Pasighat, the oldest town in Arunachal Pradesh and an aspiring ‘smart city’, lies Katan, a village in Upper Siang district that remains trapped in digital isolation.
Surrounded by the scenic Yamne river and lush hills, Katan and its neighbouring villages Sibum, Jeru and Pongging, along with Mopom circle, live in a cruel irony of modern development. Though located only 52 to 57 kilometres from a major urban centre, thousands of residents here remain cut off from mobile networks and internet facilities that the rest of the country takes for granted.
In an era where governance, education, and livelihoods are inseparably linked to the digital world, this lack of connectivity has devastating consequences. For students in Katan, the tools of modern education – online classes, digital textbooks, and scholarship portals – remain distant dreams. While their peers elsewhere prepare for competitive exams using virtual resources, the youths here are educationally sidelined.
The isolation extends to the economy as well; without UPI, digital banking, or access to government benefit portals, farmers and small traders are excluded from the national economy, deprived of timely information on everything from market prices to disaster warnings.
The crisis persists despite the presence of government institutions, including the circle officer’s headquarters and departmental offices for PHED and electricity. In practice, these offices struggle to function as staff and officers are understandably reluctant to remain at postings where basic communication is nonexistent. This has led to persistent delays in public service delivery, leaving the administrative framework of the region existing more on paper than in practice.
The lack of connectivity also stifles the area’s immense potential for ecotourism, as the digital void makes it nearly impossible to promote Katan’s natural beauty to the outside world.
The irony was most visible on 28 January, when the Government of Arunachal Pradesh held its flagship Seva Aapke Dwar (SAD) programme at Katan village, designed to bring essential services directly to the people’s doorstep and ease administrative burdens. Many forms and online activities could not be completed due to the absence of internet and mobile networks, undermining the very purpose of the initiative. A programme meant to bridge governance gaps was itself crippled by the digital void.
The struggle for connectivity has not been silent. Youth organisations, such as the All Sibum Students’ Association (ASSA), the Geku Katan Intellectual Youth Forum (GKIYF), and the All Upper Siang District Students’ Union (AUSDSU) have led sustained democratic movements. From meeting the general manager of the BSNL, Itanagar and the secretary of IT to organising peaceful foot marches to Yingkiong, these groups have exhausted every administrative channel. Even with official recommendations from the deputy commissioner of Upper Siang to the state government, the ground reality remains unchanged.
If the vision of ‘Digital India’ is to be truly inclusive, villages like Katan must not be left behind. The urgent installation of mobile towers and stable internet infrastructure is not just a matter of convenience; it is a matter of equity, opportunity, and dignity. Until connectivity reaches its hills and rivers, Katan will remain a village in digital darkness, waiting for the light of inclusion. (The contributors are mass communication students at Arunachal Pradesh University)
