No network, no marriage in Seoni Madhya Pradesh: India’s 25,000 disconnected villages

In Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, men are facing an unexpected hurdle in marriage proposals—not dowry, not jobs, but poor mobile connectivity.

Transcript

00:00Insanely, in Madhya Pradesh, men are getting rejected not for their looks, jobs or dowry,

00:26but for weak network bars.

00:35Villagers trek 2-3 km just to send a WhatsApp message.

00:38And this is just one of the 2612 villages in Madhya Pradesh without mobile connectivity.

00:50This isn't just a Madhya Pradesh problem.

00:52Over 25,000 villages in India still live in a digital blackout.

00:56Odisha has the highest number, but in Arunachal Pradesh, 73% of villages have no mobile or

01:02internet access.

01:11Forget AI, fintech and 5G, here people can't even make a phone call.

01:20Why do these villages still lack connectivity?

01:23Tough terrain makes building infrastructure expensive.

01:30Sparse populations make it unprofitable for telecom companies.

01:33Security concerns in some areas scare of investment.

01:37Back in 2019, the IT minister had said,

01:43In 2022, the government launched a universal service obligation fund to expand connectivity.

01:48But the progress?

01:49Slow.

01:50For over 25,000 villages in India, a single network bar is still a distant dream.