Patna, July 4: Nearly half of the rural population of Bihar is illiterate but most of them use cellphones.

Bihar is among the frontrunner in the country when it comes to penetration of cellphones in villages. The provisional socio-economic and caste census data released by finance minister Arun Jaitley yesterday stated that 82.16 per cent of the rural population in Bihar uses cellphone, whereas the national average for the same stands at 68.35 per cent.

Bihar is behind Delhi (87.98 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (89.63 per cent) and Uttarakhand (83.60 per cent) in terms of mobile phone penetration in villages.

Such a high level of mobile phone penetration in villages of Bihar is despite the fact that 43.85 per cent of the total rural population in the state is illiterate. Bihar also has only 2.28 per cent of graduates in the hinterland.

According to the Primary Census Abstract, 2011, released in May 2013, the population density of Bihar stands at 1,106 people per sqkm, making it the most populous state in the country. The national average population density stands at 382 per sqkm.

"Bihar is highly populous, thus cellphone companies try to cash in by ensuring maximum penetration. Low-cost phones, including Chinese smartphones have also brought them under reach of comparatively poor rural population," said a marketing executive of Airtel based in Calcutta.

Some attributed high level of cellphone penetration to improved network and its usage as a tool for entertainment. "A large section of rural people have started using cellphones for entertainment purposes. The highest number of mobile Internet users these days is from rural areas," said a senior executive of Uninor.

"Most families in rural areas have one or more people working in other cities or even abroad in case of districts like Siwan and Gopalganj. In such cases, the people living in the villages use their mobile phones mostly to receive calls from the migrant family member," said the BSNL official.

D.M. Diwakar, director, AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, said: "Literacy does not have to do much with usage of mobile phones. Villagers having elementary knowledge about letters and numbers can use it. Even women with low level of literacy use it these days to communicate with family members, who have migrated to other places for employment. Mobile phones have reduced the cost of accessing information."