Nearly 80% school kids have mobiles

 Cell phones are now constant companions of a majority of high school students in the city.


According to a survey conducted by the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) among 12,329 students across 12 Indian cities, 98.77% of the students surveyed in Mumbai own trendy mobile phones. More students
in Mumbai own cell phones compared to their peers in the other 11 cities, which include Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune.

“Three years ago, owning a mobile phone was an aspiration but today, it has become a reality with a significant number of students owning the gadget,” said Ajoy Mukherjee, executive vice-president and global head, Human Resource, TCS.

In its third year, the survey was conducted between July and December 2011 to understand the digital habits of school students from Class 8 to Class 12. In Mumbai, 1000 students from 450 schools were surveyed.

The survey revealed 59% of the students surveyed accessed the Internet through their phones compared to 22% in 2009. While 83.98% students use the Internet for school assignments, 82.88% students use it to chat and connect with family and friends.


There has also been an increase in the number of students registered on social networking sites with 97% using Facebook as against 40% in 2009.

Voice calls (65.09%) and instant messaging (60.03%) emerged as most preferred modes of communication. While 97.05% accessed Internet at home followed by the school (45.12%) and cyber café (35.22%), around 45% students spent up to half-an-hour everyday surfing the Internet.