Digital Literacy For Rural Upliftment
India is estimated to be the economic superpower of the future. Globalization has empowered the country and its youth to grow significantly. However, large percentage of India’s population still remains un-impacted to this progress. This is because of lack of digital literacy in the rural India.
In India, approximately 40% population is living below poverty line, illiteracy rate is more than 25-30% and digital literacy is almost non-existent among more than 90% of population.
In a country with more than 6,50,000 villages, where more than half of its population live in rural areas and off-the-map villages. Most are remote and too isolated to benefit from the country’s impressive economic progress. Yet there’s a growing desire among people in rural India to be part of its modernization process.
This is why, the government has launched Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan in hopes to help beneficiaries from rural parts of India reap the full benefits of a Digital India. The PMGDISHA is a dynamic and integrated platform for digital literacy awareness, education and capacity building programmes that will help the rural and under-served communities fully participate in the global digital economy.
Leading Indian Tyre manufacturer, CEAT Ltd., in partnership with NASSCOM Foundation, launched their first PMGDISHA centre at Satpura in Nashik District of Maharashtra.
The organisation will provide complete support towards setting up the training centre with infrastructure and trainers, in collaboration with NASSCOM Foundation. The Foundation will also help in monitoring, and impact assessment for the program. Krushi Vikas Va Gramin Prashikshan Sanstha (KVGPS) will be the implementation partner and will be responsible for the operations and community engagement. The centre will train 1500 beneficiaries from the nearby underserved communities on all digital devices like computers and mobile phones.
This is a part of the overarching RPG Foundation initiative through which the group will set up seven NDLM centers – three supported by KEC, two with support from CEAT and two by Raychem, distributed across rural parts of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. The initiative hopes to train over 10,500 individuals on digital literacy in the next 15 months.
Once trained, the beneficiaries will be able to navigate the digital world – send emails, connect on social media, use e-commerce websites, pay bills online, transact through digital payment modes, use maps, check weather forecast and will also learn how to use the Internet to avail various government services such as registering for Aadhar cards, ration cards, PAN cards, and others.
Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.
Regards,
The CSR Journal Team
