Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan
The Union Cabinet has finally approved the move to make rural households digitally equipped. The ‘Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan’ or PMGDISHA is not just about making digitized equipments reach poorer sections it is also about educating the masses. Under this scheme, the government aims to provide digital education to the major part of the rural sections.
Features of PMGDISHA
- This scheme will provide training and education in digital format to over 6 crore students in the rural areas across the country. The mission is targeted to reach 6 crore students by the end of 2019.
- It will be one of the largest digital literacy programmes, not only in the country but in the world with so many students being directly benefitted from it. This will usher more literacy and will remove the gender disparity in education.
- The people who will be trained under this scheme will be able to handle the digital equipments and they will also be able to operate computers and other devices like tablets, smartphones, etc.
- The core area that government wants to focus through this scheme is the digital transaction area. They want to educate the villagers so that they are able to carry out transactions in digital arena.
- The scheme will be carried out under the supervision of the Ministry of Electronics and IT. The states and UTs will be collaborating with the ministry to make sure that it is implemented in the proper way.
Is India prepared to have this revolution?
As per a survey conducted in the year 2014 by NSSO, only 6 percent of the village households currently have a computer. This percentage is still higher than what it was in the past. It only shows the trend that in the coming days more and more villagers are going to embrace computers and invest in digital modes. This is a very positive sign indicating that such kind of a revolution is bound to come in India.
Government aims to bring this scheme right from the grass root level. Urban population is already embracing the digital move, now the rural areas need to be taught how to be acquainted with it. Hence, 250,000 gram panchayats are going to register with the government. Each of the grams will have nearly 200-300 candidates pledging for the scheme.
Government initiative needed
It is of no doubt that government initiative is need to carry this scheme out. Only 15 crore households in the rural areas, out of billions, have computers. This means that the government needs to heavily invest to make them acquainted with the devices first. This is why the government has pledged around Rs. 2351.48 crore rupees for this cause. The finance minister Mr. Arun Jaitley himself made announcements for the same in the budget this year.
How can this initiative help apart from digital transaction?
It will make the population digitally literate which in turn will help them to find information online. They can stay up to date with the latest happenings around the world and they can also avail the information regarding policies that are intended for them.
Nowadays a lot of such information is not reaching the rural population. Hence even if they qualify for a scheme they are bereft of its benefits. With the information at their fingertips the government will be able to help them better. Plus they will be able to help themselves. As of now the government intends to train 25 lakh candidates in 2016-17 and 275 lakh in the year 2017-18 and 300 lakh candidates in the year 2018-19.
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