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Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)

Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)

Digital Literacy Programme for Rural Citizens

After announcing the budget of 2017-18, the union cabinet has given the green signal for ” Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (PMGDISHA) to extend digital literacy to over 6 crore rural households in rural areas across the country. This decision was taken in Union Cabinet meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDSA) is expected to be the world’s largest digital literacy program once launched.

With the approval of the scheme, the government has allocated a budget of Rs.2,351.38 crore for one of the largest digital literacy programmes in the world. The government is expected that this project will be completed by March 2019. However, this mission was announced by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget 2016-17.

According to the scheme, about 25 lakh candidates will be trained in the Financial Year 2016-17, progressively increasing over the years to 300 lakh candidates in the 2018-19. while to ensure proportionate geographical reach, an average of 200-300 candidates would be registered from each 250,000 Gram Panchayats.

After getting digital training, each personnel would be able to operate computers and other digital devices like smart phones and tablets, send and receive emails, browse internet, access Government Services, search for information, and undertake cashless transactions.

For the proper implementation of the scheme, this responsibility has been given to the Ministry of Electronics and IT in collaboration with States and Union Territories through the designated State Implementing Agencies and District e-Governance Society (DeGS).

The main objective of the scheme is to promote cashless transactions through mobile phones, the project curriculum would place emphasis on Digital Wallets, Mobile Banking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS).

According to the survey report of NSSO on education in 2014, only 6% of rural households have a computer. Under Digital Indian Programme, PMGDISHA targeted to provide digital literacy to the rural citizens and providing them access to information, knowledge and skills for operating computers and other digital devices.

Definition of DIGITAL LITERACY

“Digital Literacy is the ability of individuals and communities to understand and use digital technologies for meaningful actions within life situations”.

"We need to derive greater benefit from our demographic advantage. We need to spread digital literacy in rural India. Of the 16.8 crore rural households, as many as 12 crore households do not have computers and are unlikely to have digitally literate persons. We have already approved two Schemes to promote digital literacy: National Digital Literacy Mission and Digital Saksharta Abhiyan. We now plan to launch a new Digital Literacy Mission Scheme for rural India to cover around 6 crore additional households within the next three years. Details of this scheme will be spelt out separately."

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible Household: A household is defined as a unit comprising of Head of family, spouse, children and parents. All such households where none of the family member is digitally literate will be considered as eligible household under the Scheme.
Entry criteria
- The beneficiary should be Digitally Illiterate
- Only one person per eligible household would be considered for training
- Age Group: 14 - 60 years
Priority would be given to
- Non-smartphone users, Antyodaya households, college drop-outs, Participants of the adult literacy mission
- Digitally illiterate school students from class 9thÂ to 12th, provided facility of Computer/ICT Training is not available in their schools
Preference would be given to SC, ST, BPL, women, differently-abled persons and minorities
The identification of the beneficiaries would be carried out by CSC-SPV in active collaboration with DeGS, Gram Panchayats, and Block Development Officers. The list of such beneficiaries would be made available on the scheme portal.

Training Process

Learning Outcomes / Competency Standards:

Understand the basics (terminology, navigation and functionality) of digital devices
Use digital devices for accessing, creating, managing and sharing information
Use the Internet to browse in an effective and responsible manner Use technology to communicate effectively
Appreciate the role of digital technology in everyday life, in social life and at work
Carry out cashless transactions using digital financial tools (USSD/ UPI/ eWallet/ AEPS/ Card/ PoS)
Use Digital Locker
Use online citizen centric services

The content generation / collation / management / aggregation - creation of content bank etc would be carried by CSC-SPV in consultation with various stakeholders as per the following:

The content developed for the purpose of digital literacy training would be made available in 22 scheduled languages of India apart from English. A mobile 'app' would be made available in 22 scheduled languages so that training content can be downloaded and re-used as and when needed.
For persons who cannot read and write, audio/visual/touch etc. based content would be developed. For those who can read and write, textual, structured, audio, video, and applications based content would be made available. Efforts would be made to design target beneficiaries specific contents with the use of local/localized resources.
Top citizen centric schemes as indicated below are included as part of curriculum:
- G2C Services- Caste certificate, Domicile certificate, Income Certificate
- UIDAI Services
- Banking Services
- IRCTC- Railway reservation
- Insurance
- Telephone/data card Recharge
- Election ID printing
- Electricity- bill payment
- Pan card
- Passport
As the thrust of the government is on promoting cashless transactions through mobile phones, the course content would also have emphasis on digital wallets, mobile banking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), PoS etc.
Appropriate feedback from beneficiaries and trainers for content enhancement would be taken to modify the content as per the needs of beneficiaries.
Emphasis would be given on use/operating of digital access device(computers, tablets, etc.) for navigating through various applications such as, opening internet browser, browse for information, search for information, listen to and watch audio and video, etc.
Other digital literacy courses developed by various agencies in this field can also be considered for imparting digital literacy training.
A Technical Committee setup by the CSC-SPV comprising of members drawn from NIELIT, IGNOU, NIOS, UNESCO, DEF, IT for Change, IIMC, INTEL, NASSCOM, NIIT, PMGDISHA partners, etc would ratify the contents. A Multilingual centralized pool of content relevant especially to rural masses would be created by CSC-SPV.

Broad Content outline:

Module Name
Introduction to Digital Devices
Operating Digital Devices
Introduction to the Internet
Communications using the Internet
Applications of Internet (include citizen-centric services; Use of digital financial tools for undertaking cashless transactions)
Total Duration : 20 Hrs

Learning Outcomes / Competency Standards:

Understand the basics (terminology, navigation and functionality) of digital devices
Use digital devices for accessing, creating, managing and sharing information
Use the Internet to browse in an effective and responsible manner
Use technology to communicate effectively
Carry out cashless transactions using digital financial tools (USSD/ UPI/ eWallet/AEPS/ Card/ PoS)
Use Digital Locker
Use online citizen centric services
Appreciate the role of digital technology in everyday life, in social life and at work

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