In news– Recently, the Minister of State for Electronics & IT, graced the ‘Launch Program of PMGDISHA Drive & Announcement of 100% Digital Literacy of all digital villages’ under AzadiKa Amrit Mahotsav.
PMGDISHA drive(campaign)-
- The PMGDISHA drive has been launched under the PMGDISHA scheme, a flagship Digital Literacy scheme of the Government for rural areas.
- Under the campaign, a three day certification drive for rural citizens especially women and disadvantaged communities will be conducted from September 8th to 10th.
- From September 11th to 13th September, a certification drive for PMGDISHA scheme will be conducted in a similar manner.
- Apart from this Common Service Center (CSC) also proposed to make all the Digital Villages 100 percent Digital Literate.
About Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)-
- PMGDISHA is a dynamic and integrated platform of digital literacy awareness, education and capacity programmes that will help rural communities fully participate in the global digital economy.
- The Government of India introduced its flagship Digital Literacy Programme, PMGDISHA in February, 2017.
- PMGDISHA is being initiated under the Digital India Programme.
- The Scheme envisages to make six crore persons in rural areas, across States/UTs, digitally literate, reaching to around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every household where there is no digitally literate person.
- The project aims at helping adults with low technological literacy develop the skills they need to interact in an increasingly digital world.
- The PMGDISHA Exam for “Direct Candidates” has been implemented for all those general candidates who wish to obtain PMGDISHA Certificates.
- PMGDISHA and CSCs have emerged as the enablers for digital literacy.
- The implementation of the Scheme would be carried out under the overall supervision of the Ministry of Electronics and IT in active collaboration with States/UTs through their designated State Implementing Agencies, District e-Governance Society (DeGS), etc.
Eligibility
- The Scheme is applicable only for rural areas of the country.
- Eligible Household:
- A household is defined as a unit consisting of the Head of family, spouse, children and parents.
- All such households where none of the family members are digitally literate will be considered as eligible households 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 9th 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.
National Digital Literacy Mission or the Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA)-
Earlier, the Government had implemented the National Digital Literacy Mission or the Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA) or National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) to impart IT training to 52.5 lakh persons, including Anganwadi and ASHA workers and authorised ration dealers in all the States/UTs across the country so that the non-IT literate citizens are trained to become IT literate so as to enable them to actively and effectively participate in the democratic and developmental process and also enhance their livelihood.
