Over 21 lakh people in Kerala have completed the Local Self-Government (LSG) department’s ‘Digi Kerala’ digital literacy programme, making it the first State to achieve total digital literacy.
Kerala Becoming The First State To Achieve Literacy
This initiative has helped many, for instance the 67-year-old C. Sarasu, a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) worker from Pullampara in Thiruvananthapuram, has been using her leisure time to video call her relatives and watch YouTube videos from the past few months.
Similarly, 75-year old Krishnakumar from Muvattupuzha is now using WhatsApp to mobilise people from the neighbourhood for an anti-drugs campaign.
You would be amazed to know that until recently, both of them were “digital illiterates” and for them technology was a hard nut to crack.
But recently it changed as the two of them are now part of the over 21 lakh people who have completed the Local Self-Government (LSG) department’s ‘Digi Kerala’ digital literacy programme.
A Program For People Of All Ages
The government is waiting for the President of India’s confirmation for an event to make the official announcement, said LSG Minister M.B. Rajesh in a media interaction.
Further adding, “We have achieved much beyond the guidelines stipulated by the National Digital Literacy Mission for digital literacy, which require training to be imparted only for those up to 60 years of age. This programme has included people of all ages.”
The idea of implementing Digi Kerala began with a pilot initiative of the Pullampara grama panchayat in the capital in 2022 aimed to impart digital literacy for all residents.
Under this initiative, the trainees, most of whom were using digital equipment for the first time, were taught to make voice calls as well as video calls using smartphones, to use WhatsApp, access government services, to carry out Internet banking and to use popular social media platforms.
Later on the government decided to expand the programme across the State, witnessing its success.
In their surveys in wards, 21.88 lakh participants were identified as digitally illiterate across the State.
This was a hud establishment as they utilised a large army of 2.57 lakh volunteers, including National Service Scheme members, Kudumbashree members, Kerala State Literacy Mission Preraks, members of the Library Council, and youth organisations coordinated together to organise classes for them in households, MGNREGS work sites, libraries and Kudumbashree neighbourhood groups.
Not only this, “After the training programme was completed, the trainees were evaluated to check how equipped they are. As many as 98% of the participants passed the evaluation. Third party verification was done by the Statistics department to ensure that the figures are accurate. In wards in which over 10% variation was seen, re-training was conducted. Offline training was provided in areas of low connectivity,” said an official who was engaged in coordinating the training programme.
