To ensure that government services are electronically available to all citizens, the government of India launched a Digital India campaign with the aim of improving the online infrastructure of the country and increasing internet connectivity. Digital India’s campaign is a digital way of empowering India’s field of technology. Under this campaign, in 2017, the government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan for digital literacy training.

Objectives

The main goal of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan is to make 6 crore rural Indian citizens digitally literate by March 2020. For this scheme, the government has an estimated budget of Rs. 2351 crore. This scheme digitally literate citizens are encouraged to participate actively and effectively in national developmental procedures and upscale rural livelihoods.

Eligibility

The scheme is exclusively implemented in rural areas. An eligible household is defined as a unit that consists of the head of a family, spouse, children, and parents. To be eligible for the scheme, none of the family members should be digitally literate. Of note, only one person—in the age group of 14–60 years—from each such family is applicable to training.

Expected outcome

Under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan, over 25 lacs, 275 lacs, and 300 lacs candidates have been trained in the financial years of 2016 -2017, 2017–2018, and 2018 -2019, respectively. The number will considerably increase by March 2020.

Benefits

Under this scheme, digitally literate rural citizens would be well-trained to send and receive emails, browse the internet, gain easy access to various government services and information, and enable digital payments. To ensure larger outreach, the scheme focuses mainly on the following categories: SC/STs, minorities, below the poverty line, women, and people with special needs.

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