As per the 71st NSSO Survey on Education 2014, only 6% of rural households have a computer. This highlights that more than 15 crore rural households (@ 94% of 16.85 crore households) do not have computers and a significant number of these households are likely to be digitally illiterate. The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) being initiated under Digital India Programme would cover 6 crore households in rural areas to make them digitally literate.
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.
Digital Literacy is the ability of individuals and communities to understand and use digital technologies for meaningful actions within life situations. Digitally literate persons would be able to operate computers/digital access devices (like tablets, smart phones, etc.), send and receive emails, browse internet, access Government Services, search for information, undertaking cashless transactions, etc. and hence use IT to actively participate in the process of nation building.
MGDISHA is expected to be one of the largest digital literacy programmes in the world. Under the scheme, 25 lakh candidates will be trained in the FY 2016-17; 275 lakh in the FY 2017-18; and 300 lakh in the FY 2018-19. To ensure equitable geographical reach, each of the 250,000 Gram Panchayats would be expected to register an average of 200-300 candidates.
- The Scheme is applicable only for rural areas of the country.
- 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 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. The list of such beneficiaries would be made available on the scheme portal.