PRADHAN MANTRI GRAMIN DIGITAL SAKSHARTA ABHIYAAN  

With an ambitious vision to turn India into a digitally empowered society and an information economy, the Government has launched the Digital India Program. The program envisages linking people to different projects in the field of e-governance, engaging them in decision-making to increase public engagement, and thereby enhance transparency for governance. The full potential of the Digital India Program can only be realized if every person is provided with opportunities and capabilities for accessing and leveraging digital services/technologies, regardless of location and social context. Universal digital literacy in the country, including rural India, is an important component of these initiatives’ progress.

The present scheme was planned as a follow-up to the budgetary announcement of the Hon. Minister of Finance referred to above. As envisaged under the Digital India initiative, digital literacy is a key component of the government’s vision of creating an empowered society. Several socio-economic issues will be addressed by the spin-off effects of digital literacy, especially in rural India. In the areas of healthcare, livelihood generation, and education, digital literacy will bring the benefits of ICT to the everyday lives of the rural population. In addition, because the government’s focus is on promoting cashless transactions through mobile phones, the content of the course will also emphasize the use of digital financial resources for the electronic payment system.

FEATURES OF PMGDISHA

• The government’s goal is to implement digital literacy by March 2019 in rural India.
• In the 2016-17 fiscal year, this project aims to train up to 25lakh candidates, 275lakh in the 2017-18 FY, and a whopping 300lakh in the 2018-19 FY.
• At the grassroots level, the government expects the scheme to be applied.
• As many as 250,000 of them, beginning with gram panchayats, would have to register an average of 200-300 candidates.
• The learning to be disseminated will allow these applicants to operate computers and to be able to access devices such as tablets and smartphones digitally, to send and receive emails, to browse the web, and to search for information.
• Importantly, two other priorities are to perform cashless transactions and to access government services.
• The Ministry of Electronics and IT, in active cooperation with states and union territories, will be the supervising and implementing body.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• The system only extends to rural areas of the country.
• Qualified household: A household is defined as a unit consisting of the head of the household, the spouse, the children, and the parents. All such households in which no member of the family is digitally literate would be deemed under the Scheme to be qualifying households.
• Criteria for entry

1. Digitally illiterate recipients should be
2. For training, only one individual per qualified household would be considered

• Age category: 14-60 years
• Priority will be given to

1. Non-smartphone users, households from Antyodaya, college drop-outs, adult literacy mission participants.
2. There is no computer / ICT training facility available in their schools for digitally illiterate school students from class 9th to 12th, provided

• SC, ST, BPL, women, people of different abilities, and minorities should be given priority.

HOW TO APPLY FOR THE SCHEME?

• To avail of this scheme, the applicant must first visit the official website.
• After going to the official website, you will see the option of Direct Candidate on the home page.
• You have to click on that option, after that the front page will open in front of you. On this page, you will open a login form.
• If you have created an account in it, then you have not created a login, then register.
• After logging in, the registration form will open at your time.
• In the registration form, you will have to fill in all the information asked like UIDAI Number, Student Name, Gender, Date of Birth, and then click on the checkmark.
• After that you have to click on Add, after that on the next page you have to do the next step is e-KYC which can be done either by scanning a fingerprint or scanning the eyes or verifying OTP on the mobile phone.
• If there is no fingerprint scanner or retina scanner, then they can choose the third option which will be mobile phone OTP
• After this OTP will be sent to your mobile, after interpreting OTP, you will have to click on ‘Validate OTP’
• Then you can check all your information by going to the Student tab.
• In this way, your registration in PM Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan will be completed.

CONCLUSION

The scheme will be implemented under the overall control of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology by CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) incorporated under the Companies Act 1956, (hereinafter referred to as ‘CSC-SPV’), with the active cooperation of all State Governments and UT Administrations