Lok Sabha Question No. 2876 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-21
Subject: DIKSHA Platform for Differently Abled Students
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Beesetti  Venkata Satyavathi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2876

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 21 ST  MARCH, 2022

## DIKSHA Platform for Differently Abled Students 2876. DR. BEESETTI VENKATA SATYAVATHI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the share of disabled children who are in schools compared to the total population of disabled children, State-wise; (b)  whether  the  Government  is  aware  of  the  proportion  of  disabled  students  who access platforms such as DIKSHA; (c) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; (d)  whether  the  Government  has  taken  any  steps  to  ensure  that  children  with disabilities have access to platforms like DIKSHA for their education; (e) if so, the details of the measures taken by the Government thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and (f) whether there are representatives from the disability sector/people with disabilities in the NEP task forces constituted in the States and if so, details of the same, State-
- wise and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SMT ANNPURNA DEVI)

- (a) A total of 22,49,069 CWSN students have enrolled for the year 2019-20 across the country (as per UDISE+ report). The State/UT wise data regarding 'total number of enrolment of CWSN children, class-wise' is available at Id 4007 at the given UDISE+ link:   https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/#/reportDashboard/sReport
- (b) & (c) DIKSHA currently is an open-access platform for students,  that means student does not need to register with any personal information to access the content on  DIKSHA.  To  discover  relevant  content  a  learner  (student,  teacher,  parent  and

other) just need to fill Board, Medium and class. The data is not captured separately for disabled students who access DIKSHA. To make DIKSHA inclusive for all students, it  has  audio  contents,  ISL  contents  relevant  to  school  education.  DIKSHA  does  not capture the personal information of user of the platform. (d) & (e) DIKSHA  is  the  platform  for providing quality e-content for  school education  in  States/UTs  and  QR  coded  Energized  Textbooks  for  all  grades (one nation,  one  digital  platform). DIKSHA complies with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)  Web  Content  Accessibility  Guidelines  (WCAG)  2.0  level  AA. This  enables people  with  visual  impairments  to  access  the  website  using  assistive  technologies, such as screen readers. Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on  Digitally  Accessible  Information  System  (DAISY)  and  in  sign  language  on  NIOS website/ YouTube.  In all 1,855 textbook based ISL videos have been recorded, out of these 541 textbook based on ISL videos are uploaded on DIKSHA. A 10,000 word ISL dictionary has been uploaded on DIKSHA and 3,327 audio books chapters are also uploaded on DIKSHA. (f) As  per  National  Education  Policy  (NEP)  2020,  implementation  of  the  Policy requires multiple  initiatives  and  actions,  which  are  to  be  taken  up  in  a  synchronized and  systematic  manner,  by  multiple  bodies  including  Ministry  of  Education,  CABE, State/UT Governments, education-related Ministries, State Departments of Education, Boards, NTA, the regulatory bodies of school and higher education, NCERT, SCERTs, schools and HEIs. Education  is  in  the  concurrent  list  of  the  Constitution  and  responsibility  of constitution  of  NEP  implementation  Task  Force  following  prescribed  norms  and standards  lies  under  the  domain  of  the  States  and  UT  Governments.  So  far  31

States/UTs have constituted NEP implementation Task Force.

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