Lok Sabha Question No. 5323 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-04-05
Subject: Features of PMGDISHA
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Jadon Chandra Sen, Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav, Omprakash Bhupalsinh alias Pawan Rajenimbalkar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5323

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 05.04.2023

## FEATURES OF PMGDISHA

## 5323.  DR. CHANDRA SEN JADON: SHRI SANJAY JADHAV: SHRI OMPRAKASH BHUPALSINH ALIAS PAWAN RAJENIMBALKAR

Will  the  Minister  of  ELECTRONICS  AND  INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGY  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) the salient features of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA);
- (b) the  details  of  the  funds  sanctioned,  allocated  and  utilized  under  the  said  Abhiyan  in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh during the last five years;
- (c) the details of the candidates nominated, trained and certified under the said Abhiyan in Dharashiv (Osmanabad) district,  Parbhani  parliamentary  constituency  of  Maharashtra and Firozabad parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh;
- (d) whether any targets fixed, have been achieved and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (e) the details of achievements made so far under the said abhiyan particularly in Parbhani and Firozabad parliamentary constituencies; and
- (f) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  cover  far  flung  and  rural  areas  particularly  of Dharashiv  (Osmanabad),  Parbhani  and  Firozabad  parliamentary  constituencies  under the said abhiyan?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

(a): To enhance digital adoption, Government is focusing on providing digital literacy to the citizens across the country especially in the rural areas. In line with this, the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) was approved in February 2017 to usher in digital literacy in rural India. The main features of the PMGDISHA scheme are as under:

-  The scheme is being implemented only in rural areas i.e. Gram Panchayat/Village to cover 6 crore rural households (one person per household).
-  The beneficiaries  are  provided  with  20  hours  of  training  consisting  of  5  modules namely  (i)  Introduction  to  Digital  Devices,  (ii)  Operating  Digital  Devices,  (iii) Introduction to the Internet, (iv) Communications using the Internet, (v) Application of  the  Internet  (includes  Citizen  centric  services)  and  use  of  financial  tools  for undertaking digital cashless transactions.
-  The training content is made available in 22 scheduled languages and English. This content is made available on both online and offline mode. In addition, keeping in view  the  thrust  of  the  government  on  promoting  cashless  transactions  through mobile  phones,  the  content  on  digital  wallets,  mobile  banking,  Unified  Payments Interface (UPI),  Unstructured  Supplementary  Service  Data  (USSD),  Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), and PoS has also been included.
-  After training of the candidate, a third party Assessment of the trained candidates is carried  out  through  online  mode  remotely  proctored  examination  conducted  by recognized  Certifying Agencies  namely  National  Institute  of Electronics  and Information  Technology  (NIELIT),  National  Institute  of  Open  Schooling  (NIOS), Centre  for  Development  of  Advanced  Computing  (CDAC),  Haryana  Knowledge Corporation Limited (HKCL) and ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT). Digitally

Signed Certificates are issued for all successful candidates and directly uploaded in their Digi-Locker accounts.

-  For authorised Training Centres, a minimum Physical IT infrastructure along with a  faculty  at  the  training  centre  has  been  prescribed.  Geo-tagging  of  the  training centres  have  been  implemented.  Physical  verification/inspection  of  the  training centre is part of the process for training centre approval.
-  State  Level  and  District  level  committees  are  set  up  for  effective  evaluation  and monitoring at the State & District levels.
-  Dashboard  access  to  Central/  State  Govt./State  Implementing  Agency/District Administration have been provided for effective management and reporting.
-  Grievances/Complaints Redressal Mechanism have been put in place.

(b): Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) Scheme is funded as a Central Sector Scheme, hence funds are not sanctioned and allocated to States/UTs.

(c) and (e): In the Dharashiv (Osmanabad) district of Maharashtra, around 15,787 candidates have been enrolled and 12,759 candidates have been trained, out of which 7,059 candidates have been certified.  In  the  Parbani  district  of  Maharashtra,  around  16,666  candidates  have been enrolled and 12,317 candidates have been trained, out of which 8,217 candidates have been  certified  under  the  PMGDISHA  Scheme.Further,  in  the  Firozabad  district  of  Uttar Pradesh,  around  33,200  candidates  have  been  enrolled  and  29,744  candidates  have  been trained, out of which 24,092 candidates have been certified under the said Scheme.

(d):  The  main  objective  of  the  scheme  is  to  make  6  crore  persons  in  rural  areas,  across States/UTs, digitally  literate,  reaching  to  around  40%  of  rural  households  by  covering  one member from every eligible household. As of now, under the PMGDISHA Scheme, around 6.82 crore candidates have been enrolled and 5.88 crore have been trained, out of which 4.37 crore candidates have been certified.

(f) : The government has taken up various steps to cover far-flung and rural areas including the  Gram  Panchayats  in  Dharashiv  (Osmanabad),  Parbhani  and  Firozabad  parliamentary constituencies  under the said abhiyan, which  include  scaling up  the  awareness  and promotional  activities  towards  the  Digital  literacy  program  and  expanding  its  multifold through campaigns, workshops, seminars, digital vans, etc. to cover various segments of the population in an all-inclusive manner. Efforts have been made to identify and register new Training centres in uncovered Gram Panchayats across the country. In order to address the low  internet  connectivity  issues,  Wifi-choupals  have  been  established  at  remote  locations. Rural  schools  have  been  engaged  for  training  and  examination  of  candidates  in  order  to penetrate the rural populous districts of identified states.

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