Lok Sabha Question No. 48 (STARRED), answered on 2023-07-24
Subject: Digital Literacy among Women
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy, Manne Srinivas Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 48 ANSWERED ON 24.07.2023

## Digital Literacy among Women

## *48  SHRI KOMATI REDDY VENKAT REDDY: SHRI MANNE SRINIVAS REDDY:

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

- (a) whether it is a fact that digital literacy among women in India is significantly lower with only 23 per cent as compared to 59 per cent of men particularly at primary and secondary level of education;
- (b)  whether  the  reasons  for  this  disparity  is  the  lack  of  access  to  digital  infrastructure  and opportunities, particularly in rural/remote/tribal areas;
- (c) whether it is also a fact that the challenges faced by girls in pursuing digital literacy is also due to safety concerns  as many parents do not feel feasible to send girls from the villages to towns for computer classes and girls in rural areas are deprived of holistic development; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and corrective steps being taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

- (a) to (d): A statement is laid on the table of the House.

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## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  TO  (d)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.  48  FOR  REPLY  ON  24 th   JULY,  2023  ASKED  BY  SHRI KOMATI  REDDY  VENKAT  REDDY  AND  SHRI  MANNE  SRINIVAS  REDDY, HON'BLE  MEMBERS  OF  PARLIAMENT  REGARDING  DIGITAL  LITERACY AMONG WOMEN

(a) to (d) : Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools, colleges  and  universities  are  under  the  domain  of  respective  State  and  UT  Governments.  The state governments have been advised to act based on the situation prevailing at  every place to meet the demands of students and teachers for providing them with the digital access required for  teaching  learning  digitally.  As  part  of  ICT  and  Digital  Initiatives  component  of  Samagra Shiksha, ICT Labs and Smart Class rooms are sanctioned in the Government and Government Aided Schools having classes VI to XII.

The State/UT wise data regarding availability  of  infrastructure  like  internet,  electricity and computers is available at serial No. 33 (Id 3106), 2 (Id 3016) and 34 (Id 3109) respectively under  the  sub-heading  Infrastructure  of  which  the  UDISE+  link  has  been  provided  herewith: https:// https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/#/reportDashboard/sReport .

Under  the  scheme,  1,35,739  ICT  Labs  and  1,03,662  Smart  Classrooms  across  the country have been sanctioned.

As  per  UDISE+  data,  49.94  %  of  total  students  enrolled  are  girls.  All  students  get benefits of these Digital Initiatives equally without any gender disparity. Besides, equal access to  digital  infrastructure  and  opportunities  are  provided  in  all  areas  whether  rural,  remote  or tribal.

The National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 has stated in Para 4.23 that digital literacy, coding,  and  computational  thinking  are  imperatives  for  curriculum.  Para  23.6  of  NEP  2020 mentions  the  availability  of  educational  software  in  all  major  Indian  languages  to  make  it accessible to a wide range of users including students in remote areas and Divyang students.

A  comprehensive  initiative  called  PM  eVIDYA  has  been  initiated  as  part  of  Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The eContents/programme  uploaded  under  PM  eVidya  are  based  on  NCERT  curriculum.  Besides this, many states have also offered and uploaded their e-Contents for PM eVIDYA, in line with the curriculum of their education boards/SCERTs. The initiative includes:

· DIKSHA (one nation, one digital platform) is the nation's digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in states/UTs and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades are available on it.

· One earmarked Swayam Prabha TV channel per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel).

- Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- Shiksha Vani.
-  Special  e-content  for  visually  and  hearing  impaired  developed  on  Digitally  Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube.

As part of one class one channel initiative under PM eVidya Program, the 12 PM eVIDYA DTH TV channels were launched on 1st September 2020. NCERT with the help of other organizations and institutions have created thousands of video contents for all topics and chapters  of  all  subjects  of  classes  1  to  12,  in  Hindi  and  English  medium  based  on  NCERT textbooks. These video contents, more than 7000, are telecast on 24x7 and are also embedded with QR code enabling coherent access on DIKSHA. PM e-VIDYA 12 DTH TV channels have also dedicated slots for the telecast of e-contents for CwSN in Indian Sign Language (ISL).

Department  of  School  Education  and  Literacy  (DoSEL),  Ministry  of  Education  has developed  'Guidelines  on  School  Safety  and  Security',  for  safety  and  security  of  children studying in Government, Government-aided and Private Schools, in pursuance of the order of Hon'ble Supreme Court in Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 136 of 2017 and Writ  Petition (Civil) No. 874 of 2017; and in line with the provisions contained in the National Education Policy, 2020.  These  guidelines  have  been  prepared  by  an  expert  committee  and  through  extensive consultation  with  all  stakeholders.  The  guidelines  are  advisory  in  nature  and  have  been circulated  to  all  States/UTs/Autonomous  Bodies  of  DoSEL  and  stakeholder  Ministries  on 01.10.2021. These guidelines are uploaded on the website of DoSEL at https://dsel.education.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-10/guidelines\_sss.pdf.

These  guidelines  are  to  be  read  with  National  Disaster  Management  Authority's (NDMA) National Disaster Management Guidelines on School Safety Policy, 2016 which are statutory  in  nature  and  are  required  to  be  complied  without  any  deviation.  The  NDMA guidelines provide for conducting quarterly safety audits by the School Management Committee on  ten  designated  activities,  of  which,  conducting  annual  mock  drills,  installation  of  fireextinguishers,  training  of  students  and  teachers  in  school  safety  and  disaster  preparedness, adherence to safety norms with respect to storage of inflammable and toxic material and grant of recognition certificate only to those schools that comply with structural safety norms specifically pertain to fire safety.

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