Lok Sabha Question No. 1871 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-09
Subject: Cyber Gram
Ministry: MINORITY AFFAIRS
Asked by: OM BIRLA, RAMESH BIDHURI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1871 TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.03.2016

Cyber Gram

## 1871.   SHRI OM BIRLA: SHRI RAMESH BIDHURI:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state :

- a) the details of number of States that have implemented the minority cyber-gram since it was formally launched in 2014 in the country, district-wise including Rajasthan;
- b) the  number  of  States  that  have  sent  proposals  for  implementation  of  the  scheme  and  the proposals that have been approved till date;
- c) the steps taken by the Government to improve the compliance and implementation in States for the benefit of minorities;
- d) whether the Government bears the burden for buying the equipment needed for implementation of the scheme and if so, the details thereof, State-wise and district-wise and the funds spent for the scheme under the Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP);
- e) whether the Government proposes to conduct a performance audit of the  scheme and if so, the details thereof; and
- f) whether the Government has selected heritages under Hamari Dharohar scheme and if so, the details of heritages selected country-wise and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI)

- (a) to (b): A pilot project namely 'Minority Cyber Gram ' was launched in February, 2014 for imparting  Digital  Literacy  in  a  minority  dominated  village  Chanduli  in  Alwar  district, Rajasthan in association with an organization namely Digital Empowerment Foundation. The village  has  1300  households.  2600  persons  (2  per  family)  including  non  minorities  in  the village were selected for Digital Literacy. The project has been completed and so far 2890 persons have benefited from the programme. After the success of the pilot project, Ministry has  mainstreamed  the  Cyber  Gram  Programme  within  the  scheme  of  Multi-sectoral Development  Programme  (MsDP)  from  2014-15,  and  guidelines  were  issued  to  all  State Government/ UT administration.

'Cyber  Gram'  has  been  launched  as  an  initiative  under  Multi-sectoral  Development Programme(MsDP) to provide hands on training in  computers  to  the  students  of  minority communities and enable them to acquire basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT)  skills;  become  digitally  literate;  actively  participate  in  knowledge  based  activities;

access financial, social and government services and use internet for communications. The initiative covers students of Class VI to Class X belonging to notified minority communities residing in minority concentration areas. Under the initiative, training of 3,71,657 students of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura and Rajasthan have been approved so far, with the total cost of Rs.57.79 crore. The proposal of Maharshtra has been in-principal approved.

- (c) To improve the compliance and implementation of projects in States, the Government has made a provision of robust mechanism for monitoring of the programme.  The monitoring of the programme is done through the following channels:
- (1) Monitoring through Committees constituted at different levels starting from Blocks to the Centre
- (2)   Monitoring through independent agency/qualified monitors
- (3)  Monitoring  through  conferences  at  national,  regional,  State  and  district  levels  and visits of officials to the project sites.
- (d) Under cybergram initiative of Multi-sectoral Development Programme, there is no provision for purchase of equipments.  Hence no funds for purchase of equipment for implementation of cybergram initiative of MsDP has been sanctioned to States/UTs.
- (e) No, Madam. There is no proposal to conduct performance audit of the Cybergram initiative under MsDP separately.
- (f) ' The Scheme Hamari Dharohar was launched during the year 2014-15. The scheme aims to preserve  rich  culture  and  heritage  of  minorities  through  selective  intervention  under  the overall concept of Indian culture. Under this scheme during the year 2015-16, following two projects have been selected and approved:
- (i) Organization  of  the  international  iconic  exhibition  'The  Everlasting  Flame',  to preserve the rich heritage of Parsi Community of India. The Programme includes three international exhibitions namely 'The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History  and  Imagination',  'Threads  of  Continuity'  and  'Painted  EncountersParsi Traders and the Community', to be hosted at the National Museum, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) at New Delhi during 19th March to 29th May, 2016.
- (ii) Project  for  Digitization,  Translation  from  Arabic  to  English,  and  reprinting  of Medieval period documents on Medicines, Mathematics, Science and Literature and  rare  manuscripts  kept  at  Dairatul  Maarifil  Osmania,  Osmania  University, Hyderabad.

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