Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:
(a) the steps taken by the Government to increase Digital Literacy specially among rural population;
(b) the various schemes being run by Central Government in this regard;
(c) the position of India among various developed countries in terms of digital literacy; and
(d) the reason behind low percentage of digital literacy and the action thereon?
(a) to (d): (1) The Government has taken following steps to increase digital literacy in rural areas:
i) In the years 2014 to 2016, two Schemes entitled “National Digital Literacy Mission” (NDLM) and “Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (DISHA) were implemented with a target to train 52.50 lakh candidates in digital literacy across the country including rural India. Under these two schemes, a total of 53.67 lakh beneficiaries were trained, out of which around 42% candidates were from rural India.
ii) In February, 2017, the Government has approved a scheme titled “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (PMGDISHA) for ushering in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 Crore rural households at a total outlay of Rs. 2,351.38 Crore (approx.). It is implemented as a Central Sector Scheme by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology through an implementing agency namely CSC e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC-SPV), with active collaboration of all the State Governments and UT Administrations, District e-Governance Society (DeGS), etc. The targets under the PMGDISHA Scheme are expected to be achieved by 31.3.2019. As on 28.12.2017, more than 1 crore candidates have completed the training out of which more than 48 lakh have been certified by a duly authorized 3rd party Assessment Agencies.
(2) According to National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey 2014, around 6% of rural population have access to computers, which means around 94% population do not have access to computer hence, a significant number of these households are likely to be digitally illiterate. Keeping this in view, Government initiated various digital literacy schemes for the citizens across the country especially in rural areas. In addition, Government has focused on providing broadband connectivity through BharatNet, State Wide Area Network (SWAN), National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and 3G/4G mobile services to the various parts of the country including rural areas. It may be seen that as per TRAI, total number of Internet Subscribers has grown to 429.23 million (including 129.41 Million in rural areas) in September, 2017 as compared to 259.14 million in June 2014; total number of Wireless Subscribers has grown to 1,183.04 Million (including 498.28 Million from rural India) in September, 2017 from 914.92 Million in June 2014 (including 377.36 Million from rural India); total number of Internet Subscribers per 100 population has grown to 33.22 in September, 2017 as compared to 20.83 in June 2014; and average Data Usage per subscriber per month has grown to 1600 MB in September, 2017 as compared to 70.10 MB in June 2014. As per recent Mckinsey (Draft) Report on Trillion Dollar Digital Opportunity, India has the 2nd fastest rate of growth of digital adoption among 17 major digital economies.
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