Question : PMGDISHA

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

(a) the number of rural villages which have registered under the “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (PMGDISHA) to usher in digital literacy in rural areas, State/UT-wise along with the details thereof;
(b) the basic definition of “Digital Literacy” under this programme;
(c) the target population of this Abhiyan;
(d) whether the Government has allocated any fund under the said programme to improve the basic computer infrastructure in villages and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise; and
(e) the manner in which Government plans to accomplish the digital literacy mission through PMGDISHA when a significant number of people in the country are illiterate, as per the last Censes?

): Under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) Scheme; so far, total number of 1,86,175 Gram Panchayats are covered. The State-wise details of Gram Panchayats covered under the PMGDISHA Scheme is at Annexure.

(b): Under the PMGDISHA Scheme; Digital Literacy has been defined as the ability of individuals and communities to understand and use digital technologies for meaningful actions within life situations. Any individual who can operate computer/laptop/tablet/smart phone and use other IT related tools is being considered as digitally literate.

(c): The PMGDISHA Scheme is targeted to make six crore persons digitally literate in rural areas, covering around 40% of the rural population (one person per household) across States/UTs. Under the Scheme, as on 29.11.2019, more than 3.00 crore beneficiaries have been enrolled, 2.37 crore beneficiaries have been trained, out of which 1.74 crore beneficiaries have been certified by duly certified by 3rd party Certifying Agencies.

(d): No separate fund is allocated in PMGDISHA Scheme for setting up of basic computer infrastructure in the villages. The training is provided through Training Centres duly affiliated to CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, the implementing agency of the Scheme. These Training Centres are mandated to have requisite infrastructure for imparting training under the Scheme.

(e): To ensure equitable geographical coverage across the country, a Gram Panchayat centric approach is adopted with targets being assigned for each Gram Panchayats. On an average a target of 200-300 beneficiaries per Gram Panchayat is envisaged. The content developed for digital literacy training is made available in multimedia format (including audio/ video) in 22 scheduled languages of India apart from English. This facilitates the target population including the illiterate to grasp the content in their choice of language.
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Annexure

State-wise count of number of Gram Panchayats covered under PMGDISHA

S.No State Name No. of Gram Panchayats covered
1 Uttar Pradesh 43595
2 Maharashtra 20711
3 Madhya Pradesh 18496
4 Gujarat 11712
5 Rajasthan 9423
6 Chhattisgarh 8512
7 Tamil Nadu 8437
8 Bihar 8341
9 Odisha 7663
10 Andhra Pradesh 6848
11 Punjab 6624
12 Haryana 6273
13 Karnataka 5796
14 Jharkhand 4438
15 Telangana 3561
16 West Bengal 3057
17 Uttarakhand 2633
18 Assam 2597
19 Himachal Pradesh 2319
20 Jammu And Kashmir 2215
21 Kerala 757
22 Tripura 734
23 Meghalaya 465
24 Arunachal Pradesh 222
25 Manipur 197
26 Mizoram 113
27 Puducherry 97
28 Nagaland 89
29 Delhi 72
30 Goa 59
31 Sikkim 44
32 Andaman And Nicobar Islands 40
33 Dadra And Nagar Haveli 14
34 Chandigarh 12
35 Daman And Diu 7
36 Lakshadweep 2
Total 1,86,175


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