With the aim to declare Kerala a fully digitally literate State on November 1, the Local self government department has formed committees to monitor the progress of the ‘Digi Kerala’ digital literacy programme.
The programme, which envisages to equip people from all sections to handle digital technology and carry out the basic tasks, is being carried out in a similar pattern to the literacy campaign witnessed in the State in the late 1980s. The Minister for Local Self governments will head the State-level monitoring committee, which will have the Principal director of the department as the convener.
Last year, a pilot digital literacy programme was completed successfully in the Pullampara panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram.
The activities there began with identifying those who are digitally illiterate. Students from the National Service Scheme (NSS) units of various colleges as well as schools, along with Kudumbashree volunteers, helped with training the identified persons.
As many as 3,300 people in the panchayat, most of whom were using digital equipment for the first time, were taught to make voice calls as well as video calls using smartphones, to use WhatsApp, to carry out Internet banking and to use popular social media platforms.
As part of the Digi Kerala project, this exercise would be replicated in local bodies across the State. Local bodies will identify the volunteers from their region and begin the field-level activities in August, which are expected to be completed by mid-October, in time for the fully digitally literate State declaration on November 1. The Information Kerala Mission (IKM) and the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) will oversee the training of volunteers.
The district-level monitoring committees will be headed by the respective district panchayat president and at the local body-level, the presidents will head the committees. The Digi Kerala project is being implemented at a time when Internet access is being provided to below poverty line families so that all citizens would be equipped to make use of it when they get access.
