1. Digital India: A Study On Pradhan Mantri Gramin
Digital Saksharta Abhiyan Scheme
2. INTRODUCTION
Digital Literacy is the ability of individuals and
communities to understand and use digital technologies for
meaningful actions within life situations. India needs at least 1.5
million cyber security professionals each year to make the digital
transactions secure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan
(PMGDISHA)in February 2017.
Under PMGDISHA scheme, people in rural areas will be
trained to operate a computer, tablet, smartphones, etc and how
to access the Internet, government services, undertake digital
payment, compose e-mails, etc.
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
•To study the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan
Scheme.
•To analyse the impact of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital
Saksharta Abhiyan Scheme on rural Techno illiterates in India.
•To know the problems in implementing the Pradhan Mantri
Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan Scheme.
•To give suggestions based on this study.
4. ELIGIBILITY OF THIS SCHEME
The Scheme is applicable only for rural areas of the country.
Eligible Household
•A household is defined as a unit comprising of Head of family, spouse, children and
parents. All such households where none of the family member is digitally literate
will be considered as eligible household under the Scheme.
Entry criteria
•The beneficiary should be Digitally Illiterate.
•Only one person per eligible household would be considered for training.
•Age Group: 14 - 60 years.
Priority would be given to
•Non-smartphone users, Antyodaya households, college drop-outs, Participants of the
adult literacy mission.
•Digitally illiterate school students from class 9th to 12th, provided facility of
Computer/ICT Training is not available in their schools.
•Preference would be given to SC, ST, BPL, women, differently-abled persons and
minorities.
The identification of the beneficiaries would be carried out by CSC-SPV in active
collaboration with DeGS, Gram Panchayats, and Block Development Officers.
5. IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
The implementation of the Scheme would be carried out under the overall
supervision of Ministry of Electronics and IT in active collaboration with States/UTs
through their designated State Implementing Agencies, District e-Governance
Society (DeGS), etc.
TRAINING PROCESS
The duration of the training program is for 20 hours which has to be
completed in a minimum of 10 days and maximum of 30 days.
LEARNING OUTCOMES / COMPETENCY STANDARDS
•Understand the basics (terminology, navigation and functionality) of digital devices.
•Use digital devices for accessing, creating, managing and sharing information.
•Use the Internet to browse in an effective and responsible manner.
•Use technology to communicate effective.
•Appreciate the role of digital technology in everyday life, in social life and at work.
•Carry out cashless transactions using digital financial tools (USSD/ UPI/ eWallet/
AEPS/ Card.
•Use Digital Locker.
•Use online citizen centric services.
7. State-Wise Transaction Status Under
PMGDISHA Scheme As On 31st
January, 2018
State/UT
No. of Transactions (Volume
in Lakh)
Transaction Value (INR
in Lakh)
2016-2017 2017-2018 2016-17 2017-18
Jharkhand 23.98 30.50 720.85 749.36
Haryana 7.05 11.78 1180.83 820.43
Uttarakhand 5.5 4.91 166.64 150.15
Assam 1.05 0.65 34.77 19.36
Maharashtra 0 0.46 0 60.97
Karnataka 0 1.27 0 31.35
Chhattisgarh 1.17 0.37 11.8 258.34
Madhya
Pradesh
0.449 0.07 255.36 37.82
West Bengal 0.56 0.47 13.16 16.39
Odisha 0.01 0 0.1 0
Punjab 0.4 0.82 10.4 45.51
Nagaland 0.01 0 5.37 0
Tripura 0.001 0 0.01 0
State Total 40.18 51.29 2399.3 2189.67
8. PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTATION
•At present India’s infrastructure is not at the stage at which the benefits
of the Information and Communication Technology cannot be reaped.
•The major problem in the digital transactions is the security and the
privacy. People need to be trained on how to protect their financial
information.
•The authentication solely based on biometrics as in Aadhaar Enabled
Payment System(AEPS) is insecure and there is lot of scope for cyber
crime. Well educated people and technically sound people are also falling
prey to the cyber criminals. It will be very difficult for the rural masses
who have to first understand the technologies and procedure to keep their
information secure.
9. SUGGESTIONS OF THE STUDY
•For the governance of the scheme progress, the central
government will fix special team by combining the Ministry
and electronics and IT, where the responsible persons will
supervise the scheme activity in state and territory wise.
•Awareness has to be created among the rural people regarding
this digital teaching scheme.
•Training has to be given to perform basis computer operations
and able to access the latest gadgets like tablets, smart phones
and so.
•The Government will provide job opportunities immediately
to the certified candidates in rural areas.
Awareness has to be created to the registered candidates to
perform the secured transactions.
10. CONCLUSION
Under this newly introduced digital literacy scheme, it is
predicted that the government plans to teach over 6 crore families
from the rural areas of all the states of the nation. To ensure
equitable geographical reach, each of the 2,50,000 Gram
Panchayats across the country will be expected to register an
average of 200-300 candidates. By keeping the deadline as the end
of the financial year 2018 – 2019, the scheme was implemented
with the target to achieve about teaching over 600 Lakh families.
Digitally literate persons would be able to operate
computers/digital access devices like tablets, smart phones, etc.,
send and receive emails, browse internet, access Government
Services, search for information, undertaking cashless
transactions, etc. and hence use of IT to actively participate in the
process of nation building.
