105-year-old man eldest among digital literates

Hindustan Times

17 hours ago

A 105-year-old former iman from Kerala's Ernakulam district is the eldest among over 2.1 million people who have been adjudged 'digitally literate' as part of an ongoing campaign in the state. 105-year-old man eldest among digital literates
MA Abdullah Moulavi Baqafi hails from Odakkali in Asamannoor panchayat. He is nearly blind in one eye, can barely walk around his home, and suffers from kidney-related ailments. However, his curiosity and desire to embrace and understand technology like smartphones remain undaunted by these obstacles.
Impressed by his resolve, Jaya, the panchayat's literacy educator (or 'prerak') spent a few days last year educating him, as part of the local self-government (LSG) department's 'Digi Keralam' campaign, a plan to help those struggling with smartphones achieve digital literacy.
Sure enough, Baqafi proved a quick learner and passed the three-part module with flying colours. On Thursday, he will be in online attendance from home as chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan declares the state fully digitally literate, at an event scheduled to be held in Thiruvananthapuram.
In an interview conducted over the phone, Faisal Ali, Baqali's son, said, 'Today, LSG minister MB Rajesh visited our home and congratulated my father on becoming digitally literate. The minister also gifted him a brand-new Samsung smartphone. He was extremely happy, and even demonstrated to the minister how to log into apps like YouTube and do video calls.'
Faisal added that his father, who used a keypad phone earlier, expressed interest in handling a smartphone for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'During the lockdown, newspapers were hard to come by and he missed reading them. So my daughter showed him how he could watch the news on YouTube. That's how his interest grew,' he said.
Jaya, the 'prerak' who trained Baqafi, said that his advanced age, health issues and adherence to religious duties presented some challenges during the training, even as she lauded the old man's desire to learn.
'He was very cooperative and showed interest to learn. I taught him how to use apps like Google Search and YouTube and do video-calls. He loved to do video-calls with his grand-daughter in Sharjah,' she said.
The digital literacy educator added that the Union government has prescribed a three-part module for attaining digital literacy— including learning how to switch the smartphone on and off, save contacts and call people, use voice messages on WhatsApp, use apps like YouTube, conduct Google searches and make online payments for utilities such as LPG and electricity.
Though the age limit designated by the Centre was between 14 and 65, she said the department opted to survey even those above 65. Kerala has one of the highest elderly populations in the country.
According to a statement from the LSG department, over 257,000 volunteers, including literacy 'preraks', Kudumbashree and MGNREGA workers, NSS and Library Council members participated in the survey and subsequent digital literacy programme. Over 8 million households were surveyed across the state to identify 'digitally illiterate' persons, the statement added.
In the survey, 21,88,298 persons were thus identified, 99.98% of whom have been trained and passed the evaluations, the statement said, adding that over 15,000 of those trained were over the age of 90.