3 days ago
Kerala is set to become India's ‘first' digitally-literate state. Here's how
Social media, search engines, and WhatsApp – that's what the Kerala government used to acquaint its elderly with smartphones. On August 21, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will declare Kerala as India's first digitally-literate state, all thanks to an innovative campaign to familiarise its population with digital technology.
Spearheaded by the state's local self-government department, the 'Digi Keralam-complete digital literary programme' had one aim — taking the digital revolution to all sections of people, regardless of their age, and help them avail its e-services. The massive programme, launched in 2023, did this by first surveying 83 lakh households to identify the 'digitally illiterate' and eventually, holding training modules.
Of this group of identified individuals, 99.98 percent – including 15,223 people over 90 – have successfully completed the programme, officials said.
'We had motivated the aged persons to overcome their hesitancy to use a smartphone,' Sajina Sathar, the project's assistant director, said. 'We told them they could make video calls (to their children and relatives), watch their favourite programmes and TV serials and hear music. That's how we had evoked an interest in them'.
The volunteers with smart phones went to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme work sites and trained them during lunch break. Participants who did not have smartphones were trained on the phones of volunteers. In most cases, training was held at places where the participants gathered or worked in clusters. In the case of elderly participants, volunteers went to the homes.
The training programme had three modules with 15 activities – from sessions on photos and videos, and making social media profiles to sending WhatsApp texts or making the simplest Google Search. Participants were also trained in using the state's platforms for online applications and booking essential services such as gas to help them retrieve OPTs. A significant part of the campaign was the state government's 'Satyameva Jayate' campaign against fake news.
After training, the targeted group were evaluated by another set of volunteers to ensure that their learning was complete. Those who did poorly continued to get training until they met the set parameters.
'The evaluation was made mandatory only for people up to the age of 65. But the majority of the people above the age of 65 have also passed the evaluation exercise,' Sajina said.
The state economic and statistics department also conducted a third-party evaluation of the Digi Keralam, an initiative inspired by the digital literacy programme previously implemented in Thiruvananthapuram's Pullampara village panchayat. In 2022, the panchayat had been declared digitally literate.
The Digi Pullampara covered 3,900 'digitally illiterate' people, who were shortlisted after a survey of 22,100 people.
