Parliament Session: Sarmistha Sethi Demands Scaling Up Digital Literacy Programs To Bridge Digital Divide

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Jajpur, Sarmistha Sethi has called for scaling up Digital Literacy program under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan to bridge the digital divide in the country.

Taking part during the Zero Hour of Lok Sabha today, Sarmistha said millions of Indian citizens living in rural areas do not have access to education and job opportunities because of digital divide and digital illiteracy in the country. The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan Scheme was rolled out in 2017 to usher in digital literacy in rural India. The scheme was expected to make six crore rural households, that is one person per household, digitally literate by 2019.

Although steps were taken to adequately implement the scheme, this loan was not made by 2019. In the year 2022-23 budget, allocation to this scheme has decreased by 67 percent as compared to the revised and budget estimates for the year 2021-22. This decrease in the budget is especially alarming as being digitally literate is utmost important in the current tech savvy time.

As per ITU’s World Telecom Database, only 43 percent of the population in India uses Internet. 58 percent male internet users and 42 percent female internet users are in India. The National Family Health Survey 2019-21 shows a significantly larger gender gap in Internet users. The NFHS report suggests that only 57. 1 percent of the male population and 33.3 percent of the female population had ever used the Internet. This is more concerning as inability to use computers and electronic devices, was one of the causes for high dropout rates among girls during the pandemic.

She urged the government to scale up the digital literacy programs so as to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban India.