TURA, Dec 22: Meghalaya has attained the unique distinction of being the second best performing state in the north east when it comes to providing digital training for the digitally illiterate among the rural population. It ranked next to Assam, the biggest state in the entire region and way ahead of Sikkim, one of the most progressive states of the north east.
Meghalaya’s spectacular performance was revealed during question hour in the Lok Sabha on December 21st when Tura MP Agatha K Sangma raised a series of questions on the establishment of centres and performance of the unique Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) which is a central project aimed to empower skills upon the common people on the use of digital equipment and software.
On Wednesday, during the current winter session of Parliament, Agatha Sangma raised an unstarred question seeking a reply from the union minister of state for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrashekar, about how the PMGDISHA centres are functioning, whether it is benefitting the rural population by way of digital knowledge and at the same time helping to provide job opportunities.
In his reply, the union minister of state for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that ever since its inception, PMGDISHA program has helped lakhs of people in the rural area to be digitally skilled in today’s modern world.
He said that over 4.24 lakh training centres of PMGDISHA have been set up across the entire country to impart computer training, of which North east alone has as many as 18,536 such centres.
Assam, as the dominant state of the north east has the largest number of such centres- 13,754 centres. Meghalaya is behind Assam with 1851 training centres and in third place is Tripura with 1,413 centres.
Interestingly, Meghalaya is the only non-BJP led state that is ranked among the top three states of the north east.
Sikkim and Nagaland have the lowest number of PMGDISHA centres, 132 and 260 centres, respectively. Manipur has only 409, Mizoram 432 and Arunachal Pradesh 285 centres.
The PMGDISHA scheme imparts basic digital literacy skills to the digitally illiterate in rural India through a 20 hour training programme. The trained persons are expected to be able to operate computers, digital access devices such as tablets and smartphones, send and receive mails, browse the internet, access government services, search for information, and undertake cashless transactions.
It aims to provide digital literacy to the rural citizens which will enable them for further employment opportunities, especially the younger beneficiaries.
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