Kerala Becomes First State to Achieve Total Digital Literacy

Total digital literacy has reached India through Kerala becoming its initial state to fully educate its population. Digi Kerala enabled the LSG Department to train 21 lakh people who were categorized as 'digitally illiterate' through its 'Digi Kerala' program. People now have the capability to call using voice and video functions in addition to accessing public services and executing Internet banking activities and social media tasks through this initiative. State officials receive national recognition for their digital literacy programs which serve as an example for the whole nation.

Features of Digi Kerala Initiative:

• The program launched its initial session during 2022 as a test project within Pullampara Grama Panchayat situated in Thiruvananthapuram.

• A total of 21 lakh individuals consisting of older citizens and new users of technology completed training for smartphone operation and digital service usage.

• The initiative established a program which provided essential skills to population members who need competency in technology-based communication and access to public services and social media.

• Training events run by volunteers took place at both MGNREGS work sites and households and libraries and community group venues.

Expansion and Participation

• The statewide program reached 21.88 lakh participants who were previously unable to use digital technologies.

• The training sessions were organized by 2.57 lakh volunteers which included NSS members as well as Kudumbashree workers and Kerala State Literacy Mission Preraks and various other members who joined this force.

• The National Digital Literacy Mission had set age limitations to 60 years but the Kerala initiative included all population stages in its program.

Evaluation and Impact

• The training consisted of a passing rate of 98% among the participants following training completion.

• The Statistics Department performed third-party verification to verify numerical accuracy through which they conducted re-training for areas with unverified data.

• To help those who lacked internet access the government arranged offline training sessions for all affected population points.

Official Recognition

• The Kerala government waits for official confirmation from the President of India to declare the state has become digitally literate throughout all districts.

Conclusion 

The state of Kerala demonstrated remarkable progress by becoming completely digital literate thus achieving a milestone to eliminate digital disparities while giving all people access to digital resources. The 'Digi Kerala' initiative enlightened a vast number of people regarding valuable digital skills as it established a motivational model for digital empowerment that other states can adopt.