Government Initiative To Bridge Digital Divide in India

The Indian government has launched several initiatives to address the digital divide and promote digital inclusion across the country. Here’s a closer look at some of the key programs:

Digital India Initiatives 

• Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyanfor: This scheme aims to train one person per rural household in basic digital literacy skills, covering over 6 crore households from rural areas .
• National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM): This mission focuses on digital literacy skills for individuals across the country, focusing on rural and underserved communities.

National Education Policy, 2020

• This policy aims to integrate technology into education from the school level onwards, aiming to equip students with essential digital skills and prepare them for the digital world.
• This main goal of this policy is to provide infrastructure to schools like providing computers and alloting computer teachers is every school to educate the school students in the CS field.

Internet Saathi Program

• This initiative, launched in collaboration with Google India and Tata Trusts, empowers women in rural communities as “internet this” to promote digital literacy among their peers.
• The main motive for launching this scheme was bridging the gap between rural India and urban India.

Optical Fibre Network (NOF-N)

• This project aims to connect over 2 lakh gram panchayats with high-speed optical fiber broadband, improving internet connectivity in rural areas.
• This was a major breakthrough to connecting villages of India directly with high-speed internet.

DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) platform

• This platform provides free and open access to digital learning resources for educators and students at all levels.
• This is provided college and in government libraries through which students can learn skills

Unnati Project

• This initiative focuses on empowering women through digital literacy training and access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in rural areas.
• In every Panchayat there will be free classes for women to gain digital literacy.

Gyandoot

• This project utilizes mobile vans equipped with computers and internet connectivity to provide access to information and e-governance services in remote villages.
• This is a part of the Common Service Center government scheme.

Digital Mobile Library

• This initiative provides access to books, educational resources, and digital content through mobile libraries in rural areas.
• Physical books some times can be costly to purchase but with the Digital Mobile Library students can easily learn anything.

Online Massive Open Online Course MOOC

• Government agencies and educational institutions offer free online courses on various topics, promoting skill development and knowledge sharing.
• Government of India has partnered with many companies like Google, Microsoft ,and many others to prepare these courses and make them free on the government portal .

On Air Shiksha Vani

• This radio program broadcasts educational content for students, particularly in rural areas lacking internet access.
• It’s a direct way to connect students who have problems to reach school if they live at a remote location.

E-pathshala

• This online platform provides access to digital textbooks and learning materials for school students across various subjects.
• The central state boards have launched their apps for school students where they will get their class all textbooks and study-related materials like Past Year’s Question paper.

Digital Divide is a term that means the gap between Individuals, communities, Drives, Inequality and Countries who have access to Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and those who don’t have access. This gap is created due to the availability of Internet connections and devices like Smartphones and Computers. The ability to pay for the Internet access, device and data plan. The knowledge of digital literacy is required to effectively use technology. The digital divide is a tool to understand if more or lower will in any country it shows how much the country is developed or is still in its developing phase.

In this article, we will discuss about Digital Divide and its types in detail.