Nasscom partners with over 200 organizations to bring digital literacy to 1 lakh Indians

The Nasscom Foundation has kick-started the Digital Literacy Week with a target to bring digital literacy to over one lakh Indians. This initiative, is a part of the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM), and will complement the government’s vision to empower at least one person per household with critical digital literacy skills by 2020. This programme is expected to touch the lives of more than 250 million individuals over the next few years and aims at helping citizens adapt to the increasingly digital world.

The National Digital Literacy Mission is a far-sighted, dynamic and integrated platform of digital literacy awareness, education and capacity programmes that will help rural and the underserved communities fully participate in the global digital economy. NASSCOM Foundation is the industry partner to the Government of India to accomplish the first phase goal for NDLM or ‘DISHA’ by making 10 lakh individuals in India digitally literate in 18 months.

The content for making a lakh Indians digitally literate comes in seven modules and is presently teachable in Hindi, English, Telugu, and Kannada. The seven modules are Power in Your Hands, Internet, Email and Social Media, Useful Information, Government, E commerce, and IT Security. Everyone going through these seven modules will be digitally empowered at the end of the course after passing an assessment conducted by NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology).

Said Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, Nasscom Foundation, “The three R’s of education, namely Reading, (W)Riting and (A)Rithmetic which were all the rage in the 60s’s are now passé. They have to be joined by a fourth pillar, namely Digital Literacy to function in this technology driven world. The Nasscom Foundation has been focusing on making technology central to enabling change and the Digital Literacy Week is a great way to unite the volunteering strength of the industry and create a nation-wide Digital Literacy impact.”

Shrikant Sinha, CEO, Nasscom Foundation, said “We are glad to have over 50 corporates and 150 non-profit organizations partnering for this edition of the Digital Literacy Week and are confident of making people digitally literate We appeal to all individuals,  to take out time and using their smart devices and start by helping their domestic aids become digitally literate.”

For countless Indians who lack basic computer skills, the rich cloud of online information is elusive. Working in partnership with India’s responsible business community, the Nasscom Foundation is attempting to close this digital divide by helping individuals harness the power of computers and develop necessary skills to start using them with confidence.