THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Faced with a sharp surge in digital offences — with over 41,000 cybercrime complaints annually, thousands of registered fraud cases, and financial losses exceeding Rs 760 crore — the state government is assembling a grassroots army to spread online safety awareness.
The SafeTech, or Cyber Jagratha Campaign, organised by the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM), is being designed as an evolving, permanent safety framework to tackle rapidly changing online threats. Under the initiative, a grassroots army comprising college students, retired professionals, and local community members, who will serve as ‘SafeTech Ambassadors’, will be deployed to directly train families, students, and senior citizens in their own neighbourhoods.
The campaign — to be launched officially on October 7 — will bring together more than 1,000 community ambassadors as wells as 600 student volunteers from computer science and engineering disciplines. “We are selecting third-year students in engineering, BCA, BSc computer science, or those with IT-related exposure,” said Muraleedharan Manningal, CEO of ICT Academy of Kerala (ICTAK), the knowledge management and training partner.
“We will offer student volunteers a Cyber Security Inter-University Certificate Programme. This gives them a distinct advantage during campus placements while motivating them to contribute to a vital public cause, he said.
In return, each student ambassador will be tasked with providing end-to-end training to at least 250 students across multiple batches in high schools, higher secondary schools, and colleges.
The educational outreach specifically targets individuals aged 13 and above as they see a significantly higher exposure to mobile phone use, he said.
On the community front, retired teachers, former police officers, military veterans, IT professionals, and retired bankers will lead local drives across all 14 districts.
‘SafeTech Clubs’ to be set up in schools, colleges
Working with Kudumbashree units, Haritha Karma Sena workers, ASHA health volunteers, anganwadi staff, and Akshaya centre entrepreneurs, this volunteer force will take digital safety awareness into individual households.
ICTAK has tailored learning modules for specific age demographics. Schoolchildren will receive guidance on online gaming traps and mobile addiction; youth will be trained on financial payment scams; and senior citizens will learn to spot impersonation frauds.
Permanent ‘SafeTech Clubs’ anchored by teachers will be set up in schools, colleges, and panchayats, building on existing Little KITEs units in schools.
Supported by four to five local volunteers each, these clubs will receive monthly threat updates, scenario videos, and reference content via a central SafeTech Portal developed by ICTAK and C-DIT.