JAJPUR: Seeking to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban India, Jajpur MP Sarmistha Sethi has urged the government to strengthen digital literacy programmes under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDSA) scheme.
Speaking during zero hour session in the Parliament recently, she pointed out that millions of citizens residing in rural areas do not have access to education and job opportunities because of digital divide and digital illiteracy.
“Though PMGDSA scheme which was rolled out in 2017 was expected to make six crore rural households digitally literate by 2019, the goal was not met,” Sethi said. The decrease in budget allocation for this scheme in the 2022-23 budget session by 16.67 per cent as compared to the 2021-22 budget is alarming as being digitally literate is considered extremely important in the current tech-savvy times, she added.