THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Karunakara Panikar from Koonanvenga ward in Thiruvananthapuram’s Pullampara panchayat was born at a time when owning even the landline was a luxury. And he was already in his 80s when smartphones became a thing.
Still, Karunakara learnt. Now, thanks to the ‘Digi Pullampara’ project launched by the panchayat to achieve 100 per cent digital literacy, the 98-year-old can make calls — voice and video — and also use WhatsApp on smartphone without anyone’s help. Karunakara is among the 3,300 people who have been taught how to use smartphones to make calls, carry out internet banking and use WhatsApp and YouTube under the project that was launched in late 2021. All of the participants of the programme are aged above 45.
Owing to its relentless efforts, the local body is on its way to becoming fully digitally literate panchayat in the country. Before implementing the project, the panchayat had carried out a survey in all 15 wards to identify people who were digitally illiterate and found 3,917 such people.
Of them, around 600 were either bedridden or severely ill. The remaining 3,300 were selected and taught how to use smartphones by National Service Scheme volunteers from five engineering colleges affiliated to APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and students of an aided school. Evaluation was held twice among those who attended the programme.
CM’s official declaration on September 21
As per the latest evaluation, 3,174 of the 3,300 people are fully digitally literate, taking the project’s success rate to 96.18 per cent. The rest will be given lessons again and re-evaluated. If they pass the test, Pullampara will become the first fully digitally literate panchayat in the country. A five-member core team comprising panchayat president P V Rajesh, programme coordinator Shamnad Pullampara and team members Sajna Sathar, Sanoop and Dinesh Pappan had spearheaded the campaign to great success, while Kudumbasree members and local volunteers chipped in with valuable support.
Shamnad said the programme generated overwhelming response from people and those who were unfamiliar with technology got a chance to learn it. “We conducted a detailed survey and followed it up with sustained action. All those who attended our training sessions were aged above 45,” he said.Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will officially declare the panchayat fully digitally literate on September 21.