In the world of our times, technology has become a necessity to survive. Everything is now online and in order to keep up with the changing times, it has become a need to be digitally educated. But for many, it still is a far-fetched dream. Four heroes from the village of Chengarbasa, Jharkhand, made it their mission to make this dream come true for everyone in their village.

Shriyansh, Sourabh, Shubham, and Anuj decided to make the people of their village digitally smart and improve their digital skills so that they would not have to be dependent on a third person for simple tasks like checking the PNR status of a train ticket online. They wanted to empower and transform the lives of their people through digital education.

They focused on teaching their villagers how to operate basic digital applications thus helping them to be more self-reliant. As a team, they joined the training program Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan (PMGDISHA) at the village’s digital center under the guidance of Mr. Basant Kumar Verma & Mr. Suman Sagar. They also enrolled in the International Changemaker Olympiad with this project.

As a team, they helped the villagers to register themselves in the training program and taught them how to type in MS Word, use Paint, create Excel sheets, etc. They were even able to introduce them to data entry and how the e-mail system works. In addition to this, they taught them to fill out forms online, generate train tickets, check the PNR status, download Adhaar cards, use the BHIM app, and how to make transactions online. They also taught them how to browse on the internet and learn from YouTube.

The majority of people were labor class – farmers, students, and a few ladies too who were staying alone in the village when the husband was away for work. The labor class was more interested in knowing about train reservation details, making online transfers using the BHIM App. Farmers also wanted to learn about online payment methods and how to upgrade their knowledge of farming. Students wanted to learn to fill forms online, upload photos, download Adhaar cards, create e-mail IDs and send mails with attachments.

There were 6 more children along with them who registered for training. The PMGDISHA Certificate is awarded to candidates who complete the training and assessment for digital literacy. But to qualify for the certificate, the person must be 14 years of age or above. So only 5 children who undertook the training with their team were qualified to get the certificate.

Shriyansh, Sourabh, Shubham, and Anuj were successful in teaching 50+ villagers to be digitally literate. Along with their team, many other children joined the digital literacy program and helped them in educating the villagers. Due to the ICO project, the villagers also got motivated to learn, ladies came forward to discover YouTube to learn cooking and embroidery, etc. Farmers search the internet to gather information. Every person in the village benefited from this program in some way.

These four kids are extremely proud of their progress and present achievement. They also went ahead and won the Social Impact Award in the ICO 2020-21. According to them, their goal will not be fulfilled until every single resident of their village is digitally literate.

Source : Facebook Post by International Changemakers Olympiad

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