Spreading Digital Literacy
Digital, or IT, literacy refers to the ability to utilise technology of various kinds — be it the internet, a smartphone, a computer or a tablet. As the word literacy implies, it involves some kind of basic knowledge or the ability to use the digital medium. However, digital literacy encompasses more than just knowledge of how to use the internet. However, implementation has also brought to focus the question of whether digital literacy should be the aim. Is it not enough to be able to the use the Internet, which opens doorways to literally everything?
Digital literacy is completely different from digital access. It does not involve people without access to the Internet or without computers being brought into the network. Spreading digital literacy is wanting to spread awareness about the Internet and create a demand for it, and teach people to use devices and the digital medium so they can exploit their potential once they have access.
Impact Sourcing: the modern day upskilling
Impact Sourcing benefits disadvantaged people in areas of extreme under-employment. IS Service Providers hire unemployed youth, women & physically challenged from low income and less privileged communities. They train them to perform simple digital data tasks such as audience research, email campaigns, opt-in permission checks, contacts discovery, data correction, buyer’s behaviour analysis, data sorting and formatting, and connect them to life changing work income via online software.
The social value of this program can result in employment creation for hundreds of women, youth and physically challenged in low-income areas, impacting thousands of families who earn little money each day.
While the ultimate goal of this is to alleviate unemployment among youth, women and physically challenged from low-income areas and increase income generation for less advantaged families, this helps in considerable digital skill development and social innovation among marginalised communities.
Thus, to improve digital literacy in a manner that it becomes a tool for these people to improve their lives, I suggest a child initiative of Digital India Campaign which would provide help to willing engineers to setup Impact Sourcing startups. This is a multi prong approach to generate employment, upskill people, introduce them to digital world and bridge the gap that our nation has in terms of digital footprint using the biggest resource we have: our population.
● Currently, our country is producing more engineers than the jobs that require them. This is a huge loss that the youth of our country bears. This move would be a great way to help them to employ their trade and start their own businesses.
● ISSP startups are a modern implementation of an age old adage “Each One, Teach One”. While our educational infrastructure neither permits reaching to the last-mile individual, nor provides introduction to new age necessary courses, these startups step in to bridge this gap.
● These startups can train willing audience in services like Archive Digitisation, Content Conversion, Data Entry, Database Content Support, Digital Marketing, eBook Creation, Market Research, Newspaper Digitisation, Records Management, Web Research, Multimedia Tagging, Transcription etc. Since the talent pool developed is homegrown, the cost of development would be significantly low. They can then employ them and offer these services to large firms and MNCs, who are looking for low cost solutions to these back-end jobs.
● This move would also result in a trickle down effect. When these newly skilled people earn better, their families live better, and motivates others around them to look for similar avenues. With earning better, people can afford smartphones and computers, helping those around them by introducing them to technology and bringing them under the purview of digital literacy. Thus, not only are current consumers made digitally literate, more and more digitally isolated individuals are made aware of technological interventions.
● Last but not the least, these newly created jobs improve the country’s GDP and help the cause of agencies like NDL or National Digital Library, which is trying to develop a library of digitised archives at low cost.
Step-wise Implementation
Phase 1:
1. Setting up a 100 crores government backed fund for seeding ISSP startups
2. Conducting national skill test to identify the best leaders in the unemployed bracket.
3. Conditioning of selected individuals at incubation centres across national technical institutes.
4. Leaders to pick teams for operations, areas of operation and develop a business model.
5. Rolling out nationwide program with necessary propaganda about the startups in remotest of areas.
6. Providing the startups with allocated funds based on merit of business model and services promised.
7. Upskilling of people in rural areas and marginalised sections.
8. Entering MoUs with government backed agencies to provide services, proving merit and then looking for private partnerships.
Phase 2:
1. Expansion of service base and regional expanse catered to.
2. Private sector partnerships and CSR funding enablement.
3. Rewards and recognition for the best performing startups.