The Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU's) Computer Division in collaboration with Human Resource Development Division of Department Of Information Technology, Government of India, and DOEACC under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) hosted a day long brainstorming session on IT Mass Literacy programme to create awareness about IT and its applications in all walks of life for enhancing IT literacy and capacity-building of every citizen in the country. The workshop was held at the convention center of IGNOU headquarters.
The objective of this IT Mass Literacy programme is to enhance the use of IT in areas of a citizen's interest by adopting simple and commonly used IT practices and methods for day to day activities. It is a basic IT Literacy movement to train Indian society irrespective of their age, caste, background, educational background, profession, etc.
Mr N Ravi Shanker, Additional Secretary, Department of IT, Government of India, the chief guest of the workshop, focused on strategies and thoughts to take IT to the masses while delivering his address. “ICT plays a crucial role in skilling and empowering people; multilingualism is the way to reach maximum people. It is because of this reason DOEACC's Certificate Course in Computer Concepts (CCC) is available in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Manipuri, Malayalam and English.”
“We have chalked out an action plan involving participants from all over thecountry for a brainstorming session on IT Mass Literacy to make people IT literate. By eliminating the digital divide, we are eliminating all sorts of divide. The programme would be available in e-learning mode and would aim to impart IT knowledge at different levels of IT literacy,” said Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, IGNOU.
Dr C Muralikrishna Kumar, Senior Adviser (C& IT), Planning Commission said that, “For the 12th Five Year Plan one of the identified strategy is to enhance skills and faster generation of employment. Those who remainedexcluded need to be included; areas which are not covered need to be covered. We are working towards the inclusiveness agenda with an increase in the use of ICT for governance as well as for providing it to the citizens.”
