Zensar Foundation launches its fourth Digital Literacy Centre, in Sudumbre : Pune, India

Zensar Foundation, a Public Charitable Trust, operating under Zensar Technologies Limited, announced the launch of a National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) Centre in Sudumbre, Maval Taluka. The centre has been set up in partnership with the NASSCOM Foundation. The objective is to encourage the national agenda of achieving Digital literacy under the National Digital Literacy Mission (‘NDLM'). NDLM's mission is to empower at least one person per household in India with basic digital literacy skills by 2020. This initiative is set up under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojajna program with the objective of developing villages across the country. Advocate Ms Vandana Chavan has adopted Sudumbre village and the Digital Literacy centre is one of several development initiatives undertaken for the village.

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies said, “This is a significant step in taking forward the crusade of empowering people at the grassroots level with basic digital literacy skills. We are pleased with the success of the first three NDLM centres set up in the cities of Pune and Hyderabad, including the recent launch of Pune’s first Digital Literacy bus. Our vision is to expand the scope and reach out to many more citizens. I am sure that this centre will provide the springboard to the people of Sudumbre to build a better quality of life in every sphere.”

Speaking on the occasion, Advocate Vandana Chavan, said, “It is heartening to see this level of commitment from corporate citizens like Zensar and Dr. Ganesh Natarajan towards making the lofty vision of digital literacy come alive through such focused initiatives. It is also extremely heartening to see the enthusiasm amongst women to become computer literate. The people of Sudumbre, a rural area, have the opportunity to attend training imparted at this centre, enabling them to be more empowered and capable. This is the best way to build a digital community.”

Zensar Foundation has successfully trained 467 people in Yamuna Nagar, Pune covering 58% of the households through the NDLM centre, and 871 people at the Anjaiah Nagar centre in Hyderabad. Recently, Pune’s first digital literacy bus was launched in association with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). This bus, which functions as a mobile digital literacy centre, is equipped with 16 computers in a classroom-like environment. This is an innovative model pioneered by Zensar Foundation, to take this mission ahead.

Ms. Ruchi Mathur, Head of Zensar Foundation “The Sudumbre centre is our first intervention in the rural area. Propelled by the success of our centres in cities like Pune and Hyderabad, we look forward to reaching out to more people at the grassroots level. So far, we have managed to train more than 1000 citizens in our urban centres, and we hope to replicate this model for rural areas. Our focus remains to inch closer to achieve the national mission of digital literacy.”

According to the Government of India, Digital Literacy is the ability of individuals and communities to understand and use digital technologies for meaningful actions within life situations. The NDLM centres are meant to engage citizens across diverse age groups in communities all over India to significantly impact human development indices. Simply put, Digital Literacy is about being able to access the internet for improving one’s quality of life through access to information, income enhancement, government schemes, utility services such as bill payments and other online services.

The National Digital Literacy Mission (‘NDLM’) with a vision to empower at least one person per household with digital literacy skills by 2020, is expected to touch the lives of more than 250 million individuals over the next few years. The project aims at helping adults with low technological literacy develop the skills they need to interact in an increasingly digital world, thereby increasing the opportunity for development and economic viability.