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Say hello to the man who single-handedly made Akoli a 100% digitally literate village.
Gajanan first learnt computers while studying for his diploma. So enthused was he by his experience that in 2010, he decided to introduce his hometown to the convenience and excitement of using a PC. In 2015, when the government announced the Digital India initiative he trained his entire village.
Have you heard about the sleepy village of Akoli in Telangana? You will be forgiven for not having heard of this hamlet. The village has recently been conferred the honour of ‘100% Digitally Literate Village’ and owns place of pride in the country. 34-year-old Nivalkar Gajanan has played a pivotal role in this digital transformation.
Hailing from Gimma village of Adilabad district in Telangana, Nivalkar Gajanan was studying for his diploma in Industrial Training when he first learnt how to operate a PC. The sheer breadth of activities made possible by a computer, from paying utility bills to maintaining records, from learning about government schemes to learning about the world left him awe-struck.
So enthused was he by his experience that in 2010, he decided to introduce his hometown to the convenience and excitement of using a PC. To this end, Gajanan set up a Common Services Centre (CSC). Here, for a small fee, village level entrepreneurs, who administer the centre, help digitally illiterate villagers use the internet to apply for government schemes and avail different government benefits.
In 2015, when the Central government announced the ‘Digital India programme’ and launched the National Digital Literacy Mission with the aim to ensure that every household in the country has at least one digitally literate individual. The initiative inspired Gajanan to start training government health and education workers on how to use the PC.
It was the first time Gajanan had trained someone in using a PC, but it was certainly not going to be the last. “I was extremely happy that they were making such good use of the skills I had imparted. I decided to continue training and to reach out to more people,” Gajanan said.
It was while training students in the local government school that the idea struck him to train an entire village. When Gajanan presented the idea to P Keshav, sarpanch of Akoli, he readily agreed and even extended unconditional support to the initiative.
A month later, in January 2016, Gajanan enrolled a member from each of the 160 households in the village. In a small room in the gram panchayat, he set up digital classrooms including 4 of his own PCs, 2 Wi-Fi hotspots and an LED screen.
He began the training with Microsoft Paint: “It helps them get comfortable with using the mouse,” he explained. A week into the training he organised a small competition where the winner would be selected on the basis of skilful use of Paint. He gave away small gifts as prizes bought with this own money.
To keep up the momentum and the excitement of learning, Gajanan repeated the pattern throughout the course, interspersing classes with fun competitions to assess the progress of the villagers and to keep them engaged.
At the end of a vigorous 25-day computer literacy programme, many villagers were adept at using the PC, a fact that was reflected in the results of their official assessment by the National Digital Literacy Mission, and Akoli was declared Telangana’s third 100% digitally literate village.
While the expenses of training the villagers were borne by Gajanan himself, he was awarded ₹65,000 by the Government of India upon the successful completion of the assessment by the villagers.
Gajanan magnanimously reinvested this money in the village, setting up a permanent computer centre with 2 PCs and an internet facility.
Today, children from Akoli access free online tutorials at the center while farmers seek the internet for tips of farming. Computer literacy has also generated better employment opportunities; some of the trainees have been hired by Gajanan himself to spread digital literacy to other villages in rural Telangana.
Gajanan’s journey hasn’t stopped at Akoli. He is currently training 2 more villages and hopes that they too attain the status of being 100% digitally literate.