‘AP Janmabhoomi’ – an initiative towards digital literacy

The ‘AP Janmabhoomi’ project aims to establish digital classrooms, rural mother and child care centres and crematoriums

Government of Andhra Pradesh initiated the ‘AP Janmabhoomi’ project – a social initiative that aims to establish digital classrooms, rural mother and child care centres and crematoriums; while connecting the Indian diaspora to their homeland by including them in their efforts to uplift people belonging to underdeveloped and remote areas.

In this age, technology has become synonymous with development and in the coming decades if information technology has its approach, education will be far changed, more immersive and hopefully more constructive. Working on the lines, the Government of Andhra Pradesh, along with Special Representative of North America, Jayaram Komati, launched the ‘AP Janmabhoomi’ project to undergo digitisation in the government education sector.

The project is a social initiative, which true to its name, aims to give back to its native land and mainly comprises of three schemes including – digital classrooms, anganwadi centers (rural mother and child care centres) and crematoriums.

Under the programme, the team is putting consistent efforts towards connecting the Indian diaspora to their homeland by including them in their efforts to uplift the people belonging to underdeveloped and remote areas. The ‘NRI Internship Programme’ is one such initiative where interns will not only focus on existing donor engagement but also be employing state-of-the-art enterprises/activities as a part of fund-raising activities.

Second phase of the Digital Classroom project targets 630 government schools across 13 districts across the state, whereas during the first phase, around 1,000 schools were well equipped with appropriate technological processes resulting in competent and proficient pedagogy. INR 150,000 is being spent for developing a single digital classroom and the amount is divided in the 70:30 ratio, where 70 pc of the funds are allocated from the government and the rest 30 pc is donated by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). The financial contribution per NRI amounts to Dollar 750 or INR 45,000. More than donating funds, it is a way for more and more NRI’s to connect to schools and create strong, impactful and everlasting bonds with the children by mentoring and guiding them.

The Janmabhoomi team is not only focused on digitisation of school education, but is also working towards digital literacy among the youth to enhance chances of employability. For instance, the ‘Youth Empowerment Programme’ – a three-week government-run pilot project, is an initiative to develop and enhance computer knowledge as well as digital literacy among the youth.

Another programme called the ‘NRI School Connect Programme’ was launched on April 3 this year by Jayaram Komati in California, USA. The initiative is aimed at connecting students from government schools in Andhra Pradesh to NRI diaspora to diversify knowledge of student base and gain knowledge from their experience.