Kerala becomes India’s first fully digitally literate state

Kerala has become the first fully digitally literate state in India. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made the announcement at a function held at Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday during a video call with 105-year-old Abdulla Maulavi, marking the completion of the first phase of the Digi Keralam project, a grassroots level initiative implemented across all local bodies to bridge the digital divide.

After attaining the distinction of becoming the first state in the country to achieve total literacy in 1991, Kerala now crossed another milestone — over 99 per cent of its population obtaining digital literacy.

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The core objective of Digi Keralam is to ensure that every citizen in the state possesses basic digital literacy. This empowerment will foster greater participation in the digital economy, enhance access to government services and improve socio-economic development across Kerala.

The announcement follows decades of planning, relentless enforcement, and education of more than 21.87 lakh citizens above the age of fourteen. For a community that initially amazed the country by attaining almost comprehensive conventional literacy in the late twentieth century, this new achievement represents a shift into the digital era

The project was started in 2021 at the Pullampara panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram to address the digital divide. Ground-level surveys were conducted to identify digitally illiterate persons of all ages. Trainees, most of whom were using digital equipment for the first time, were taught to make voice as well as video calls using smartphones, to use WhatsApp

Around 57 lakh trained volunteers – including MGNREGA supervisors, the National Service Scheme, the National Cadet Corps and the Nehru Yuva Kendra – conducted a survey covering 1.50 crore people in 83 lakh families. This helped them shortlist 21 lakh digitally illiterate people, including several elderly people over 90.