CSR News: Government Recommends Using CSR to Eliminate Digital Divide in India

The need to move towards digitalisation has never felt more urgent than in the present times. The pandemic ensued lockdown across the country has dealt a major blow to learning and education of the children.

With the intent of containing the spread of the virus among the young children who are among the vulnerable population to COVID-19, the schools have remained closed for months. With schools closed, the schools do not receive fees from students and so they cannot afford to keep paying salaries to teachers. Unwilling to stop their operations altogether, many schools have resorted to providing online lectures to students. However, the digital divide in the country is leaving many willing, smart and deserving students unable to access the education facilities.

In order to address the issues faced in the delivery of online learning, the Union education ministry has recommended the use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, to ensure the pandemic does not adversely affect learning. According to a study by the Union Education Ministry, around 27% of the students from institutes like Kendriya Vidyalayas and Central Board of School Education-affiliated schools did not have smartphones and laptops to enable them to join virtual classes.

In order to help the students overcome the digital divide, the Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has issued Students’ Learning Enhancement Guidelines, which has suggested the use of CSR funds for creating mobile libraries. The guidelines say, “One way of ensuring continuous learning is to ensure that children continue to read and enrich their learning process through reading textual material other than prescribed textbooks. States and Union Territories may consider mobile libraries for remote parts, where the library vehicle visits on designated days and students can borrow library books or return read books on those days. This activity can also be taken up through CSR efforts.”

In addition to the mobile libraries, the guidelines have recommended adding pre-loaded e-content on tablets and laptops for the children to learn from in the mechanism. The vehicles of the mobile library are envisaged to remain parked in one place for an hour or two and have tie-ups with the local schools to decide on e-content. The guidelines suggest that this activity can also be taken up through CSR efforts or by any volunteers from the local communities ready to provide such resources on their own.

The guidelines have suggested that for the delivery of education online, help may be taken from governments, charity organisations and companies willing to use their CSR funds for obtaining android phones and gadgets for online classes.

The new National Education Policy approved last month has also mentioned the willingness of the government for the promotion of digital and online education. However, it has also asserted that the digital divide must be eliminated to fully benefit from such methods.