Bridging the divide

A screenshot from the third part of the webinar series

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Over the last few years, India has proudly marketed its ability to tame the mighty computer. There is a very subtle yet a very evident (and extremely successful) effort on the part of the Indian State to sell its I.T. and software professionals in the global market. In just about a decade or two, the Indian IT industry has grown by leaps and bounds. The spillover effect of this national development manifests in our career and professional choices and in our social lives. These too have contributed in empowering the IT revolution. In my assessment, the achievements of India in the space of information technology have been made possible by our conscious or unconscious setting up of the ‘victious’ circle wherein a positive development is furthered by the intended and un-intended changes that it brings about in its environment. India’s love affair with information technology is an epic that deserves a book length writing. What can probably be covered in a blog are the gaps that limit and skew the economic growth of the nation.

I remember my days in a village in Uttarakhand, the days when I was observing the implementation of a CSR project. Among the variety of infrastructural developments that were to be undertaken in the village, the one that everyone was most excited about was the construction of an internet enabled computer lab. As I went around the village, from one house to another and as I documented, in my personal laptop, the local responses to the upcoming developments, I realized that India’s romance with technology has barely reached India’s belly.

Access to computer and to IT skills has class, gender and spatial underpinnings to it. Evidently, most of India’s IT professionals are males. A large part of the India population that can comfortably work on a computer is the one that had the privilege of going to a school with a functional computer lab. The average IT skills of the population degrades as one moves from the cities in the planes of a rich state to the villages in the mountains of a poor state. Looking this way, we realize that within the meta nation India, exists a country that continues to multiply its resources by monetizing its IT skills and a country that still stands at the staring point of the national IT revolution.

Sustained economic growth coupled with advancements in technology has improved the affordability of the machine called computer. Compared to the early 2000s, more households now have a personal computer. However, access to necessary IT skills that can enable and ensure the transformation of this machine into an asset, remains a matter of concern. The COVID-19 pandemic has come as a major setback in this context. The ensuing slow down in the global and national economies would likely result in cuts in the development funds allotted for projects like the setting up of an internet enabled computer lab in a village in Uttarakhand while at the same time necessitating a rampant digitization of the future enterprises.

The Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan launched by the Prime Minister promises an upskilling drive. However, government efforts too remain hostage to the ongoing crisis. What we are witnessing is essentially a stalemate. In this context, some spirited citizens of our country have decided not to concede defeat just yet. Mr. Pradeep Singh and his band of enthusiastic development professionals have launched the Atmanirbhar Bharat Webinar Series. Through this meticulously planned series, they seek to train people in a variety of vocations and skills. The third part of the series covered IT skills. In this part, training was provided in skills like social media management, Word and Excel. Participating in the session on behalf of The Bookmark Agency, I realized that perhaps citizen driven ingenious solutions like the webinar series is the only way out of the existing stalemate. The most encouraging aspect of the series is the commitment to the idea of atmanirbharta which is displayed in how each session seems equally informative and engaging.

While the world awaits a solution to the pandemic, there are people out there who are working to ensure that the world we return to looks a little less unfamiliar. These people are working to ensure that their fellow citizens have a job when the pandemic ends, that they have the skills to set up a successful enterprise, and that they are truly atmanirbhar and independent. Beyond a spirited attempt to resist the impact of the pandemic, the webinar series is a potential solution to the issue of access to IT skills - a problem that keeps two countries alive with one India.

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