Digital Swaraj Fellowship: Revisiting the Journey of DEF’s Flagship Programme
Smartpur program has been a great example in helping those involved, from the beneficiaries to the project team, in multidimensional improvement and keeps inducing a drive to serve better.
In recent years, the notion of rural development has evolved; converging itself to governance and digital inclusion. The aim is to provide the basic services to the community inclusive of all those processes through which common people can access their confidential data and information about the government and its various development programs. Thus, creating spaces to avail these digital schemes directly impacts rural development.
Smartpur hub and spoke centres continue to serve the communities on the six pillars of education, health, livelihood, governance, finance and entertainment. Governance has been one of our strongest pillars, and one such beneficiary narrated his perspective on this based on his experience.
Rama Rao Kundrapu is a resident of the Naidupalem village in Vizag. He remained unaware of managing his finances. With the help of our co-ordinator at the Spoke centre, he gained knowledge about the pension fund account, withdrawals and e-KYC.
Looking through the lens of a Spoke co-ordinator, Anees Khan, from Alwar, Rajasthan, it has been shared that there has been a significant change in the behaviour of the community towards governance, financial and digital literacy over the years. He further adds, “I have been working hard to provide the services to the community and gradually I have learnt so many new things in the process. Our Smartpur centre has grown so much in terms of facilities available and reach within the community. Through helping and empowering my people and community, I have constantly gained very useful information and knowledge to update myself as well.”
Smartpur program has consistently seen growth on many levels in various directions among all the stakeholders and we hope to see it take innovative forms in the future.
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