Rajasthan: Administration of Churu district launches 'Computer Sakhi' to educate rural women

JAIPUR: With an aim to empower rural women, the Churu district administration has launched 'Computer Sakhi' to train about 70,000 people in basic programmes and the internet. The district administration has also written to the state government to provide RS-CIT (Rajasthan State Certificate course in Information Technology) on priority so that the trained women could land jobs at the gram panchayat level.

Around 6,500 women have already availed the training at government school laboratories and another batch is about to start next week. "We have 70,000 women involved with self-help groups. We aim to make them digital and financially literate so that they can play a positive role in society. We are using government school computer labs. We are utilising the existing infrastructure which is not incurring any additional cost," Churu District Collector Siddharth Sihag told PTI. He said there are 532 schools in the Churu district and almost all of them have computer labs and teachers. "By the end of this year, we will have computer labs in all schools. Soon, they will also have internet connectivity," he said.

Sihag said a proposal has been sent to the state government to give priority to these rural women associated with SHGs in RSCIT for proper certification. He said an in-principle approval has been granted. The pilot run for the programme was started in April with 1,000 women. Nodal Officer for the programme Sanjay Kumar said the training is given for 15 days during which internet, Google search, paint software, typing and UPI transactions are taught.

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The administration aims to train 25,000 to 30,000 women in the next six months, he said. Women, who have availed of the training, are enthusiastic about the programme as it is helping them learn new skills. "My son studies in an English medium school and I did not know much about computers. This training has helped me learn the basics. I want to learn more and get a proper certification to land a job at the village level. A certification and guidance will be of great help," Daulat Kanwar (30), a resident of Bidsadar in Churu district, said.

Kamla Devi (33), living in Ratangarh town of Churu, said not many women are familiar with computers. "This programme is not only helpful in basic computer knowledge, but it will also act as a feeder if linked with RS-CIT certification. This will be helpful in getting jobs," she said.