Staff Reporter
Job-oriented courses will be offered to them
Target is to cover 3,200 girls through 75 centres
They will be given 75 hours of training
KOCHI: There is good news for Scheduled Caste (SC) girls in Ernakulam district. Their dream of becoming computer literate and, thereby, enjoying a level playing field in educational and employment arenas with candidates from privileged sections is all set to turn into a reality.
Vijayasree, a project of Akshaya, an initiative of the Kerala State Information Technology Mission, aims at achieving this objective.
“We plan to launch the project in the district by October-November,” Velayudhan Chettiar, the project’s Assistant District Coordinator in-charge, said.
The project, one of the prominent schemes being conceived by Akshaya for the equitable spread of e-literacy in the State, forms part of Akshaya’s second phase. It has been a runaway success in Malappuram, where it was launched five years ago, with thousands of SC girls from classes 8 to 12 benefiting from it.
Vijayasree was drawn up based on the realisation that while students from other castes and well-off families have easy access to computer education, such opportunities were limited to SC students, especially girls, denying them equal chances to make the grade in academics and careers.
The district panchayat is the nodal agency for implementing the project, and Akshaya is set to submit a proposal on Vijayasree to the panchayat authorities in August, Mr. Chettiar said.
Selection
Selection of Akshaya entrepreneurs and beneficiaries of the project will follow.
Entrepreneurs who helped to achieve 60 per cent e-literacy in the first phase will be considered.
Additional computers and availability of instructors capable of handling the syllabus will be taken into account.
“Our target is to bring nearly 3,200 SC girls under the ambit of the project through 75 centres,” Mr. Chettiar said. They will be given 75 hours of training, which will give prominence to job- oriented courses, such as Advanced MSO Photoshop, Page Maker, Corel Draw, Illustrator, Flash, Linux, C++, Java and web designing. Besides, 10 hours of Internet training is envisaged.
The stated benefits of the project include empowering SC girls by exposing them to the world of information and communication technology; enabling those interested in the computer field to pursue higher studies in the field; enabling them to do research projects using the Internet as part of their academics; and, more importantly, enhancing the status of SC girls in society.
For the smooth implementation of the project, monitoring committees at the district, block and panchayat levels will be formed.
