The Government has taken various steps to ensure empowerment of women and girls through their educational, social, economic and political uplifting through various schematic interventions. The Government has also taken several initiatives for digital literacy of citizen including women and girls so that they are able to operate digital devices (like computers, smart phones etc.) and work on it for various purposes including for educational, commercial and digital transaction purposes. One such initiative is 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)' under Digital India programme. It aims to bridge the digital divide specially targeting rural population including the marginalised sections of society, women and girls by covering 6 crore rural households. As on 08.12.2022, the percentage of women benefited under PMGDISHA is over 53% of total enrolled, over 54% of total trained and over 56% of total certified.

In addition, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education is administering ‘National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology’ (NMEICT) Scheme, SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds), SWAYAM PRABHA, National Digital Library (NDL), Virtual Lab, e-Yantra, NEAT (National Education Alliance for Technology) etc. to ensure quality education through e-learning to students across the country.

Ministry of Women and Child Development has taken a number of initiatives to empower women through the schemes and programmes implemented in the country. The Ministry has formulated ‘Mission Shakti’, an Integrated Women Empowerment Programme, as Umbrella Scheme for the Safety, Security and Empowerment of Women for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period. It aims at strengthening interventions for safety, security and empowerment of women in a mission mode through institutional and convergence mechanism for greater efficiency, effectiveness and financial prudence.

The Umbrella Scheme of Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes namely "Sambal" for safety and security of women and "Samarthya" for empowerment of women. Under 'Samarthya' sub- scheme, a new component i.e. Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW) has been included with the aim to facilitate inter-sectoral convergence of schemes and programs meant for women at the Central, State/ UT and District levels for creating an environment in which women are able to realize their full potential. The support under the HEW provides for guiding, linking and hand holding women to various institutional and schematic set ups for their empowerment and development including access to healthcare, quality education, career and vocational counseling/ training, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, backward and forward linkages, health and safety for workers, social security and digital literacy at districts/ Blocks/ Gram Panchayats level across the country.

This information was given by the Union Minister for Women & Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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