HBT opens a Community Digital Learning Center to close the Digital Divide

By: WE Staff | Tuesday, 16 August 2022

The HumaraBachpan Trust opened the second Community Digital Learning Center on Monday in the Durgamadhab neighbourhood of Bhubaneswar in honour of Independence Day, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the new vision of India to create the technology-driven age, or "techade," and bring digital India to the grassroots.

The first digital learning centre was established in OUAT Farmgatebasti, Bhubaneswar, serving 37 adolescent girls and roughly 55 youngsters from the neighbourhood. Children and youth in the neighbourhood have access to digital devices through the digital learning centre, where they may also learn how to use applications, access the internet, and look for and apply to career and skill-building opportunities.

The community digital learning centres were established with the goal of promoting grassroots learning and creating networks of people who are digitally literate, which will promote Internet innovation and lessen gender disparities in the use of technology.

These centres give urban poor children, women, and youth access to high-quality digital education resources, bridging the electrical and digital barriers between them and their counterparts. In two Bhubaneswar localities, Humara Bachpan and Swastik Assests Private Limited have established two digital learning centres.

Sulochana Das, Mayor of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), officially opened the centre in the Durgamadhab neighbourhood. Speaking to the ladies and kids, Sulochana stressed that being digitally literate extends well beyond being able to use the Internet.

It increases young people's employability and acts as a tool to help them learn other important life skills.

Digital literacy is a fantastic enabler for the empowerment of children, women, and youth, according to Dharitri Patnaik, founder and chairperson of the Humara Bachpan Trust. In a variety of contexts, digital literacy is essential for the development of girls' and women's lives. The disparities in access to high-quality digital learning are a serious concern in the present day because everything is digitalized and technology-related. The digital divide is being closed by HBT's digital literacy programme, which is also giving more women, kids, and youth digital empowerment.