PURWAN: In the present digital age, most of the public-benefit schemes and services are promoted digitally and the government is also relying on it. As the pandemic has shown more paths in the digital world, in reality, rural areas lack digital infrastructure as compared to cities. This is also the case with Purwan village in Uttar Pradesh.

Notably, 70 percent of India’s population resides in the rural region. Despite various campaigns of the Indian government, only 22 percent of them have internet connectivity today. Prime Minister’s Digital India Programme and its various schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Bharat Net Project (BNP), and India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) failed to reach far corners of rural India.

Ramprasad, a farmer said, “All government schemes are on the internet today but I struggled for more than 2 years to clear my PM Awas and PM Kisan Yojana benefits due to numerous online paperwork.” Anuj Kumar, a student, stated that “Internet connection is not good in my village that’s why I am not able to attend online classes. Even the rural schools are not able to provide online classes due to weak internet connections.” Common Service Centre (CSC) is an initiative of the central government under the ‘Digital India’ program to provide an opportunity to village-level entrepreneurs.

Sunil Kumar, The proprietor of a CSC, stated, “In CSC, I use ‘Digital Seva Portal’ by which I could provide various government and non-government services to the nearby village people. Later on, I started the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS). It’s a type of payment system to provide cash to villagers, women, pensioners and Army widows.” In addition, he said, “The internet connection is not good here.” Usage of several digital payment systems has seen a rise in villages but banking facilities and their infrastructure still lag. Government should emphasise more on building digital infrastructure in rural areas and should provide more power to the Panchayati Raj institutions. It will help to strengthen the digital and financial status of rural India.