Christmas is about a fortnight away, but Santa Claus has already made his way to Goa through Goa Yuva Samwad Yojan.
They are dolling out 3GB 3G data along with voice calls worth 100 minutes and a wallet absolutely free if one is residing in Goa for past five years and is aged between 16-30.
The aim of the Goa government is to empower the Goan youth digitally and get them connected so that they can ‘study’ using Internet. This scheme is jointly collaborated with Vodafone, Department of Information and Technology of Goa and Goa Electronics Limited.
While talking exclusively to Herald, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that Goa is the first State in India to launch such a scheme for the youth and is completely aligned with the Digital India campaign.
“Nearly 1.5 lakh youth will be benefitted by this scheme and we will be paying Vodafone about Rs 125 per head per connection for this scheme although the market value for the same is not less than Rs 700. The rural youth will benefit and they will be on par with the urban youth. It all began in 2002 when Manohar Parrikar was the Chief Minister and he launched the Cyberage yojna where all standard 11 students got a laptop and tab. That’s why we can call Goa as digital literate state,” said Mr Parsekar.
This scheme was planned in July 2015 and it started rolling since December 12 after its formal launch by the Chief Minister on December 5. Several outlets have mushroomed close to Vodafone retail outlets to provide fresh SIM cards. “This camp will remain open for three months for people to come and collect their SIM cards,” said a stall manager.
“The scheme would be more useful to the rural youth who today is out of the digital India paradigm due to non availability of Internet access. It will also help the youth to connect with the peers across the State and countries and increase their knowledge base in terms of education, carrier opportunities and skill development,” said the CEO of Goa Electronics Limited, Revati Mujumdar.
Ms Mujumdar added that, “rural youth is unable to come up to the platform of digital India only because he does not have the access to the Internet data as data is costly and hence misses out on many jobs, course and opportunities. However, the youth in the urban areas has access to Internet but still it is costly. The government is sending message by this to the students to go and avail good courses and connect with the people. The cashless society is also one part of it.”
IT Professional Prajyot Mainkar is bit skeptical about the way the scheme will be implemented. “If you talk about digital India, it is a great move. However, my only concern is how and where the students will use this facility. Will they be using it more responsibly, which is always a concern. It is a doubled edged weapon where we can also see people using the free data for needless activities,” said Mr Mainkar.
Also, the Vice President of the Goa IT Professionals (GITP), Vincent Toscano is wary of the way the freebees will be used. “Do we have the monitoring system in place? My only concern is that whatever has been given by the government must be monitored and certain adult sites must be blocked. If it has not been done then it will look as if it is a pre election doles offered to the youth of Goa.”
Service provider Vodafone’s Business Head, Maharashtra and Goa Ashish Chandra said, “Vodafone is honoured to partner Goa government’s path breaking initiative to put youth on the mobile internet highway by facilitating free Internet. In line with the Prime Minister’s digital India dream this scheme if the first of its kind in the country to empower youth by providing information on their fingertips.”
