Demonetisation: Digi Dhan Abhiyan intends to provide financial literacy to 1 crore citizens from rural India

The Government has launched a Digi Dhan Abhiyan program to educate the citizens of rural India on cashless transactions in the wake of the demonetisation of high value currency notes. According to the Government, training the rural population and familiarising them with digital transactions is another step in the effort to tackle the problems of black money and corruption.  The program involves registering citizens, activating electronic points of sale, enabling merchants to go cashless, sensitizing the local population to electronic transactions, and providing more micro ATMs . The Government is hosting awareness sessions, informing the citizens of the policies and the options available for financial transactions. The citizens are being informed about the various methods of cashless payments available, including banking cards, USSD, AEPS, UPI , Mobile Wallets, point of sale services, internet banking, mobile banking and Micro Atms. [caption id=“attachment_354456” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Digi Dhan Abhiyan in Himachal Pradesh. Image: Digi Dhan Abhiyan[/caption] The shopkeepers and merchants are being sensitised to accept these forms of payments. The programs are being conducted at the panchayat, district and block levels. The target of the project is to educate over 1 crore or 10 million citizens from rural and semi-urban India, with the goal of reaching every single one of the 2,50,000 panchayats across the country. The plan is to reach at least forty households and ten shopkeepers in every panchayat. There will be an acute focus on women, farmers, merchants and small traders. https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/806777731060887552 Prime minister Narendra Modi is reaching out to the rural population through the program. A translated version of his call to action is “Your mobile phone is no longer just your mobile phone, it is also your bank and your wallet. You can manage all your affairs without having to even touch money.” IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is persuading users to switch to cashless transactions with the message “Cashless Economy is the new era of digital revolution that has made money transfer an easy process. I urge everyone to not only use digital payment system but also encourage and train others in doing the same.” https://twitter.com/rsprasad/status/807184763882590208 The efforts towards making India a cashless economy is tracked on the Cashless India web site. Digi Shala is a free to air channel launched on the Door Darshan network, and available on Dish TV, with the sole purpose of educating the rural population on electronic transactions. The web site for the Digi Dhan Abhiyan is known as Digital Jagriti. The Digital Jagriti web site has real time updates on the progress of the Digi Dhan Abhiyan.