KOCHI: The year M A Abdullah Maulavi was born marked the dawn of the Roaring Twenties, a decade of rapid tech transformation. Little did the now 105-year-old Kerala native know that it would take him another century and more to find his tech mojo as a “fully digi-literate” person able to use a smartphone. “I used to have keypad phones. With training from the panchayat, I can now access internet on a smartphone, keep myself abreast of news,” Abdullah told TOI.Centenarian trained under govt’s Digi Keralam project The centenarian is among 22 lakh Keralites to have undergone training under state’s Digi Keralam project, meant to achieve 100% digital literacy – the second such landmark since communist-governed Kerala became India’s first fully literate state in 1991.For Abdullah, a resident of Odakkali in Ernakulam district’s Perumbavoor, the pandemic was the catalyst for change. His son Faisal Ali recalls seeing his father get increasingly restless during the lockdown as the newspapers stopped coming. “He would watch news channels on our phones, but didn’t relish having to depend on others,” Faisal said. “Last year, when Digi Keralam volunteers asked if he was interested in becoming digitally literate, my father grabbed the opportunity. He didn’t want to be left behind.”It helped that Abdullah, a religious scholar, has been a learner all his life. He is fluent in Arabic, Urdu, English and Hindi, besides Malayalam. But Jaya CR, the area’s saksharatha pracharak and Digi Kerala panchayat coordinator, said teaching Abdullah wasn’t easy. “He had a disciplined routine for decades, leaving little room for new things. Our volunteers had to adapt to his schedule and learning methods.” The training lasted two months, during which Abdullah and the other learners were taught the basics of operating a smartphone. They also learnt how to pay bills and access govt e-services. With over two million citizens benefiting from the initiative, CM Pinarayi Vijayan is ready to declare Kerala a fully digi-literate state on Aug 21.
