New Chapter in Bharat Begins
In a quiet village in rural Karnataka, five young friends huddle below the sprawling banyan tree wide eyed with wonder at the glow of a tablet. What might seem like an ordinary sight in a metropolitan school is a scene of silent transformation in the heart of Bharat. The internet is here — not just as a public utility, but as a storyteller, a teacher, and a window to a thousand possibilities. It’s not just technology but a revolution at work.
Today, India moves quickly toward a digital future. And while the dust of the world rages outside, applauding the glories of fibre-optic cables adorning urban skyscrapers and metro cities, the real magic is being spun within the fields, villages, and small towns where Digital India, PM-WANI, and PM eVidya are changing destinies — especially for the young learners of this nation.
On one of my trips to a village in Shivamogga district of Karnataka, a particular image stayed with me: that of children gathered under a tree, connecting to an internet hotspot for their online classes. Behind this is a real force: PM-WANI (Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface), a grand scheme under Digital India.
What is PM-WANI, and Why It Matters?
Imagine a village school where eight students share two textbooks. Now imagine the same school with a public Wi-Fi hotspot letting every child get access to digital libraries, educational videos, virtual museums, and interactive learning apps. Which one do you think is better? This is what PM-WANI promises.
Launched in December 2020, PM-WANI is a project under Digital India mission to democratize access to the Internet through public Wi-Fi hotspots at common places like railway stations, village squares, markets, and even under trees. Ordinary spaces have now turned into digital classrooms.
Why is it a revolution?
- First of all, it brings affordable, high-speed Internet where there is none.
- Second, it removes both the geographical and the economic barriers to knowledge.
- Third, it empowers children and communities by making digital tools accessible.
Where PM-WANI brings the pipes, PM eVidya brings the water — rich, culturally relevant educational content for these digital pipelines.
PM eVidya: India’s Learning Lifeline
This program was launched in 2020, in light of the closure of schools due to the pandemic. With PM eVidya, no child was left behind in learning- no matter where they live.
It is a complete program integrating the three modes: digital, radio, and television education, while providing various resources including:
- Diksha platform- interactive e-content and learning tools
- Swayam Prabha – 34 DTH channels dedicated for education programming
- Radio School – lessons broadcast in various languages through All India Radio.
The strength of PM eVidya is in its multi-mode access so that either the child has a smartphone, a television, or even just a simple radio. There are lessons and stories with which they can easily access to satisfy their learning curiosity.
Already, this effort has touched more than 12 crore students across our country and opened the door completely to the avenue of knowledge and possibilities.
The stories that technology makes possible are more inspiring to me than the technology itself. For example, in Jharkhand, I read about a girl named Rekha who attended a virtual science class for the very first time in her life, thanks to a PM-WANI hotspot near to where she lives. Another example is of children who were all gathered together in a house in Kerala to watch eVidya lessons while their parents looked on with doting awe. And in a very remote corner of Ladakh, a group of children downloaded e-books about space exploration, thereby dreaming of becoming astronauts someday. Such things are not one-off events. They are going to make quite a different normal.
A recent government report states that so far, more than 2 lakh public hot spots have been registered under PM-WANI, and this number is increasing rapidly. Each of these is a gateway to knowledge for the children of Bharat.
Why Does This Matter for Children’s Literature?
As a children’s author and educator, I have realized the importance of growing with the times in terms of children’s literature. This digital revolution is not confined to cities; neither should be the stories in children’s literature. These should reflect both the old and the familiar, and the new, exciting transformations shaping their world. Kids should get the idea that technology belongs to them, that their dreams are possible.
When kids read stories where characters, much like them, traverse through digital terrains, it creates normalcy around progress. I hope to achieve this through Little Dreamers of Bharat, by capturing this changing Bharat – where a farmer’s daughter learns coding under a banyan tree, where a young boy watches his grandmother weave patterns he then animates on a tablet. Evolving storytelling must mirror the world in which children are growing up.
The Cultural Layer: Keeping Bharat at the Heart
What makes this digital revolution genuinely Indian is how it merges technology with tradition. In many ways, villages of Bharat are not abandoning their roots but have digitized them.
Diksha and Swayam Prabha offer online lessons on folk music, classical dances, ancient crafts, and regional history. What earlier survived only through oral tradition now sees recorded survival in cloud libraries. Digital India indeed does not erase Bharat’s soul; it preserves it in pixels!
In Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, a government school set up a PM-WANI hotspot and supplemented it with online storytelling sessions in Awadhi and Hindi, introducing the children in the area to regional poetry and folk tales through smartphones. Now that’s an awesome model of culture-rooted digital literacy to replicate.
From Possible to Powerful
- India boasts over 1.2 billion mobile connections – and now, thanks to PM-WANI, those connections are reaching beyond city limits.
- Over 12 crore students accessed digital lessons via PM eVidya.
- Rural children, once excluded from digital conversations, are now coding, creating, and collaborating.
Children who walked several miles each day to attend school can now learn coding under trees. Girls who never ventured beyond their village now participate in a science fair via the virtual medium. Villages that had no electricity now stream digital stories.
In Tamil Nadu, there is this project called “E-Library on Wheels”, which is connecting PM-WANI networks with village libraries and enabling children to enjoy access to free e-book, virtual field trips, and video workshops on local crafts and traditions. Such stories prove how this revolution is real. What more can one ask to point out the highest degree of a revolution?
What Else Needs to Be Done
Great strides have been made. Yet challenges still exist. We need:
- More local-language resources for children;
- More digital literacy of parents and teachers;
- Reliable power infrastructure to complement digital initiatives;
- Stories that help reflect this new Bharat in every library and classroom.
Digital infrastructure should be matched with social infrastructure-awareness campaigns, community centres with internet access, and culturally rich, age-appropriate digital libraries.
The government has initiated Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in schools to integrate digital tools in the government schools, but sustained local engagement would be significant for effective results.
Join the Movement
As a nation, we are penning a fresh chapter — in which technology is owned by each child, whether she is in Delhi or Doddaballapura. And, to finish writing this chapter, we need the readers, teachers, authors, parents, and policymakers to:
- Promote and create digital content that is local and culturally embedded.
- Help children view technology as a tool, not a toy.
- Record and share success stories from towns and villages.
- Help public Wi-Fi and digital learning programs thrive.
Let’s bridge the digital divide not just with devices and networks, but stories, confidence, and culturally rooted narratives.
The Story is Just Beginning
We often say children are the future. But in Bharat, the future is already sitting under banyan trees watching glowing screens and dreaming big. Once again, thanks to Digital India, PM-WANI, and PM eVidya; the budding generations—their learning, growing, and connecting abilities—now seem so possible compared to how things were ten years ago.
As a writer, I find myself in the fortunate position of bearing witness to this revolution and writing about it. We must nurture this movement, amplify its voices, and ensure that every child — whether in bustling Bengaluru or remote Bastar — feels part of India’s digital, cultural, and literary renaissance.
That’s the kind of magic story worth telling.
