As senior citizens feel digitally isolated, The Statesman has been trying to connect them with the rest of the world through its ‘Digital Education’ programme. The fifteenth event in The Statesman’s series of such programmes aimed at making senior citizens digitally literate was held at Muktadhara, Banga Sanskriti Bhavan, Gole Market, on Saturday.

The event was organised in collaboration with the Bengal Association and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. A number of senior citizens enthusiastically participated in the digital literacy programme where they learnt about different online methods of transaction.

Praising the The Statesman’s initiative, Tapan Sen Gupta, General Secretary of Bengal Association, said, “I am really happy as The Statesman has come forward to help senior citizens by teaching them the nitty-gritties of online payments. I want this initiative to be continued in other parts of the Capital so that other elderly people also get its benefit.”

The programme was conducted by experts of The Statesman, who were trained by CSC (Common Services Centres) e-Governance Services India Limited, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India.

During the interactive session, experts gave practical demonstrations of using various digital modes of transactions like e-wallet, unified payment interface (UPI), use of credit and debit cards in point-of-sale machines among various internet-based transaction systems. The elderly also asked interesting questions with the experts answering all their queries to the satisfaction of the senior citizens.

One of the participants, Moiyetree Mitra (76), a daily reader of The Statesman, said, “I read about The Statesman’s digital education programme every weekend and I was thinking when will I get the chance to learn about online mode of transactions. Today was the day,” she said with a smile.

Another senior citizen, Surit Mukhopadhayay (78), who is an artist, said, “This type of orientation programme is very essential for aged people like me. Since this newspaper has also provided a hard copy of stepwise methods to use different modes of online transactions, I will practice the same at home and try to learn all these things.”

Fresh food packets were served to the senior citizens at the end of the programme, which was sponsored by ‘Just Bengali’ (www.justbengali.com), a community-based e-portal, delivering Bengali products like sweets, exotic fruits, vegetables, chicken, mutton and fish delicacies among others.