Chhattisgarh includes third gender in its ambitious free mobile scheme

People belonging to the third gender will also be eligible to get free smartphones under a scheme launched by the Chhattisgarh government.

The state government has launched an ambitious scheme called Sanchar Kranti Yojana (SKY) in an attempt to bridge the digital divide. A campaign has been started at the district and block levels to distribute free smartphones to beneficiaries.

Besides 460,000 students of various colleges across the state, 4 million women staying in the rural areas and around 500,000 families living below poverty line in urban areas, people belonging to the third gender will also be eligible for the scheme.

“People belonging to third gender will also be eligible for the SKY,” Chief Minister Raman Singh announced while launching the programme in the Durg district. "When the government is taking care of every section of the society, why third gender shall be deprived," he added.

According to the state’s social welfare department, the identified number of the third gender in Chhattisgarh is below 5,000. The number is expected to go up, as many belonging to the section have not yet come forward.

Under the scheme, the state government aims to distribute 5 million smartphones for free. A provision of Rs 5.2 billion has been made in the 2018-19 budgetary outlay for the scheme.

Singh said the smartphones that would be distributed under the scheme will have all the features similar to the handsets that he and his cabinet colleagues were using.