PM eVIDYA is India’s national digital education scheme, launched in May 2020 to keep classes running during the COVID lockdown. It brings together DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha TV channels, radio broadcasts and content for students with disabilities. Today it reaches close to 25 crore school going children across the country. SWAYAM Prabha alone runs close to 200 DTH channels, up from just 12 in 2020, and DIKSHA has crossed 2.25 crore registered users.
Summary
- PM eVIDYA launched in May 2020, as part of the government’s COVID relief package, bringing DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha, radio broadcasting and disability-focused content under one scheme called one nation, one digital education infrastructure.
- The scheme rests on six pillars: DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha, radio and podcasts, disability-focused content, and coaching for competitive exams like JEE and NEET through SATHEE and IITPAL.
- SWAYAM Prabha has grown from 12 channels to close to 200 since the 2022-23 Union Budget. DIKSHA has crossed 2.25 crore registered users, and SWAYAM has logged 5.80 crore cumulative enrolments.
- A UNESCO review found only 19% of Indian schools have internet access. An NCERT survey found unreliable electricity and missing devices are still common barriers.
- PM eVIDYA outlasted the pandemic emergency that created it. It became permanent public infrastructure, and in 2022 it won UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for ICT in education.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
That age old proverb is exactly why PM eVIDYA exists. PM eVIDYA stands for Pradhan Mantri e-Vidya. The Ministry of Education launched it in May 2020 to keep classrooms running through the pandemic, and it has since grown into a permanent digital infrastructure built around DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha TV channels, educational radio and dedicated content for children with disabilities. It now reaches close to 25 crore school going children across the country.
What is PM eVIDYA and when was it launched?
The announcement came on 17 May 2020, as part of the fifth tranche of the government’s COVID economic relief package. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rolled PM eVIDYA out alongside cash transfers for farmers and daily wage workers.
Three months later, on 7 August 2020, the emergency measure became permanent under a new tagline, one nation, one digital education infrastructure.
The same announcement also launched Manodarpan, a psychosocial support initiative for students, teachers and families during the lockdown. It started life on the same day. Today it runs as its own mental health programme under the Ministry of Education, apart from PM eVIDYA’s six core pillars.
One nation, one digital education infrastructure meant no single app and no single channel. The scheme ran across television, radio and mobile apps at the same time. A student with no laptop could tune in to a DTH channel and if there is a power cut before the evening broadcast, the same lesson aired again on the radio the next morning. PM eVIDYA was built for the way Indian homes actually work.
Key Components of the PM eVIDYA initiative
PM eVIDYA rests on six pillars, and each one solves for a different gap. Some students have a smartphone and steady internet connection; others only have a television at home and a fair number have neither. The six pillars are built to address all of them.
- DIKSHA, the national digital content portal for schools
- SWAYAM, the free online course platform for higher and school education
- SWAYAM Prabha, the network of educational DTH TV channels
- Extensive use of radio, community radio and podcasts
- Special e-content for Children with Special Needs, known as CWSN
- Online coaching for competitive exams, including SATHEE and IITPAL
One Class, One Channel: DTH-based learning
The idea behind One Class, One Channel is simple enough. Each class gets its own dedicated slot on its own channel, so a Class 6 student and a Class 11 student are never fighting over the same screen time.
This runs on SWAYAM Prabha. It had just 3 channels when it launched in May 2020. The 2022-23 Union Budget pushed that number past the original 12, and today it sits at close to 200, all free to watch on DD Free Dish, Dish TV and the Jio TV app. States and boards have their own channels now. Uttar Pradesh holds 5 channels. CBSE uses its own, CBSE-15, for revision videos and teacher training. The newest addition, from December 2024, is a channel dedicated to Indian Sign Language, for hearing impaired students, their teachers and interpreters.
SWAYAM Prabha and digital content access
SWAYAM Prabha plays prerecorded lessons on a fixed schedule. SWAYAM is a full course a student enrols in and works through at their own pace, run with IIT Madras and ten national coordinating bodies including NPTEL, UGC and NCERT. The platform has over 4,400 courses, and as of January 2026, cumulative enrolments have crossed 5.80 crore, with more than 52 lakh certifications handed out.
Every course on SWAYAM is free to take. Only the final proctored exam for an official certificate carries a fee, and universities that follow UGC’s 2021 credit framework can let students transfer up to 40% of a semester’s coursework through SWAYAM. That can shave real time off finishing a degree while working a job.
How PM eVIDYA supports students With disabilities
It is easier for a scheme built around television and online video to forget the students who cannot see the screen or hear the audio. PM eVIDYA has made some real efforts here, even if the coverage is still patchy.
DIKSHA hosts content in the DAISY format for visually impaired learners, along with text to speech tools and Indian Sign Language videos. NIOS has built more than 270 ISL videos covering seven secondary subjects and yoga, available on YouTube and on DVDs for students without reliable streaming.
Beyond DIKSHA and NIOS, there is Barkha, a reading series of 40 multilingual story booklets, built around universal learning principles. It uses tactile visuals, high contrast illustrations and sign language introductions, so a child with a visual, cognitive or motor difference can use the very same first reading lesson as everyone else.
How PM eVIDYA reaches students without internet access
A large share of Indian households, especially in rural areas, still do not have dependable internet. So the scheme leans on formats that do not need one at all.
It starts with television and radio. Doordarshan and All India Radio carry curriculum based classes, board exam preparation and JEE or NEET guidance, in scheduled morning and afternoon slots when students and their families are home. Nearly 300 community radio stations joined in at launch, since a single national broadcast could not reach every village on its own. NIOS built on that base with Mukta Vidya Vani, a live educational web radio with two way contact sessions, also rebroadcast on Radio Vahini FM for listeners who are not online at all. CBSE runs something similar for older students, a podcast called Shiksha Vani, with over 400 curriculum aligned audio lessons for Classes 9 to 12.
None of this needs a smartphone or a data connection, just a radio set sitting in the house. For a child in a village with no fibre line anywhere close, this is not a backup plan, it is how school happens.
Impact of PM eVIDYA on learning continuity in India
DIKSHA had crossed 2.25 crore registered users by the middle of 2026, logging more than 575 crore learning sessions in total. SWAYAM’s enrolments sit at 5.80 crore. SATHEE, the competitive exam platform run with IIT Kanpur, gives students free access to over 80,000 practice questions and mock tests curated by IIT and AIIMS faculty, through both a website and seven dedicated DTH channels.
These numbers trace back to the pandemic, when PM eVIDYA kept nearly 25 crore school children connected to some form of learning while classrooms stayed shut. For students who could not afford a private tutor or a paid app, that mattered a lot. A child who misses a year of school often just doesn’t come back.
The scheme did not stop once the emergency ended. It became permanent public infrastructure, and in 2022 it won UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the use of ICT in education.
Challenges and gaps in reaching every child
A UNESCO review found that only 19% of Indian schools had internet access. That alone keeps DIKSHA’s best content, the simulations, the virtual labs, out of most classrooms. A separate NCERT survey found that 28% of stakeholders named unreliable electricity as a hurdle, and 27% said students simply had no smartphone or laptop to watch on.
The gap isn’t just about schools. Poor families have far less internet than rich ones, and women in India are far less likely to be online than men. A DTH channel might get a screen into the house, but it can’t fix a girl not knowing the language well enough, not feeling confident enough, or simply having too much housework and a younger sibling to watch.
There’s another problem too. Once the broadcast is over, there’s no one left to ask a question to. A recorded lecture can’t answer a question and not every parent has time to sit and explain a tricky maths problem. A child still needs a teacher nearby, someone who can actually help when the lesson doesn’t make sense.
How Smile Foundation supports digital and remote learning access
Smile Foundation works in that gap. Through Mission Education, it runs learning centres, science clubs and teacher training in government schools across 27 states, reaching over 160,000 children. Its Shiksha Na Ruke initiative does more too, handing out smartphones and tablets to students who can’t afford them, curating radio and TV content, and sending teachers door to door in areas where even a shared screen is hard to find. There’s also a helpline for one-on-one mentoring, for children who start falling behind.
You can support a child’s access to digital learning, or volunteer your time with Smile Foundation’s education programmes.
FAQs
- What is PM eVIDYA and why was it launched?
PM eVIDYA is India’s umbrella digital education scheme, launched by the Ministry of Education on 17 May 2020 to keep learning going during the COVID-19 lockdown. It later became a permanent programme built on the principle of one nation, one digital education infrastructure.
- What are the main components of the PM eVIDYA initiative?
PM eVIDYA rests on six pillars: DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha DTH channels, radio and podcasts, special content for children with disabilities, and online coaching for competitive exams through platforms like SATHEE.
- How does the One Class One Channel concept work under PM eVIDYA?
Each school grade is assigned its own dedicated television channel under SWAYAM Prabha, so students of different ages are not competing for the same broadcast slot. This runs across about 200 free DTH channels available through DD Free Dish and other platforms, up from the 12 the scheme started with in 2020.
- What is SWAYAM Prabha and how is it linked to PM eVIDYA?
SWAYAM Prabha is the group of educational DTH TV channels that forms one of PM eVIDYA’s six pillars. It broadcasts curriculum based lessons around the clock and is aimed especially at students without reliable internet access.
- Does PM eVIDYA support students with disabilities?
Yes. DIKSHA offers DAISY format audiobooks, text to speech tools and Indian Sign Language videos, while NIOS has produced over 270 ISL videos. The Barkha reading series adds 40 multilingual booklets built around universal design principles.
- How does PM eVIDYA reach students without internet access?
Students without internet can rely on SWAYAM Prabha’s DTH channels, Doordarshan and All India Radio broadcasts, and NIOS’s Mukta Vidya Vani web radio, which is also rebroadcast on FM for offline listeners.
- What impact has PM eVIDYA had on learning continuity in India?
DIKSHA has crossed 2.25 crore registered users and SWAYAM has recorded 5.80 crore cumulative enrolments as of 2026. During the pandemic, the scheme kept close to 25 crore school children connected to some form of learning, and it later won a UNESCO prize for its use of ICT in education.
- What are the main challenges limiting PM eVIDYA’s reach?
A UNESCO review found only 19% of Indian schools have internet access, and an NCERT survey found unreliable electricity and missing devices were common barriers. Gaps in income and gender still shape who actually gets online, and broadcast content cannot replace a teacher answering a student’s question in real time.
- How does Smile Foundation support digital learning access for underserved children?
Smile Foundation’s Mission Education programme reaches over 160,000 children across 27 states with STEM labs and teacher training, while its Shiksha Na Ruke initiative provides smartphones, tablets and door to door teaching support to children who would otherwise be left out of digital learning.
