Common Services Centre or CSC is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India. The CSCs are access points for the delivery of various electronic services to villages in India, hence contributing to a financially and digitally empowered and inclusive society.
For rural India, CSCs are more than just service delivery points. They act as change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihood. CSCs are enablers of community participation and group action for bringing in social change through a bottom-up approach with a key focus on the rural citizens
About Common Service Centre 2.0
Common Service Centre 2.0 is based on the assessment of the original CSC scheme. The government launched the CSC 2.0 scheme in 2015 in order to expand the outreach of CSCs to all Gram Panchayats spanning across the country
Under CSC 2.0 scheme, at least one CSC will be set up in each of the 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats across the country by 2019. These Common Service Centres will be functioning under the existing scheme will also be strengthened and integrated with the additional 1.5 lakh CSCs across the country
It is developed as a service or transaction-oriented model with a large range of bouquets of services made available at the CSCs for delivering to the citizens.
Common Service Centres are like kiosk or delivery outlets at the ADC and Gram Panchayat village level by which the services by the Government of India are being delivered to the citizens along with B2C services
Purpose and objectives of the scheme
The objectives of developing the Common Service Centre 2.0 scheme are listed below:
- To provide non-discriminatory access to e-services for rural citizens by making CSCs complete service delivery centres, using the infrastructure already created in terms of other Mission Mode Projects
- The expansion of self-sufficient and self-sustaining CSC network till the Gram Panchayat level, that is, 2.5 lakh CSCs, hence at least one CSC will be installed per Gram Panchayat
- For empowering district e-Governance Society or DeGS under the administration of the district for implementation
- Strengthening and creating the institutional framework for the rollout and project management, therefore, supporting the District and State administrative machinery and handholding of VLEs through the local language help desk support
- The consolidation and enablement of online services under a single technology platform, hence making the service delivery at CSCs accountable, efficient, transparent and traceable, with a technology-driven relationship between all stakeholders
- For providing a centralised technological platform for delivery of various services in a transparent manner to the citizens living in rural areas of the country
- Amplifying the sustainability of VLEs by sharing maximum commission earned through the delivery of e-services and encouraging women to join as VLEs
Eligibility criteria
The eligibility criteria for enrolling in the Common Service Centre 2.0 are stated below:
- The applicant should be a youth from the rural areas and above 18 years of age
- The applicant should have passed the 10th level examination from a recognised board as a minimum level of educational qualification
- Knowledge of basic computer skills would be beneficial
- The applicant should be motivated to be the driver of change in society and disperse his or her duties with complete dedication
- The applicant should have a valid Virtual ID and PAN
