DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES IN
Sustainable Access in Rural India
(SARI)
ICT Initiatives of Rajasthan Government
E-Sringla: Info Kiosks in South India
Information Village Research Project
(MSSRF)
Community Radio – Deccan Development Society
Foundation of Occupational Development
(FOOD India)
Internet Kiosks for Delhi Slums
GIS for Local Level Development Planning
GIS-Based Decision Support System
IT-based Networks for Access to
Information
S&T Applied to Rural Transformation
(START)
S&T Entrepreneurship Parks (STEPS) and
Technology Business Incubators (TBIS)
One Village One Computer (1V1C)
Computers in Karnataka Schools
Developed
indigenously by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science and
technologists of Encore Software, a private enterprise, the Simputer (Simple
Computer) is a low-cost, portable alternative to personal computers. It is
pegged as the first of its kind in the world as it promises to ensure that
illiteracy is no longer a barrier to handling a computer. It permits simple and
natural, user-friendly interfaces based on sight, touch and audio so one need
not know English in order to operate it.
Problems
of access to telecommunications in the developing world have often paled into
insignificance beside those of gaining access to a working computer capable of
connecting to the Internet. For a vast mass of the rural poor for whom a
computer is probably as remote an option as a trip to the moon, the Simputer
can well become the power button to prosperity. Reports indicate that the
worldwide demand for it has already crossed the one million mark and the
reasons are not far to seek.
Simple, portable and affordable
Expected
to be priced at less than 200 US dollars per piece, the palm top will be quite
affordable. It is aimed to be a shared computing resource for a local community
of users - such as the village administrative committee or a kiosk or a
shopkeeper. The farmer and the techie can use it alike. It is compatible with
everyday PC, helps one check the e-mail, browse the Net for information and
keep accounts. What makes it different from other hand-held devices is its
smart card reader that enables it to be personalized and used on an individual
basis.
Knowledge
is undeniably synonymous with power and the advent of Internet has made access
to knowledge an important means to power- be it social, economic or political.
Little wonder then that the Internet has prompted a change in development
thinking and many donor and multilateral lending organisations are radically
reshaping their policies for the new information age.
There
is no denying then, that developing countries have a lot to gain from the
Internet. It can allow businesses to sell goods and services directly to
customers across national boundaries and facilitate the delivery of basic
services, such as health care and education that have been denied to millions.
The Simputer with its low cost technology and access to Internet, is definitely
a step towards the realization of this need. In a sense, the Simputer, which
will be ready for commercial produce by August this year, sets at rest to some
degree, fears of the growing digital divide expressed in many quarters.
The digital divide
Figures
indicate that Internet users still account for only five per cent of the
world's population. Furthermore, 85 percent of all Internet users live in
developed countries where ninety percent of all Internet hosts are located. All
this despite the fact that the number of Internet Web users in Africa, Latin
America and the Caribbean and Eastern and Central Europe is expected to tide
over the 25 million mark this year. In the Asia-Pacific region, Internet growth
is projected to be even more - 29.3 million.
The
rigmarole of figures and statistics apart, the Simputer points to another
welcome development where solutions to access to IT and Internet can come from
a developing nation.
The
history of development assistance is replete with failed initiatives to
transfer technologies to developing countries. There are any numbers of
instances where shipments of generously doled out `imported' technology, be it
television transmitters, turbines or tractors or even rail coaches, brought in
to transform the developing societies have gathered dust in the communities
they were meant to benefit. The reasons are obvious and justifiable. Such
transfer of technology has seldom been accompanied by proper training of
personnel or people in the communities they have been implanted in. The want of
adequate spare parts for their upkeep has been another reason. The most
important factor however, has clearly been the lack of feeling of ownership and
involvement among the end beneficiaries.
The
Simputer, an indigenous product of a country that has one of the greatest
potential to use the Internet to tackle problems of poverty and illiteracy,
steers clear of such inherent limitations.
Futhermore,
unlike other technology sharing ventures that are purely driven by profit, the
Simputer is driven by the collaborative approach whereby all of the technology
is freely available to anybody. Accordingly, a trust has been set up to take
the Simputer to the world. Its hardware and software specifications can already
be downloaded free from www.simputer.org.
The
trust has liberally borrowed its philosophy from the concept of "free
software" propounded by a worldwide group of software developers. The
group has created a new paradigm for the development and deployment of such
popular software as Linux and also benefited from pioneering work done by the
Free Software Foundation.
Simputer and education
The
potential of using the Simputer to tackle illiteracy is immense specially since
it is the young people who have the aptitude and the enthusiasm to push further
advances in new communication technologies.The developing countries have a high
population of young people. And yet, little or no access to education and
literacy has crippled the potential advantages of this adaptable and
potentially productive segment of population.
Limited
use of English has acted as another constraint. Despite the increasing
multilingual nature of the Net, the predominance of English has made it a
barrier to many communities and countries. With its language sensitive
interface and easy access to the Internet, the Simputer may well enable
developing countries educate their young populations. There is already talk of
rural or remote schools being able to access resources and information on the
web at a very low cost. It can also leverage the pervasiveness of telephone
lines and enable users to enjoy a new level of services from their net service
providers.
Of
course, the Simputer is not the end solution. Nor is it the only solution.
There are other efforts underway as well such as the MIS Media Lab Research
scientists work on developing a similar gadget costing half of what the
Simputer would. What is heartening then, is not just that solutions to the
digital divide are here, but that they are being found in the developing world.
Source:
www.learningchannel.org
Project Contact Details:
Dr. Swami Manohar (Trustee)
& Dr. Vijay Chandru (Trustee)
Computer Science &
Automation Management Studies
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560 012
Tel: (80) 3092648 Fax: (80)
3602911
www.simputer.org , simputer@csa.iisc.ernet.in
PicoPeta:
Vivek
K S (ksvivek@picopeta.com), Ph: +91-80-3618184
PicoPeta Simputers Pvt. Ltd.,
http://www.picopeta.com
SUSTAINABLE ACCESS IN RURAL INDIA (SARI)
Pathinettangudi
some 35 km from Madurai, which presents the look of just another
underprivileged village. However, a silent IT revolution is brewing in the tiny
hamlet where the illiterate farm workers use webcams, voice mail and e-mail
regularly.
Similar
is the communication technology spread in at least 30 other villages around
Pathinettangudi, paving the way for the caste-conscious Melur to become the
first cyber taluk in the country— courtesy the Sustainable Access in Rural
Internet (SARI) project.
Villagers
no longer run from pillar to post to get caste, birth and death certificates
here. They simply download the application online and forward it through e-mail
to the tahsildhar. The acknowledgement is received within hours and the
certificate issued in a week.
``Earlier,
we had to shell out at least Rs. 250 to get an income certificate or old age
pension. Now, the cost is only Rs. 29, which includes a printout of the e-mail
acknowledgement from the tahsildhar,'' says 70-year-old Mondi of Pathinettangudi.
`Public
Access Internet Kiosks' have been established in 30 villages under the SARI
project in association with the ``n-logue''. This
government-public-private-institution partnership programme also involves the
IIT Chennai, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard
University.
Even
as a good number of youth in Melur taluk are employed in the Middle East, their
dear ones are no longer scared of ISD bills. It's just Rs. 25 an hour to see
their wards live on screen through the interactive webcam. This, of course,
besides the voice mail, chatting and e-mail.
That
is not all. The agricultural labourers get their queries clarified online as
well, thanks to the Madurai Agriculture College and the Research Institute of
the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University which is providing free counselling. The
villagers also get close-up colour pictures of their eyes examined by
specialists in the Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai and fix up appointments for
surgeries.
``We
are planning to provide online train, air and bus ticket booking. A free
consultancy on veterinary sciences is also on the anvil,'' says S. Prem Anand,
deputy manager of the ``n-logue'', who has been doing background work based at
Melur for nearly two years now.
The
man behind this achievement is Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the IIT Chennai, who
developed the Wireless and Local Loop (WLL)-based Chordless Digitally Enhanced
Telephony, says Mr. Anand.
The
constant support and review of the SARI project by the Collector, S.
Ramachandran, instils confidence in the villagers.
The
technology provides highspeed Internet wireless access to more than 1,000
systems within a radius of 25 km radius. The kiosks have been established by
individuals who took the risk of investing Rs. 50,000 in computer and
multi-media and other accessories. Now the owners, who have installed the
user-friendly Tamil softwares `Padhami', `Padhakkam' and `Minnal', make an
average income of Rs. 2,500 a month and the patronage is growing steadily. As
of now, a chunk of villagers in these 30 villages have e-mail identities, which
they use for seeking assistance from the Government under various schemes. The
SARI project has evoked excellent response from the Government and the public.
The
technology is expected to take root all over the State soon, claim officials
Source: A village
where IT is a way of life
By
S. Vijay Kumar
The
Hindu, Monday, Apr 22, 2002
Project Contact:
The Telecommunications and
Computer Networks Group
Departments of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering
IIT-Madras, Chennai 600036
Tel/Fax: (044) 235-2120
Just
think of the potential of a software that allows users to create an interactive
water-map of the village. This means, villagers would be better equipped to
cope with drought. Thanks to IT (information technology).
Called
Jal-Chitra, this software has been developed by Jaipur's Ajit Foundation, in
close collaboration with the Barefoot College of Tilonia. Says Ajit Foundation's
Vikram Vyas: "The advent of Personal Computer together with the
development and expansion of Internet has provided us with a unique opportunity
to bring the tools of scientific modelling and computation to rural
development."
One
"immediate area" where such tools can make a tangible contribution,
he argues, is in the process of drought-proofing the villages lying in the arid
and semi-arid regions of the developing world.
How
is this done? An estimate of the monthly water demand and the monthly water
availability from various sources is the starting point. Then comes the
question of allocation of available water.
Likewise,
a water-budget can be created. Solutions can range from water conservation, to
the development of new water sources or water storage systems, where possible.
Or even getting in water from external sources. Villagers need to balance
between underground water and rainwater harvesting systems.
Once
done, Jal-Chitra software aims at helping villagers to take advantage of
information and communication technologies to exercise their right to manage
their own water sources.
Jal-Chitra
basically creates an interactive water-map of the village enables the community
to keep records of the amount of water available from each water source,can
record water quality testing, lists maintenance work done and required,
estimates water demand, generates future monthly water budgets (based on past
records), and shows the amount of community need met through rainwater
harvesting systems.
In
an interview with Vikram Vyas says, “I think Jal-Chitra can be used in any
village which is in the arid or semi arid region of developing world. The
greatest potential is that it will enable local democratic institutions, like panchayats
(local village councils in India), to make more informed decisions regarding
their own water sources. Jal-Chitra has potentialities of many further
developments including use of satellite photographs and more sophisticated
in-build models, perhaps based on neural-nets. I am looking for other people,
software developers, to help me with this. I have been away from physics for
too long and would like to return to it and spend most of my professional time
teaching and doing research in physics. So further development of Jal-Chitra has
to become a collaborative effort. Also, I am waiting for the response from the
actual users.” He thinks that there is a need for the Hindi version of the
users manual and software of Jal Chitra along with its incorporation in formal
and informal educational systems.
Source:
Infochangeindia Features / Frederick Noronha/Third World Network Features
Project Contact:
Vikram Vyas,
The Ajit Foundation,
396 Vasundhara Colony,
Tonk Road,
Jaipur 302 018
Email: visquare@satyam.net.in
In
Visakhapatnam, the homeport of the Indian navy’s eastern fleet, a different
kind of facility has been making waves. Saukaryam has had the city on the move,
perfecting home delivery of civic services and doing away with agonising queues
and hungry middlemen. And, this gateway has taken just two years to transform
the lives of the city’s residents.
When
Sanjay Jaju took over as Visakhapatnam’s municipal commissioner in October
2000, there were the usual complaints -- long queues, an endless wait for birth
certificates, building plans or, simply, to lodge a complaint. The civic
service delivery system was dismal, no different from those elsewhere in the
country.
In
a bid to solve the problem, the 34-year-old IAS official, an M Tech from
Bhopal’s Barkatullah University, turned to technology and came up with
Saukaryam. The facility became operational in January 2001.
Today,
Saukaryam is the pride of the city -- a model for e-governance since it
guarantees instant delivery of civic services. It has even attracted
international acclaim, winning a UNDP award and a nomination for the Stockholm
Challenge.
Today,
www.saukaryam.org registers two lakh hits a year. People can settle their bills
online, check the status of building and water supply plans, receive direct
information about births and deaths, track garbage clearance, even scan tender
notices.
Saukaryam
delivers online, a public-private venture created through broadband leased
circuits. Banks, where payments to the corporation can be made, have also been
linked to the metro area network.
But
Jaju knows this is just the beginning. He has moved to west Godavari as its
collector and has donated the $20,000 cash component of the UNDP award to the
Saukaryam Foundation, created to take the project to other areas.
In
west Godavari, he is busy with e-Seva, Saukaryam’s cousin. “I had planned the
project for some time. One of the first things I did after taking charge in
Visakhapatnam was to turn my dream into a reality,” says Jaju.
Source: www.indev.org,
February 19, 2003
Project Contact:
Email: sjaju1@rediffmail.com
The
Chief Minister, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, today formally launched Lokmitra Yojna,
popularly known as e-governance scheme, at a village of the district. He
dedicated the scheme to the people at a function held at Tounidevi this
morning.
He
also inaugurated a fully computerised railway booking counter at the main bus
stand here. People of the district will be able to get their seats reserved
from here from today onward.
This
office has been connected with New Delhi through a computer network and the
reservation of seats and their status will be made available within minutes,
according to official sources.
Professor
Dhumal sent a message from the Tounidevi information centre to Hamirpur through
Internet which was immediately received. Ms Anuradha Thakur, Chairperson of the
Lokmitra Society, gave details of the scheme to the Chief Minister and other
participants.
This
yojna is the Himachal version of the Gyandoot Pilot Project already going on in
Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh. Under the Nabard sponsored project, 25
information centres have been opened in various parts of the district.
People
of the district, especially those living in interiors, will be able to send
their complaints by paying a nominal fee to the owner of the centre. The person
managing the centre will send the complaint to the district headquarters. The
reply will be given to the complainant within one week.
Through
this yojna, market rates of vegetables, fruits and other items will also be
made available at all information centres. Moreover, people will also be able
to send and receive information regarding their land records, income
certificates, caste certificates and other official documents.
The
National Informatics Centre of the state has supplied necessary software and
hardware to the owners of the centres and they have also been trained to
operate computers.
Two
main servers and four terminals have been set up in the office of the Deputy
Commissioner, nodal agency in the project. Daily mail coming from various
information centres will be screened and then sent to respective offices. The
reply received will again be sent through Internet to the owners of the centres
concerned.
Prof
Dhumal said Hamirpur was the first district in the state to have this facility.
More centres would be opened in the district on the basis of the reports of the
success of the scheme, he said.
He
said efforts would also be made to make the state a leader in the field of
info-technology network. He said info-tech parks were being opened in the state
where hardware and software would be prepared by the youth of state.
Mr
Suresh Chandel, MP, Ms Urmila Thakur, Parliamentary Secretary and other BJP
leaders and senior officers were also present on the occasion.
Source: The Tribune,
May 9, 2001
Project Contact:
National
Informatics Centre
Himachal
Pradesh state Unit,
H.P.
Secretariat, SHIMLA-171002.
Ph.
91-177-224045
Email:
sio@hp.nic.in
ICT INITIATIVES OF RAJASTHAN
GOVT
Vikas Darpan – GIS based
Planning & Decision Support System covers 40000 Tehsils on about 200
demograph and socio-economic indicators.
Services available:
Payment of electricity / water
bills
Applications for new
electricity / water connections
Payment of house tax
Issue of birth/death
certificate
Application for trade licenses
and payment of relevant fees
Reservation of bus tickets
ATMs of ICICI Bank
Contact:
Ravi Mathur, Secretary IT,
Rajasthan Govt
mathurravi@rajasthan.gov.in
Two
decades ago, the village of Ramanagaram was the setting for the Bollywood
action classic "Sholay" and the British Raj epic, "A Passage to
India".
Today,
it is back in the news but the theme has changed from a feudal vendetta and
colonial rule to the power of computer networks to transform centuries-old
habits of keeping land records.
Karnataka,
which is championing the process to rebut criticism that its software boom is
only for thee rich, now plans to guide the rest of India in a plan which is
aimed at fighting corruption and boosting transparency.
"It
is all low-cost," says Rajeev Chawla, a senior state revenue department
official who is spearheading the e-governance initiative.
Amid
the mango and coconut groves of Ramanagaram, farmers walk into a state-run
" Bhoo Dhakilegala Malige", or land-record shop, and buy certified
printouts of land records which help them verify or prove land ownership or
tenancy.
In
the process, they are nearly free from the whims, inefficiency and corruption
associated with village accountants who create, change and supervise
handwritten records.
Karnataka
has some 6.7 million farmers and 17 million land records spread over 30,000
villages and is spending about 180 million rupees on the land-records project.
An
additional bonus is a wealth of easily digestible data on irrigation, soil,
crops, rights, tenancy and ownership which officials say will help in
development planning.
No
Confusion, No Corruption
The
accountants, 9,000of them in Karnataka, still generate the records, but won’t
be able to use the confusing burden of reams and reams of decades-old
handwritten papers as cover for corruption.
Each
accountant covers about four villages.
"Sometimes
it used to take a week to get a land record copy, " 37-Year-old farmer
Sivanna Dasiah, who bought a certificate to get a bank loan, told Reuters.
"The Village accountant used to demand 50,100 or even 500 rupees sometimes
for one copy,"
Farmers
now happily pay 15 rupees for a printout.
Land
records have been at the centre of bloody village disputes and legal wrangles
in India, which has some 600,000 villages. Nearly 70 percent of the one billion
strong population depends on agriculture.
The
coffee town of Sakleshpur and the rural centre of Maddur led the way the
land-record project earlier this year.
Ramanagaram,
some 40 km from Bangalore, joined them in pioneering the practice, which
Karnataka has now taken to 45 of its 177 talukas, or sub-districts, despite
resistance at the local level.
Officials,
who say the cost is easily recovered from the sale of land record copies, are
now frenetically training two computer-friendly accounts for every
sub-district.
The
state plans to cover all sub-districts by March next year, and also link the
local area networks over the Internet. The idea is to eventually license the
database to Internet service providers who can use the data commercially.
Fingerprint-Based Access
Chawla,
39, is a computer science graduate from the prestigious Indian Institute of
Technology at Kanpur, but unlike many of his schoolmates who flocked to Silicon
Valley, he chose to become a modestly paid career civil servant. He says the
project’s challenge was to ensure the records were tamper-proof and the
system’s authenticity was not challenged.
"A
Password hacking of land records means I am gone for a toss," he says.
A
team from the state-run National Informatics Centre, software giant Microsoft
Corp, computer maker Compaq Corp and Aditi Technologies Ltd has been helping
him devise a Solution.
The
companies worked for free, and the team evolved a fingerprint-based access to
the software application in which land records generated by village accountants
are entered. A small fingerprint recognition point is attached to each
terminal.
This
means that password-based hacking is not possible and those who change records
will be identified by fingerprints.
The
Computers also store digitally scanned copies of the original paper records
approved in handwriting and signed by the accountants.
Once
this is done, handwritten records are banned. Chawla said this would ensure
that in future, all records could be systematically updated and tracked over
computers.
The
computers also help in tracking the status of applications involving change of
ownership, which in the past has been a source of red tape and corruption.
In
the land record shops, villagers have a terminal facing them, where they can
watch what officials processing their applications on another terminal are
doing.
Karnataka’s
neighboring state and technology competitor, Andhra Pradesh, has launched a
similar project. A plan to transfer land records to computers is due to be
finished in June.
Source:
Yahoo
News - 31st MAY 2001
Technology
Transforms Rural Records in Karnataka.
By
Narayanan Madhavan
Project Contact:
Rajeev Chawla, IAS
Additional Secretary Revenue
Department
Room No. 630, III Stage, 6th
Floor
M.S. Building
Tel: +91 (80) 226-2104
Email: js-lrf@revdept.kar.nic.in
URL: http://www.revdept.kar.nic.in/
GYANDOOT
On
January 1, 2000, Dhar district began the new millennium with installation of
low cost, self-sustainable and community owned rural Intranet project. Dhar
district is located on the south western corner of the central India and has a
population of 1.7 million, with 54% population being tribal ( Bhils, Bhilalas,
patleiyas) and 60% population living below poverty line. Computers in 20
village centres in five Blocks of the district were wired through an Intranet
network (presently there are 31 such wired village centres). Local rural youth
act as entrepreneurs for running cybercafes-cum-cyberoffices on commercial
lines without salary or stipend. The computers in the network have been
established in Gram Panchayats (Village Committee). They have been called
Soochanalayas (Information Kiosks). The Soochanalayas provide user-charge-based
services to the rural people. This Intranet system has been named Gyandoot
(Messenger of Informat
SOOCHAK ( Manager/owner of the kiosk)
The
person operating the Soochanalaya is a local matriculate operator and is called
Soochak. A soochak is not an employee but an entrepreneur. Soochak only needs
maintenance and numeric data entry skills. He needs very limited typing skills
since most of the Intranet software is menu-driven.
The
Soochaks for originally started 20 centres were selected interactively by
village committees and the local community. Three member panels were selected
by the community who received training at their own cost at the District
Council. At the end of the training, the best trainees were selected out of a
panel of three as Soochaks. He / she runs the Soochanalaya on commercial lines.
He has an initial one year agreement with the village committee. He does not
receive any salary. He bears the cost of stationery, maintenance and electric
and telephone bills. He pays 10% of income as commission to the Zila Panchayat
(District Council) for maintaining the net.
The
11 centres started as private enterprise, the Soochak is the owner of the
establishment who pays Rs. 5,000 as a license fee for one year to district
council. Each Soochak is expected to earn a net income of at least Rs. 36,000
per annum at conservative projections.
SERVICES AND FACILITIES
:
During
the formation of the project proposal a detailed RRA/PRA exercise was taken up
involving the villagers and the community. The selection of the services was a
result of this interactive exercise and was based upon the advice and the felt
needs of the villagers. In these meetings, it was learnt that due to lack of
information regarding the current and prevailing mandi (agriculture produce
auction centres) rates, the farmers were unable to get the best price for their
agricultural produce. Villagers also informed that copies of land records were
difficult to obtain. The villager who requires a copy of the land record had to
go out in search of the patwari (village functionary who maintains all land
records) who may or may not be available on that particular day at his
headquarters. For small complaints or for giving applications, people had to go
to district headquarter which resulted in waste of time, money and potential
livelihood earnings. The services offered on the Gyandoot network are:
Agriculture
Produce Auction Centres Rates:
The
variety-wise current and prevailing rates of prominent cereal crops of the
district like wheat, gram, soybean, etc. at local and other prominent auction
centres of the country are available on-line. Other statistics of the auction
centres e.g. the volume of incoming agricultural produce, previous rates etc.
are also provided on demand. The facility is available at a nominal charge of
Rs. 5. Horticulture crops like tomato, potato, peas, green chillies, guava etc.
are also produced in substantial quantity in the district. The rates of these
commodities are also available.
On-line
Registration of Applications:
So
far, the villagers had to go to the local revenue court to file applications
for obtaining income / caste / domicile certificates or for getting demarcation
done or for obtaining landholder's loan passbook (rin pustika) etc. For this,
they would again made repeated visits to the court to enquire about the
progress of the application as well as to finally collect the prepared
document. Now, through Soochanalayas they may send the application at a cost of
only Rs. 10 and thereafter, in a maximum period of 10 days, preferably less, an
intimation of the readiness of the certificate is sent back to them through
e-mail at the concerned Soochanalaya. Thereafter, they may go to the concerned
court to collect the certificate.
On-line
Public Grievance Redressal:
Wherever
there is some problem in the delivery of services, the villagers travel at the
cost of time, money and livelihood to Block, tahsil or district headquarters
without any certainty that they would even be able to meet the officer
concerned. Now through the Soochanalaya, a villager may send his / her
complaint with assurance of reply within a maximum period of seven days,
preferably lesser, at a charge of Rs. 10. The reply to his complaint after
redressal is sent back at the Soochanalaya through e-mail. Complaints available
on the intranet include complaints regarding drinking water, scholarship sanction
/ disbursement, quality of seed / fertiliser, employee establishment matters
(like leave or provident fund sanction) queries, functioning of school, public
distribution system, beneficiary oriented schemes, functioning of village
committee etc.
Rural
e-mail facility:
A
fee based e-mailing facility, which is provided in the intranet, and it has all
the features and facilities of a state-of-the-art web based e-mail.
Village
auction site:
This
facility is started since July 2000 where auction facilities are available to
farmers and villagers for land, agricultural machinery, bullocks or equipment
or other durable commodities. It opens a new horizon of e-transactions in the
rural areas. The middlemen involved in the rural commodity transaction market are
sought to be eliminated through this facility. One can put one’s commodity on
sale for charges of Rs. 25/- for three months. One can browse the list of
salable commodities for Rs. 10/-.
On
line matrimonial site:
A
fee based on-line matrimonial service for the villagers to choose the right
match for a prospective bride/groom. Every entry from a Soochanalaya by a
villager gets added on to a centralized database with search facility on
various criteria. The user charges for service rendered is Rs. 25/- for three
months. The program has been designed to suit the requirements of the
villagers.
Information regarding government programmes :
Detailed
Information regarding over a hundred government programmes is now available on
the Gyandoot Intranet. The villagers have an access to the information
regarding all government programmes related to rural development.
Sawaliram se puchiye:
This
site provides opportunity to schoolchildren to ask inquisitive questions
regarding career counseling or any other field from Sawaliram at no cost. A
team of experts at the district headquarter provide the answers within three
days. The facility is created to promote inquisitiveness, ability to inquire
and scrutinize among the school children.
Ask
the expert:
This
facility is aimed at farmers and villagers who can inquire about latest
techniques, advice for their problems, new technologies etc. from a group of
experts pertaining to fields of agriculture, animal husbandry, health, or
related to legal opinion. The service is provided at Rs 5/- user charge.
Free
E-mail facility on social issues:
Free
of cost option are available to the villagers to inform regarding child labour,
child marriage, illegal possession of land belonging to Scheduled Tribes etc.
Besides they can send e-mails to others connected through the net with the help
of this facility in Hindi.
Avedan
Patra:
This
facility provides on-line application formats required by local administration
and departments of the state government. Thus, application forms are available
at the doorsteps of the villagers and avoid their running from pillar to post
for these application forms.
Transparency
in government working:
Updated
and latest information regarding public distribution system, list of below
poverty line families, beneficiaries of social security pension, beneficiaries
of rural development schemes, information regarding government grants given to
village committees, etc. are available on the intranet which makes the
government functioning transparent.
Gaon
ka Akhabar (Village Newspaper):
A
local web-based newspaper is available to cater to the rural people. The
newspaper delivers micro-news about the happening around the villages where
Soochaks act as correspondents.
E-education
(shiksha gyandoot):
This
site contains reading material to supplement and help the students in
understanding and learning their subjects in a better way. It contains things
like syllabuses of various subjects taught in class X and XII, question banks
developed by a team of experts to help in preparation of exams, chithi to help
them keep in touch with other schools connected to the intranet etc.
Employment
News:
This
site contains employment news for semi skilled employees.
Below
Poverty line list:
The
site contains the whole list of below the poverty line families and anyone can
check his her name in the list.
STRENGTHENING OF PROJECT:
In
order to make Soochanalayas economically viable entities and to improve the
functioning of the project following steps are being taken:
Additional
facilities at Soochanalayas :
To
make Soochanalayas economically viable soochaks are given licenses to vendor
government judicial stamps and powers of petition writer are also delegated to
them. Due to the delegation of above mentioned powers additional incomes are
possible and the Soochanalayas are becoming virtual cyber offices. .
On-line
linking of all departments with gyandoot server :
A
local Area Network (LAN) linking all the major district offices has been
installed. As a result, the district heads of various government departments
like health, education, tribal development, revenue, food, agriculture, public
health engineering, District Council and District Magistrate etc. are connected
directly to gyandoot network. This provides backup support and logistics to gyandoot
network.
Wireless
in Local Loop:
The
Gyandoot Samiti is introducing low cost TDMA based Wireless in Local Loop
(WiLL) technology in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology,
Chennai. This technology will facilitate large scale multiplication of
Soochanlayas in the hinterland where traditional plain old telephone system has
not reached. The technology has power to increase access speed and provide
reliable connectivity. The technology will also help the kiosk operator to run
two connections at a time, e.g. STD PCO (voice connectivity) and
Internet/Intranet ( data communication).
E-education
initiatives:
The
Gyandoot Samiti, with the help from Member of Parliament, has established 34
kiosks at the high schools and higher secondary schools. We are providing them
local educational contents through the server. They are also accessing internet
for other educational contents. Each school is having Computer Club to promote
activities related to IT among rural students.
EXPANSION OF THE PROJECT:
Some
fundamental guidelines were framed for future expansion. They were:
1).
Centers to be opened only in the villages where local telephone exchange is
having OFC and fair connectivity,
2).
New centers to be created through private investment.
3).
New services and facilities to be introduced in phased manner.
THE NEW FACILITIES PLANNED OVER NEXT TWO YEARS :
1.
E-News for the district
2.
Distance education
3.
Registration of property transaction
4.
Feedback system on the development programmes
5.
“Bare foot doctor”
ACTION PLAN FOR INCREASING USAGE OF THE NETWORK
A
comprehensive and integrated multi-media mass campaign concentrating on IEC
activities has been launched in the district. The campaign focuses on
penetration and propagation of the project in the hinterland of the district.
Indian Institute of Management, Indore is collaborating to provide structured
inputs for the IEC activities. The steps taken include:
Gyandoot
medhavi chhatra (talented students) scholarship:
From
the funds available with gyandoot, two scholarships each of Rs. 1,000/- per
month for 5 years have been announced. For the scholarship, only those students
of the district would be eligible who motivate 10 or more villagers to use
gyandoot facilities between the period 1st September to 31st
December 2000. The scholarships will be finalised through an on-line test of
the eligible students and the result of the test would be declared on 26th
January 2001. This scheme uses the services of the students to propagate new
technology and its power among the rural masses.
Visit of school children to nearest Soochnalaya :
Students
of class IX, X, XI, XII are taken to the nearest Soochanalaya on study tour.
These students are given elaborate demonstration on the gyandoot Intranet
system and the facilities available at the centre.
ramsabha
in the villages in the project area :
Special
gramsabhas (Meeting of all villagers) in each village in the project area have
been started which will be completed by January, 2001. These specially convened
village meetings will deliberate on gyandoot and its services, which are
available there at nominal cost.
.Audio-Visual
campaign :
Posters
and pamphlets have been distributed to all the concerned village committees. TV
cable network and cinema halls are being used to popularise gyandoot services.
Audiocassettes carrying gyandoot messages are being used in weekly haat bazaars
(market places).
Source:
http://gyandoot.nic.in/gyandoot/intranet.html
Project Contact:
Collectorate
Campus, Dhar, M.P. 454001
Tel: (7292) 34709; (7292)
22661
Fax: (7292) 22722
Email: gyandoot@rediffmail.com
FRIENDS
(Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for Disbursement of Services)
centres offer a one-stop, front-end, IT-enabled payment counter facility to
citizens to make all kinds of government payments in the state of Kerala in
South India. The centres are a project of the Kerala State IT Mission, an
executive agency of the State's Department of Information Technology. The
software for the centres was developed with ASP, Windows 2000 and SQL RDBMS.
One important feature is a provision for adding more modules and a queue
management system. Client/server architecture, consisting of a network of one
powerful server (Windows 2000 Server/ MS SQL Server 7.0 – Pentium III 850 MHz
or above) and 10 to 20 normal PCs (Windows 98/Me – Celeron 600 MHz or above),
is used in each centre.
Application
Description
FRIENDS
seeks to extend the benefits of fully-fledged computerisation of individual
departments to citizens, even before the whole back-end computerisation is
completed. The counters are equipped to handle around 1,000 types of payment
bills (in various combinations) originating out of various public sector
departments/agencies. The payments that citizens can make at the counters
include utility payments for electricity and water, revenue taxes, license
fees, motor vehicle taxes, university fees, etc.
Firewalls
safeguard the data from manipulation and other misappropriations. Print outs of
transaction details in a particular counter are done on the printer attached to
each terminal, on pre-printed stationery. Printing of a receipt for the citizen
is done simultaneously with saving of the transaction on the hard disk. The
application has provisions for adding more modules and for rolling back
incorrect entries without affecting the database even at the user level. The
centres are not networked with the participating departments/agencies and
therefore the printouts of all payments made are taken and physically handed
over to these organisations for processing.
Application
Purpose
As
in all Indian states, Kerala has a number of different government and public
sector organisations collecting taxes, utility bills, and other fees and payments.
Individual citizens have historically been expected to pay at the office of the
department or the agency concerned. This means that every citizen has to
personally visit at least seven offices and stand in queues waiting their turn
to pay the taxes and other payments due to government. Some efforts were
earlier made to facilitate payments through the banking network. However, given
the fact that many banks and government departments/agencies were not
computerised, this effort only led to delayed collections and reconciliation
problems. Moreover, only 2 to 5 percent of the population used this facility.
It was against this background that the FRIENDS project was conceived, enabling
citizens to visit a single location to pay all bills without the requirement
for back office computerisation in the involved departments/agencies.
Impact:
Costs and Benefits
There
are indirect costs and indirect benefits of the project including the aspect of
opportunity costs, but it is very difficult to gain evidence on these. Some of
the major direct costs and benefits, both financial and otherwise, are provided
below, mostly based on a study by the author. The FRIENDS centre in Trivandrum
(the state capital) required some US$80,000-worth of capital investment
(including software). This was the pilot centre, and has 20 counters. Centres
in other locations, which have an average of 10 counters, have required an
average investment of US$48,000.
The
average monthly recurrent expenditure incurred by each centre comes to US$1,340,
which includes hardware maintenance charges and payments on account of rent,
electricity, etc. These costs are borne centrally by the Department of IT. The
salaries of the Service Officers are an additional recurrent cost, covered by
those government departments that collect payments at the centres. FRIENDS
centres can also be used for payments to BSNL (a Government of India-owned
telecommunications company). BSNL does not provide staff at the centres;
instead, it provides a transaction payment of roughly 12 cents per BSNL-related
transaction, giving an average monthly income for each centre of US$250.
It
has been calculated that, with FRIENDS, citizens need to spend an average of
only 35% of the cost involved in making separate payments at department counters.
By saving on travel costs, costs of using agents, and related costs, citizens
using FRIENDS centres therefore make an average monthly saving of about US$1
per citizen. Moreover, on average, citizens save about 42 minutes of their time
every month. On average, each centre deals with around 400 citizen transactions
per day.
The
level of satisfaction could be gauged from the fact that 97.4 % of users prefer
FRIENDS to department counters according to surveys undertaken. The increased
participation of women customers is also a positive contribution. Moreover, the
project in itself was able to convince 80.1% of the user-citizens of the
possibilities of ICTs in providing better citizen services. It has also
demonstrated that, with appropriate training, skill upgradation and technology,
existing government employees can deliver better services.
Source:www.egov4dev.org
Project
Contact:
Kerala State Information
Technology Mission
e-mail: keralaitmission@asianetindia.com
===========================================================================
The
application involved setting up a one-stop, Web-enabled portal for information
and services relating to the government-citizen interface. The application
involved hosting the portal on a Web server with good connectivity and
providing a set of information kiosks to access this information and services
all over the state of Kerala in South India, thus creating an
"e-shringhla" ("electronic chain") of information and
e-governance. The project was undertaken by Keltron, the Kerala State
Electronics Development Corporation Ltd.; a public sector hardware manufacturer
and provider of e-governance and other ICT solutions.
Application
Description
eShringhla
involved collecting information from various government departments regarding
the schemes and programmes being implemented by them relating to common
citizens and hosting the details on the Web portal. Forms commonly used to
apply for government services or assistance were made available for download.
Further, the server was connected to back-office applications in the concerned
departments, thus permitting online application in some cases, especially
processes not requiring original or identification documents. The portal also
enabled low-level e-commerce activity for products from rural areas, and
specific interaction activities, e.g. counselling on agricultural practices or
health practices, creation of rural discussion fora, etc.
Application
Purpose
eShringhla
was created to bridge the proverbial digital divide and use ICT to make
government and government processes/services more accessible and transparent.
Apart from the digital divide, the project was also intended to bridge social
divides like gender divide, caste and community divide, economic divide etc. in
dispensation of government services to its citizens in a social milieu of
inequality such as that found in India.
Impact:
Costs and Benefits
There
were costs involved in setting up the server and connectivity and some kiosks.
Additional costs were involved in developing the portal and collection of data
from various departments relating to details to be put on the portal. The total
costs of these items for the pilot project are estimated to be around around
US$100,000. The benefits of the project have been growing awareness of using
ICT for providing services in many government departments. While the initial
service was started with just one or two government departments, more
departments are now coming forward to join the initiative. Village-level local
bodies have come forward to invest in the kiosks for their villages. As yet,
most information on the portal is in English, but work is progressing on
loading material in Malayalam, the main local language.
Enablers/Critical
Success Factors
1.
Community demand. Given Kerala's large non-resident population
(particularly based in the Middle East) combined with low prices for Internet
telephony, there has been a natural attraction of citizens in rural areas to
the kiosks.
Source: www.egov4dev.org
Project Contact: : info@keltron.org
SETU
or the Citizen Facilitation Centre is a one-stop service centre for citizens
who have to visit government offices for certificates, permits, authentication,
affidavits and other services. It was set up by the government of Maharashtra
state in India in the city of Aurangabad (population c. 1m). In the local language,
SETU means a ‘bridge’ to connect the administration with the general public. At
present, citizens spend a lot of time moving from one office to another or from
one table to another in the same office to submit their application and
documents, making enquiries about their case and completing other related
formalities. At times, they take the help of local agents who charge some fee
and help them in writing and submitting the applications. These agents mostly
operate without any legal authority. The Centre therefore attempts to apply
ICTs to provide greater transparency, accessibility and efficiency to the
procedures in decision making. It also makes use of the Web to make information
available to the clients. The Centre has 15 computers, 10 printers and a staff
of 28 persons including technical personnel, assistants and clerks. There are
10 counters for citizens to present their applications.
Application
Description
The
District Collector in India heads the government administration in a district,
and acts as the nodal agency for most government schemes and programmes. The
general public comes to the Collectorate or office of the District Collector
and subordinate offices for a variety of certificates, permits and other
important documents. The Citizen Facilitation Centre started in October 2001. A
total of 34 types of certificates were identified that are issued by the
district and sub-district offices. The most important and frequently issued
certificates are the ones related to domicile, nationality, caste, age
verification, solvency, character verification, income and occupation. The
applicant gives his/her application at the counter where the operator enters
key data and makes an initial scrutiny. If the information is complete, the
applicant is given a token bearing a unique number and the date of response.
The certificate is given after further scrutiny of the application. Service
charges are liable to be refunded if the certificate is delayed.
Apulki
Seva Sanstha, an NGO, has been given the job of running the Centre, charging a
small fee for its services. This organisation also spent US$14,500 out of its
own funds to purchase computers and related accessories. The Centre works on
holidays and after office hours on a two-shift basis.
Application
Purpose
The
main objective is the provision of important public services to citizens under
a common platform with more efficiency in ‘a non-hostile environment felt
necessary to reduce the number of visits’. Another objective is greater
transparency in office procedures. Faster decision making and disposal of files
relating to the general public is necessary to increase the productivity of
public offices. Indirect employment generation has been cited as another goal.
Source: www.egov4dev.org
Project Details: http://setu.maharashtra.gov.in/intro.htm:
WIRELESS IN LOCAL
LOOP
When
everyone in India was celebrating birth of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, 1997,
Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras was stunned to read in the
newspapers that the spectrum (1880-1900 MHz band) granted for his wireless
project was no longer available, since it belonged exclusively to the military.
For
Jhunjhunwala and his two IIT Madras colleagues in the Telecommunications and
Computer Networking (TeNeT) group, this meant that all the money and time
invested in the project was lost forever.
"More
than the money, we were concerned about the time," says Jhunjhunwala.
"We had to get back to the drawing board and start from scratch. It would
take at least another two years of effort to come out with a cost-effective
wireless solution for this country," he says.
Jhunjhunwala
and his colleagues had a tough time convincing key decision-makers to give them
the frequency clearance, even though defense authorities were more than eager
to do their bit for an indigenously developed wireless system. The professor's
team went through many such hardships before the project made headway.
Early
Days
Shortly
after he began teaching at IIT Madras in 1981, Ashok Jhunjhunwala goaded some
of his colleagues to start looking at the wireless industry. "Most of us
were very theoretical people. We had not built anything, developed
anything," says the professor.
Luckily
for him, Chennai-based WS Industries recognized the talent of the IIT team and
helped them build multiplexers, which they were importing at the time.
"With the large army of students, [and] some project staff, [we] started
dabbling things," says Jhunjhunwala.
He
realized soon that most of the imported technology was of limited value in
India because it was not affordable for most people.
Telenomics
Ask him what his project is all about or how his team is trying to transform
the telecom business in this country, he will quickly open his laptop to
display a convincing PowerPoint presentation. As he explains his project amid a
torrent of figures, his eyes light up.
"A
telephone [service] operator today spends around Rs 30,000 per line to provide
telecom services to a subscriber," he says, adding, "Taking into
account finance charges on the investment, 15 percent, depreciation, 10
percent, and operation and maintenance cost, 10 percent, an operator needs at
least 35 percent of the initial investment as yearly revenue just to break
even. Add to this the license fees and taxes, and the revenue per subscriber
needs to be at least Rs.1,000 per month. Now, what percentage of Indian
households can afford to pay this much? Barely 1 to 3 percent.
How
does one then dream of 200 million connections?"
"If
you bring down the investment needed for a phone line to Rs 10,000," hopes
Jhunjhunwala, "affordability of telephones could immediately go up to 30
percent of our population."
The
TeNet Group
For
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, the challenge was to build a dedicated, core research
team at IIT Madras. He had worked with Professor Bhaskar Rammurthi and
Professor Timoty A. Ghonsalves on various projects.
The trio formed the "Telecommunications and Computer Networking"
(TeNeT) group, and by 1991 Jhunjhunwala and his colleague Ramamurthi were on
the lookout for potential research topics.
Newspapers, magazines and technical journals carried articles on "wireless
in the local loop" (WiLL) technology. They also heard the then-secretary
of telecom talk about the importance of this technology for India.
"We started looking at all the wireless local loop systems available
across the world. We were not happy with any of those systems, both in terms of
cost and performance. This meant that we [had to] build an indigenous WiLL
system," says Rammurthi.
This
turned out to be no ordinary task. "Unfortunately there was not too much
knowledge in the country to build [these] products. In the beginning, we
ourselves didn't believe that we could build products that worked. Very soon, we
learned the art of building products [that] worked not only in labs but also
out in the field. Then we had to learn to build products [that] could be
manufactured in volume and commercialized. We learned the processes step by
step," Jhunjhunwala says.
The
TeNet group now consists of 12 professors supported by more than 100
researchers, engineers and other technical staff at IIT Madras.
Connectivity
Inc.
Building
corDECT technology was not the end game for Jhunjhunwala. The TeNet Group has
incubated a few companies ľ Midas Communication Technologies, Banyan Networks,
n-Logue Communications. corDECT is central to these companies' business models.
They are managed and run by Jhunjhunwala's former students and entrepreneurs
who have been inspired by his infectious optimism.
Big telecom operators are reluctant to invest in rural India, since they see no
large business opportunity. But another Jhunjhunwala inspired company n-Logue
Communications is going against that preconception.
The firm has fashioned a franchise-based business model that puts the
farmer-entrepreneur in the driver's seat. n-Logue offers low-priced "kiosk
packages" consisting of a corDECT wall set, a computer, printer, telephone
and backup battery.
The
kiosks essentially function as combination rural Internet cafes and pay-phone
booths. A local service provider (LSP) works in tandem with n-Logue and
controls individual kiosk operators within a region.
n-Logue is presently moving from its successful pilot phase to commercial
ramp-up. It is currently signing up two to three new franchisee per month. P.
G. Ponnapa, CEO of n-Logue predicts that most LSPs will find 500 to 700
subscribers within a 25-kilometer radius, making the investment worthwhile.
It is another company - Midas - that provides corDECT WiLL technology to large
manufacturers. It has licensed the technology to five companies for commercial
production - HFCL, Shyam Telecom, Crompton Greeves, ECIL and ITI Bangalore.
Midas has deployed corDECT WiLL technology in parts of Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu as well as 11 other countries
across the world. The company is implementing projects to the tune of 60,000
lines in Madagascar, Fiji, Kenya and Brazil.
Ashok
Jhunjhunwala constantly dreams about his "100 million" telephones.
Could he be another Sam Pitroda? The professor's dream of all Indian villages
being networked with the corDECT technology is moving toward reality. "If
we can 't change it then who else will?" he says.
Source:
100
Million Telephones
by
Pradeep B S, siliconindia , April 2002
Project Contact:
Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala,
Professor and Head, Department
of Electrical Engineering,
IIT-Madras,
Chennai.
Email ashok@tenet.res.in or
ashok@nimbus.ee.iitm.ernet.in
Tel: (44) 235 2120 (OF) or 235
3202 / 445 9355 (R)
PG Ponnapa, Chief Executive
Officer n-Logue Communications Private Limited,
Adyar Chennai.
Email ponnapa@n-logue.com
Ph 445 5210/12/21/23
This
project, named "TARAhaat" after the all-purpose haat (meaning a
village bazaar), comprises a commercially viable model for bringing relevant
information, products and services via the Internet to the unserved rural
market of India from which an estimated 50% of the national income is derived.
The
Development Alternatives Group promotes TARAhaat. The DA Group has a staff of
more than 400, including 150 professionals with postgraduate degrees in
engineering, sociology, marketing, and management. TARAhaat is fortunate to
have the entire staff of the DA Group available for the design, implementation
and operating management of the portal and its associated services.
Project
Description
TARAhaat
combines a mother portal, TARAhaat.com, supported by franchised networks of
village cybercafes and delivery systems to provide a full range of services its
clients. The subsidiary units include:
TARAdhaba - will provide the villager connectivity and
access to a new world.
TARAbazaar - will provide access to products and
services needed by rural households, farmers, and industries.
TARAvan - will deliver goods ordered.
TARAdak - will connect the rural families to the
daughter married far off and to the son posted on the front.
TARAguru - a decentralized university will provide
mentoring and consultancy to village-based mini- enterprises.
TARAscouts / TARAreporter - will collect relevant
information for the portal.
TARAvendor - will run the store that will cater to
products available at Tarabazaar.
TARAcard - will enable the villager to order goods and services on credit.
In
the absence of efficient infrastructure for transport and communication,
information is hard to come by and market options are not clearly or widely
known. Even if something is available, somewhere, information on where and when
and for how much, is not - in effect making it inaccessible. There is no
instrument more effective than the Internet for bringing both jobs and
information to the rural economy - bringing the buyer and seller together and
creating an efficient marketplace.
The
look and feel of TARAhaat is carefully designed to attract and retain users of
all kinds: farmers, traders, housewives, senior citizens, and children. The
primary interface will be both graphic (using specially-designed pictures and
icons that are attractive, colorful and animated) and voice-based to ensure
that everyone, regardless of their level of literacy, can quickly learn to take
advantage of the system. Input will be by mouse click and, for the more
literate, from the keyboard. Simple voice recognition software will in due
course allow ordinary commands to be given to the computer. Use of headphones
will enable users to receive voice mail messages or other information with
privacy never before available in village life. In the pilots, to be conducted
in MP and UP, the text will be available in Hindi and English. During the
rollout, other languages will be added, according to the needs of each region.
The
cherry-picking strategy of Indian ISP's has so far left the large rural market
almost entirely without Internet connectivity. Where local connectivity is not
available, TARAhaat will provide access via C-band satellite. Very Small
Aperture Satellite Dishes (VSAT) will be installed at strategic locations in
the test area and will function as POPs - especially in those areas where a
local telephone service exists. In due course, when GOI allows Ku-band service
and as other satellite technologies are deployed, TARAhaat will migrate to the
optimal low cost access solution. As part of the beta pilot, Hughes Escorts has
committed to provide 5 dishes to be set up at selected locations in the test
area.
Payment
for the different types of transaction made possible by TARAhaat will be
largely by cash (which research over the past 20 years shows to be more easily-
though somewhat seasonally - available in rural and peri-urban areas than is
commonly supposed). However, the TARAcard, which provides a highly prized photo
ID to each villager, will in time become a local credit card, particularly in
dealings with the TARAdhaba and TARAvan. As the TARAhaat network expands, the
TARAcard can become a more widely used method of payment for goods, services
and financial transactions, potentially evolving into a SmartCard with medical
and other records resident on it.
Impact
The impact of TARAhaat will be felt on several different levels: family,
agriculture, and youth.
For
the family this venture provides a window to the world, enabling them to
connect locally to international information, health, matrimonial, and mailing
services. The farmer benefits are through weather forecasting, procurement
services, and sales negotiations. The younger generation benefits through
career counseling, entertainment, and educational and career opportunities.
Source:
www.digitalpartners.org/tara.
Project Contact:
Rakesh
Khanna
TARAhaat
Information and Marketing Services Ltd.
B-32, Tara Crescent,
Qutab
Institutional Area,
New
Delhi - 110 016
Email:
tarahaat@sdalt.ernet.in
NIIT:
HOLE IN THE WALL
Knowledge
knows no boundaries and there is no set pattern for disseminating it; it could
even be through a 'hole in the wall'. This may seem unbelievable, but it's
true. Thanks to the educationists of a computer-education company, the poor and
unlettered children in Salundi, a modest but most backward village in Mysore
taluk, have learnt the basic computer skills and even managed to surf the
Internet. The Cognitive Engineering Research Center, a part of NIIT, has
undertaken an experiment in the village which is showing amazing findings about
the potential of uneducated children to take to computers. The objective: to
check if people would be interested in using an unmanned Internet-based kiosk
on an outdoor location, sans instructions. As the computer was accessible from
outside through an opening in the wall, Sugata Mitra, the man behind the
experiment, named it 'Hole-In-The-Wall'. In Karnataka, it is the first
experiment. NIIT plans to extend it to Varuna near T Narasipura, Maddur in
Mandya, Melkote and two other places, said S Venkat, Director of NIIT, Mysore.
The first experiment of teaching computing skills to underprivileged children
was conducted at Kalkaji in New Delhi, he said. A hole was made in the boundary
wall of NIIT office in Salundi and a kiosk set up. It has been attracting
children from 0-18 years from day one, he said. The days begin as early as 5 am
for these children. Inquisite children who do not go to school and a few who go
to the Government schools that lack resources and good teachers, have made a
beeline here. These children are not familiar with the English language. Yet,
they took to the computer and began experimenting with various applications and
switching from one website to another. The results of the experiment have been
astounding. According to Venkat, in just three weeks of setting up the kiosk,
the children were found to have achieved certain level of computer skills sans
any planned instructional intervention. They were able to browse the Net and
work on MS Paint. Interestingly, they have invented their own vocabulary to
define terms on the computer. For instance, 'Mullu' (needle) for the cursor,
'pegu' (page) for websites and 'drummu' (drum) for the hourglass symbol. Some
school-going children were able to discover and accomplish tasks like creating
folders, cutting and pasting, creating shortcuts, moving/resizing Windows and
using MS Word to draft short messages. Some parents in the village felt the
computer was good for their children. The kiosk is still operational with an
average response of 50 children per day, said Venkat. Initially, villagers had
no inkling about the purpose of the kiosk built into the wall. "I don't
think they quite understood what we wanted to do. Most children thought it was
a video game put up for free,'' said Babu, who monitors the unit. Did anyone
say you can't master a computer without training?
Source: Logging in
through a 'hole in the wall' 17 August 2002, Mysore, India Source: Times of
India
Project Contact:
Dr
Sugata Mitra
Centre
for Research in Cognitive Systems,
NIIT,
Synergy
Building,
IIT
Campus,
New
Delhi 110 016
Telephone:
2658 1002
Fax:
2620 3333
e-mail:
sugatam@niit.com
"VoGram,"
or an application that allows a person to send a voice telegram, could change
the communication scene by connecting India's largely rural and illiterate
masses.
Scientists
at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have sold the license for the application
to a private company that would enable the emotion of voice to be conveyed in a
telegram.
"VoGram"
would improve connectivity in rural India, where some 85,000 post offices
without a telephone connection cater to the needs of the people.
"We
still have a long way to go before the costly cellular services and telephone
penetration reaches the masses. Until then, people could benefit from this
application, the license for which has been given to ILI technologies,"
K.V.S. Hari of IISc's electrical and communication engineering department told
IANS.
India
has 115,000 post offices, the largest in the world, but only 25,000 have a
telephone connections, making telegrams take that much longer to reach the
recipient.
"The
application, if accepted by the postal department, would shorten the time
significantly," says Sira G. Rao, chairman of ILI technologies, a
15-month-old company in India's tech capital.
"This
is not path-breaking technology. It's only an application that we developed
after 18 months of work. Instead of the curt, sometimes cold, messages conveyed
through a telegram, voice would convey the emotion in multiple languages,"
adds Hari.
The
application is a marriage of speech compression, Internet and store and forward
messaging ideas. All a person needs to do is to call up the VoGram call centre,
record a voice message using a simple card that compresses the voice message.
The
compressed file is sent through the Internet to the post-office close to the
recipients' address. The post-office could either take out the print out and
deliver the message to the recipient or the receiver could call up a local
number free of charge, use an access code given by the postman and hear the
VoGram.
Or,
better still, if the postman has a Simputer (developed by IISc professors with
Encore Software) play the voice message to the recipient at home.
"The
postal department has responded favourably to our proposal. This is a niche
market where accessibility is a problem. But it is difficult for us to put a
figure on the market potential for this," says Rao.
ILI
technologies has tied up with the state-owned Indian Telephone Industries (ITI)
to market the product.
"The
revenue generating potential is tremendous," adds Hari. The institute's
society of innovation and development and ILI technologies have signed a
memorandum of understanding to work on add-ons.
"The
way it works is that we give the license to ILI and, in turn, they pay us
royalty which goes directly to the department," adds S. Mohan, chief
executive of the society.
Source:
BytesforAll.org: 'VoGram' to connect India's rural, illiterate masses
By
Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service
Project Contact:
Electrical
and communication engineering department,
Indian
Institute of Science,
Bangalore
Email:
anurag@ece.iisc.ernet.in
Web:
http://ece.iisc.ernet.in/vogram
INFORMATION VILLAGE RESEARCH PROJECT (MSSRF)
There's
miles to go yet. But a beginning has been made. The cyber revolution that
already has urban India in its grip, is slowly but surely making its foray into
the villages and irrevocably changing lives. If the fishermen of Veerapattinam
near Pondicherry were earlier at the mercy of nature each time they set out in
their boats, now they know for sure what to expect of the weather, the waves
and what it will throw up by way of a catch, courtesy the PC. In tribal
Tejgadh, Naginbhai Rathwa is eagerly awaiting the day he can tap the Internet
for info on tribal civilisations around the world. Wishful thinking? No more.
The promise of connectivity which has already shrunk the world is at long last
ringing true in the countryside.
Hooked to the Net
It is no longer a case of 'access denied' for eight villages around Pondicherry
Partheeban
picks his way through the early morning darkness of Veerapattinam, a coastal
village 15 km from Pondicherry city, and heads towards the local panchayat
office. It's the start of another day of catching fish on the high seas. As the
fisherman shuffles along, he is joined by his mates. Together they file into
the panchayat office, where virtually the entire community of fisherfolk has
already congregated around a computer.
Since
1998, thanks to the Chennai-based M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF),
and its Information Village Research Project (IVRP), Partheeban and his friends
venture out to sea armed with more than just their nets and the odd first-aid
kit. An operator at the information centre which is housed in the panchayat
office, works the keyboard and mouse to keep them supplied with data pertaining
to the weather, fish density, wave height and turbulence. The information has
done wonders for business. "Now we can get to the right place at the right
time, and get a good catch," says Partheeban.
The fisherfolk of Veerapattinam and seven other villages in and around
PondicherryŃVillianur, Thiru- kanchipet, Kizhur, Embalam, Kalitheerthalkupam,
Pillayarkupam, and PooranamkuppamŃare all praise for IVRP, which is funded by
the International Development Research Centre in Canada. Each village has an
information centre, with Villianur acting as the hub, connected to the MSSRF
Centre via Intranet. The MSSRF funds the equipment and supplies expert
guidance, while the villagers provide office space and four volunteers to man a
centre.
In
most of the villages, information received from Villianur by voice mail is
broadcast over a public address system. Villagers have grown used to hearing
the market price of paddy come booming over loudspeakers. And they never forget
to scribble down the names of approved pesticides and fertilisers being
announced. The speakers also crackle to life with information that employment
opportunitiesŃdownloaded from the Pondicherry Employment Exchange siteŃare
available at the village information centre. "This is great," says
Boopalan, who along with 18-year-old Sivashakti are the volunteers at MSSRF's
centre in Thirukanchipet, a Dalit village. "Most often, we missed out on
opportunities only because we did not know they existed. Not anymore." He
cited the case of 15 youth from Veerapattinam who applied in the police
services after hearing the announcement of a recruitment drive.
From providing lists of veterinarians and doctors, to bus timings, locations of
various hospitals and news of goods for barter or sale, IVRP has irrevocably
changed villagers' lifestyles. While some like K. Jagadeesan drop in at the
centre "only to find out what computers are all about," there are an
increasing number of women who come with health-related queries, and students
who want to check an exam result, browse through educational CDs or learn to
design slides on Power Point.
Kalaichelvi, a farmer's wife from Kizhur, recalls the time when their sugarcane
crop was struck by a disease. All they had to do was trudge up to their
information centre where an entomologist came online to identify the disease
and suggest remedial steps. "Similarly when our cattle fell ill during the
monsoon, we were guided by a specialist [a vet]," says Kalaichelvi.
MSSRF
also helps those interested in starting a business. It was through their
backing that Lakshmi and five women from Kizhur began Nesam, an incense
manufacturing unit.
As
in the case of most such wired village projects, lack of telephone lines and an
erratic power supply do play spoilsport. However, MSSRF has been able to work
around these difficulties. "Wireless sets connect the villages, so that
solves the telephone problem," explains R. Rajasekarapandy, a social
scientist who coordinates operations from the MSSRF hub in Villianur. The
impact of power failures, including a daily 98-minute power cut, is minimised
because 60 per cent of the project work is fuelled by solar power with a
back-up provision of 11 hours.
Companies
like Motorola have supported the project by donating two-way radio despatch
equipment to improve connectivity. Motorola also presented its Dispatch
Solution Award for innovative applications of two-way radios to Prof.
Swaminathan who conceived IVRP as part of MSSRF's larger BioVillage project.
By all accounts, from fishermen and farmers to pigtailed schoolgirls and their
uneducated mothers it is no longer a case of "access denied".
Source: The Week, Dec
31, 2000
Project Contact:
Mr Senthilkumaran
Associate Director
Informatics Division /
Information Village Research Project
M S Swaminathan Research
Foundation
3rd Cross Road,
Institutional Area, Taramani, Chennai 600 113
Tel:044-2542698,2542699,2541229
Fax: 044 - 2541319
Email:
senthil@mssrf.res.in
Ushering
in the IT revolution to villages where more than 70 per cent of the Indian
population lives, is a dream that has come true at Warna in the Kolhapur
District of Maharashtra. The special IT Task force set up by the Prime Minister
recommended modernising the cooperative movement through use of
state-of-the-art Information technology. This led to the "Wired
Village" project initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The key objective of the project is to demonstrate the effective contribution
of an IT infrastructure to the socioeconomic development of a cluster of 70
contiguous villages around Warna Nagar in the Kolhapur and Sangli Districts of
Maharashtra.
The
project aims to:
Utilise IT to increase the efficiency and productivity
of the existing cooperative enterprise by setting up a state-of-the-art
computer communication network.
Provide agricultural, medical, and educational
information to villages at Facilitation Booths in their villages.
Provide communication facilities at the booths to link
villages to the Warana cooperative complex.
Bring the world’s knowledge at the doorstep of villagers through the Internet
via the National Informatics Centre Network.
Provide distance education to both primary and higher
educational institutes; and
Establish a Geographic Information System (GIS) of the surrounding 70 villages
leading to greater transparency in administration especially in matters related
to land.
For
centuries farmers here have cultivated sugar cane, and the cane fields dominate
the countryside, feeding the sweet tooth of one billion Indians. Farmers pride
themselves on producing more sugar per acre than anywhere else in India.
By
participating in the government project to plug 70 villages into the Internet,
Warna's sugar cane farmers are among the first in the country to embrace the
high-tech wave.
'Really
wired!
With
computers in all the villages, the farmers are linked to a central network.
Suddenly, connectivity is changing a centuries-old way of life.
"Computers
are not just decorative items. They are useful for the farmer," says a
farmer. "We check ... details, sitting in the village. Earlier we used to
go to the factory to check for the bill."
Through the network, farmers get a daily weather report, learn what fertilizer
to use, and access the sale price of several other crops, which helps them
decide what to plant next.
Soon, they will be able to use the network to diagnose crop diseases.
Life has changed dramatically in recent months for Jagannath Jadhav. A
sugarcane farmer from Bahirewadi village in Panchala taluk of Kolhapur
district, he would start worrying when his crop was ready for cutting. And like
his fellow farmers in this sugar bowl of Maharashtra, he would wait restlessly
for the day when the nearby sugar cooperative collected it. No longer.
All that the 50-something man has to do now is walk over to the village booth
and inform the computer operator that his crop is ready. The rest will be taken
care of by the Information Technology revolution that is sweeping across the
lush valley of the Warna river.
Warna's
farmers relish their role as high-tech pioneers. In Jhadav's village alone, 450
farmers are accessing computers, using them to save time, avoid mistakes, boost
productivity.
Most of the village-level operators are either local residents or from
Kolhapur. Recalls Karan Gatade, a software engineer and resident of Satave
village: "I studied at Aptech, and later on went to Mumbai. I worked there
for nearly four years. But as soon as I came to know about the project, I felt
this sudden urge to return to my roots and share my knowledge with my fellow
brethren."
Now the farmers of Warna have no desire to keep the advancements secret; they
want the 700 million Indians who live in the countryside to also have access to
computers, believing it will help raise living standards across India as others
discover the economic benefits of high-speed information.
Source:
www.indiachi.com
Project Contact:
Ramchandra
Mahuli at Warana in Maharashtra:
0232-24081
Amitabh
Dev at National Informatics Centre, Pune:
020-
5534832
Among
the NGOs, the Bangalore-based VOICES has taken a leading role in advocating a
legislation which will pave the way for independent community broadcasting in
India. These efforts received a major boost in February 1995, when the Supreme
Court made a landmark judgment on broadcasting. The highest court of India
declared that the airwaves should be regarded as "a public good".
Thus, they should not be subjected neither to a government monopoly, nor to
exclusive use by commercial enterprises. The Supreme Court recommended that an
independent, autonomous, public authority should be established to regulate the
use of frequencies.
VOICES
received UNESCO support to introduce a regular community radio programme
through the local AIR radio station.
Source:
VOICES
website
Project Contact:
COMMUNITY RADIO – AID
In
Palamau, a part of the new state of Jharkhand, Leelawati is among a handful of
unlettered adults preparing for a new life ahead. Taking time off her daily
grind of household chores, she is one of three rural women in a group of 14
village reporters working for Palamau's community radio project. And she's
performing rather well. During the past, diarrhoea had taken a toll of 50 lives
in the district. So, today, Leelawati is quizzing the doctor on preventive
measures the villagers should adopt. These are early days for community radio
in the 45 villages of Palamau. In August 2001, two local NGOs - Alternatives
for India Development (AID) and Manthan Yuva Sangathan- joined hands to launch
Chala Ho Gaon Mein, a half- hour community broadcast on All India Radio. An NGO,
AID, and city-slick journalists lend technical support to the programme
Manthan. The National Foundation for India (NFI), a grant- making organisation,
strategically and financially backs the initiative. NFI's foray into community
radio comes at a time when radio broadcasting is still state-managed. But it
sees a tremendous scope for harnessing radio broadcasting technology for
grassroots development and community empowerment. A majority of the population
on the district lives on the edge of poverty. Less than a third of the women
folk do know how to read and write. Most of the menfolk migrate to the cities
in search of manual labour. Developmental infrastructure hardly exists in the
area, and wherever it does, it is in a shambles: the roads are damaged, power
supply erratic, state-sponsored food distribution schemes ill-managed and
hand-pumps are the only source of water. Socially too, Palamau is India's
badland. Naxal guerrillas like MCC and PWG rule by the gun. Before the
programme went on air, NFI, with its partners, scouted the villages for
volunteers. It also conducted a series of workshops to educate villagers. The
search ended with 14 volunteers offering their services as rural reporters. The
community threw up issues that concerned them the most - children. It was tough
to involve children in the programme when a majority of them felt inhibited to
speak on a microphone, or articulate their views in the open. So, what has
NFI's community radio project achieved? And what has been its experience in partnering
state-owned radio? In the past six months, hundreds of letters have poured in.
And many more listeners have even written to take the programme to their
villages that fall beyond the targeted 45. As for partnering the state-managed
All India Radio, in the absence of freedom to set up independent radio
stations, NFI has attempted to use the state-owned infrastructure and show how
radio can be imaginatively used for social development and empower communities.
Chala Ho Gaon Mein has been on air for six months now. There is a lot of
excitement among the villagers and a curiosity to know what comes next. For the
first time, villagers from this area are participating in a community
initiative and are getting to hear their own voices on the radio. This is a
whole new experience for them. These villages go dark after sunset as they have
no access to electricity, telephone lines are yet to roll out, children have
not seen a blackboard. Now, the only link with the outside world is a radio
set. A recent internal impact study across 374 villages reveal that 98 per cent
of the village folk listen to the programme regularly, 81 per cent of the
listeners feel the programme is very good and maximum number of listeners
appreciate the social dramas and folk songs through which they would like to
discuss their problems. Several others want the duration and frequency to be
increased from its present 7:20 pm Sunday slot. Really, that's a sound
beginning.
Source:
www.apnic.net
Project Contact:
Mr.Ramraj/
Sanjay Kumar
Alternative
For India Development
High
School Road
Lesliganj,
Palamau district
Jharkhand
822 118
Phone
:06562-82631
E-mail
:- aidpalamau@yahoo.com
AAAAIIIIIIIIII! A scream rents the air! One more bride burnt to death. Another dowry death in another village. The listeners shake their heads in resignation. The situation is all too familiar. But it has never been discussed openly before, much less broadcast in the village.
The
radio play they’re listening to, part of ‘Mana Radio’s’ first broadcast,
provokes a debate among the villagers. They discuss their personal experiences
with dowry deaths and clearly relate to the characters and the elegy. It is
obvious that the broadcast will not stop these killings overnight, but at least
it has brought the issue into the open for a public debate.
Mana
Radio is a community radio station run by members of the women’s Self Help
Groups (SHG) in Orvakal village, Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The
SHG members actively involved in running the station are all from rural poor
families, mostly Dalits and minorities. Many of these women are minimally
educated and have had no media production exposure whatsoever. They, however, are
now capable of producing varied radio content. The women hope that the radio
will help them better deal with the issues facing them and in spreading
awareness.
Realizing
the role that Community Media can play in development, empowerment and the
right to information, SERP (Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty) decided
to setup community broadcast centers under the World Bank funded ‘Velugu’
program.
“Community
Media is a tool that can be used to strengthen cultural rights, especially the
rights of marginalized communities. It is an important tool for those who are
traditionally un-represented by mainstream media, providing them access to the
means of communication,” believes CEO, SERP, K. Raju.
The
women that make up the membership of Orvakal’s Mandal Samakhya (MS) are very
dynamic. Many of them have courageously battled their poverty situation to rise
to a level of self-sustenance. They had all taken control of their lives in a
less than conducive environment. Many had set the agenda for development by
taking strong stands against the issues that were holding them back--gender and
caste discrimination, alcoholism, illiteracy, child-labor and debilitating
poverty. It was only natural for them to move one step further and produce
their own media rather than blindly consume everything that mainstream media
pushes onto them. The programming is done in the local idiom, using local,
voices, artists, situations and images, making it more recognizable to the
community. The local community identifies with this local flavor and is
motivated to discuss the issues presented in the programs.
Tajunisa
Bi, member Orvakal VO (Village Organization), feels that “the programs will
make people pay attention to local problems and might help solve them faster.
Rather than going from door to door to talk to the people individually, we can
cover the entire village with only one broadcast. And the format makes
listening more interesting too.”
When
the women of the Orvakal MS found out they would be getting their own radio station
they were very excited. They still talk about how they gathered to discuss what
the station would broadcast, what people would expect and how they would make
it work. They had a lot of questions. “Can we listen to it on any radio? Will
we be able to hear it throughout the village? How can we make programs about
the groups and conduct trainings using the radio? Is it possible to use it to
tell (SHG) members about (SHG) meetings?” They seem to have affirmatively
answered their own queries quite effectively.
Trying to grasp the basics
of radio programming was a daunting task for the SHG members. It is difficult
enough for an educated, urban dweller, let alone people who had spent most of
their lives without electricity. The women took on the challenge anyway. With
the help of CALA (Cultural Action for Literacy and Awareness) an NGO, SERP
organized a three-day workshop on issue identification, confidence building,
voice modulation, and scripting for radio. At the end of the workshop the women
wrote and recorded their first program.
The first program had a
message by the Velugu minister and the SERP CEO and was followed by the various
sections-- News, Play, Interviews, Songs and a Documentary. The program even
had a song from a group of Meghalayans, who were in Orvakal learning to form
and sustain SHGs and VOs. Another highlight of the program was an interview
with the students from the Bhavita School--the child-labor bridge school. The
interviewer dwelt on their experiences as laborers, their transition to student
life and their plans for the future. After the interview the girls sang a
motivational song that they had learnt from a group from Nellore. Proving that
songs educate and inspire collective action, many of the listeners started
singing along with their radios the moment they heard the first few bars.
The topics the women plan
to cover are diverse--education, gender and caste sensitization, agriculture,
health, history and culture. And they plan to use various methods to convey
their messages--documentaries, plays, songs, jokes, humor and interviews.
Local happenings and news;
localized news on health; local agricultural news and weather updates; local
commodity prices; folk songs, myths, stories: commercial media broadcasters
would never air this content, dealing specifically with a particular village.
But all these topics would find a place on Mana Radio. The information, being
region specific, would therefore be more reliable and accurate.
Mana Radio has already
received many messages of support and encouragement. Letters came from around
the state and emails from Bangalore, Bombay, the USA and Canada, hailing the
effort as a step ahead for development, women’s empowerment and the community
radio movement. Lakshmi Prasanna, the youngest budding broadcaster, feels very
gratified with all the good wishes and encouragement. “When we started I was
not very confident,” she admits, “but hearing that so many people believe in us
and receiving all these messages has made me feel more confident.”
As
a tool the women immediately recognized the uses they can put the radio station
to. They sit excitedly discussing all the programs that they will make and the
impact that these will have on the village. Zubeida Bi wants to interview
various Government officials. “I want to ask them about their pro-poor
initiatives and the successes of these programs, if any. Tajunisa wants to make
her next program on watersheds and Lakshmi Prasanna is preparing to document
folk songs and stories from the mandal.
This community broadcast
center gives the villagers the means to control the information that they
receive, a tool that has traditionally been in the hands of the rich. Using the
radio the women hope to be able to spread information about the issues faced by
the rural poor in programs made by those who know the problems best…the rural
poor.
Source:
radio.oneworld.net
Project Contact:
Ms
Meera Shenoy
Advisor, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, Hyderabad
DDS
and Community Radio
A
short introduction by P V Satheesh, Director, Deccan Development Society
Under
the Regular Programme special project "Women speaking to women community
radio" the Deccan Development Society (DDS) was supported with funds and
technical expertise to establish a community radio station in Pashtapur, 100
kilometres south of Hydrabad, the provincial capital of Andrapradesh. Deccan
Development Society is an NGO entrusted with the implementation of the elements
of UNESCO's Learning without Frontiers Programme and is expected to utilise the
women managed community radio station to be a part of the LWF programme. DDS
has involved around 70 women organisations, most of which are organised by low
cast Dalit women, in managing and production of programmes for this radio
station. Currently the studio facilities are being used to produce and
distribute audiocassettes on numerous issues related to women empowerment.
However,
the actual radio broadcasting at the station, in spite of its long time
readiness to go on air, has been hampered because the Central Government has
not approved DDS request for a community broadcasting licence. The government
is currently discussing the new broadcasting legislation under which it might
be possible to issue a licence to Pashtapur Women's radio.
Many
global examples demonstrate the potential and viability of community radio.
Apart from India’s own experiences in rural broadcasting, many of these could
also serve as models for similar initiatives in India outside the state
framework. The Supreme Court’s reaffirmation in 1995 that the airwaves are
public property has re-energized the movement towards a media based on
community participation in a non-profit mode.
The
Bangalore Declaration on Radio of September, 1996 has stressed how community
radio would: “besides educating and entertaining people, connect people with
people through participatory or circular communication, connect with
organizations and communities, and finally, connect people with government and
public service agencies”.
The
recent decision of the Government of India to auction FM radio frequencies in
different parts of the country to the private sector has while opening up the
available media space, does not address the issue of offering licenses to non-governmental,
non-corporate community radio stations. It is in anticipation of the expansion
of this policy to include community organizations, the Deccan Development
Society (DDS) in Zaheerabad (Medak dist), Andhra Pradesh proposes the setting
up of a community radio station. The UNESCO has recognized the long services
rendered by the DDS in the region with regard to empowerment and education of
the poorest of the poor women and facilitated funding for establishing a radio
station in Machnoor village.
The
DDS project to establish a community radio is perfectly in accordance with the
global recognition of the need to democratise the media of communication. The
Milan Declaration on Communication and Human Rights passed at the 7 th World
Congress of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters held in
Milan, Italy in 1998 called for International recognition of the community
broadcasting sector as an essential form of public service broadcasting and a
vital contributor to media pluralism and freedom of expression and information.
Deccan
Development Society (DDS) is a grassroots organization working with Sangams
(village level groups) of poor women, most of who are Dalits. The Society has a
vision of consolidating these village groups into vibrant organs of primary
local governance and federate them into a strong pressure lobby for women, poor
and Dalits. The Society facilitates a host of continuing dialogues and debates
with the public, educational and training programmes to try to translate this
vision into reality.
The
poor dalit women who are members of the DDS sangams have their own expectations
from a radio of their own. Their arguments are extraordinarily original and are
unmatched for their logic. They have suggested that a radio of their own would
provide more effectively a medium for articulating locally relevant issues, in
their own language, and in their own time. For instance, many have felt that
mainstream media have marginalized information specific to certain crops such
as millets and other minor grain that are central to their food security and
dietary requirements. For the women who are equipped with extraordinary oral
narrative skills, radio is a natural medium. The rich cultural traditions of
Telengana could be better sustained through a radio station that caters
specially to the needs of the region.
Based
on these felt needs and UNESCO’s interest in women’s development and
democratisation of communication media, DDS was identified as a suitable
partner for UNESCO’s “Women Speak to Women” project. As part of this, DDS has
initiated necessary steps for establishing a radio station.
It
is proposed to operationalise a low-cost radio station, subject to issuance of
a license by the Government of India. The FM station is designed to work on the
audio cassette technology. It has a 100 watts transmitter, which can reach a
radius of 30 kms, which is roughly, the coverage area of DDS.
Once
the station is in operation dalit women from 75 villages will own and operate
it. They will bring their form and content into it and make it a tool for their
horizontal communication with their communities as well as to reach out to the
outside world. They have already recorded over 150 hours of programmes and are
also editing them into one hour broadcast modules.
Programming
content of the station seeks to serve the information, education, and cultural
needs of the region. Programmes would promote the following:
Information specific to agricultural needs of
semi-arid regions
Education and literacy – both formal and non-formal
Public health and hygiene
Environmental and ecological issues
Biodiversity and food security
Gender justice
Local/indigenous knowledge systems
Local cultures, with emphasis on the narrative
traditions of song and drama
The
DDS is currently being assisted by development and communication experts from
universities in the region, such as the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural
University, the University of Hyderabad, Osmania University, the National
Institute of Rural Development, and the B.R. Ambedkar Open University.
Discussions are in progress about the possibility of linking with the Open
University for broadcasting their educational material over the community radio
station.
As
the women get equipped with the capacities to express their thoughts, their
knowledge and their vision for the future, a major breakthrough would have been
made in providing a low cost communication technology for the education of
deprived rural communities.
Source:
www.ddsindia.com
Project Contact:
Dr
P V Satheesh
Deccan
Development Society
Flat
No.101, Kishan Residency,
1-11-242/1,
Street No. 5,
Shyamlal
Buildings Area
Begumpet,
Hyderabad
- 500 016
Andhra
Pradesh
Telephone:
040-27764577, 040-27764744
Telefax:
040-27764722
COMMUNITY RADIO – KUTCH MAHILA VIKAS SANGATHAN (KMVS)
The
radio serial Kunjal Paanje Kutchji [Sarus Crane of our Kutch] produced
by Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan(KMVS) has been awarded the Chameli Devi
Jain Award 2000 by the Media Foundation in New Delhi on March 29, 2001.
This
weekly serial was the result of a highly rewarding collaboration between
several persons and organizations. Scripted by Paresh Naik and mounted with the
direction support of Drishti Media Collective in Ahmedabad, the
serial was probably the first sustained effort at the use of radio for
development by a voluntary organization in our country. Though scripted and
directed with outside professional support, the program sought to provide a
platform for local expression and dialogue - through participation by local
communities in the drama, song, and news-reporting.
The
Centre for Educational Innovation, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad,
supported KMVS in conducting village-based surveys to assess the impact of the
radio program on the ground. The first survey conducted three months after
broadcast indicated a dedicated listenership of 6%. After 10 months of
broadcast, this figure had grown to 50% of surveyed Kutchis and 80% of the
radio-owning population of Kutch.
After
completing 53 episodes in December 2000, KMVS continues its intervention in
radio through a new bi-weekly 15-minute radio program called "Tu Jiyaro
Ain" (Tu Zinda Hai!) in March 2001 in the aftermath of the earthquake,
once again with the support of Drishti Media Collective. The program is in a
magazine format, featuring a range of interviews, songs and profiles, and is
conceived as a platform for the eq-affected to air and share their concerns
about rehabilitation.
For
both these programs, broadcast from All India Radio-Bhuj, KMVS is financially
supported by UNDP-GOI, including the cost of commercial airtime.
Source:
www.indiatogether.com
Project Contact:
KMVS
Email:
kmvsad1@sancharnet.in
Those
living in interior Pune villages will now be able to avail expert medical
council well within their means, thanks to a unique telemedicine program.
The
Pune district administration has teamed up with www.doctoranywhere.com
and Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) to launch a telemedicine
service from a government primary healthcare center (PHC).
The
service, says the Chief Executive Officer of Pune district administration V.
Radha, will reduce the traveling time and expenditure of the poor villagers.
The
villagers rush to big cities to meet specialist doctors. Since their relatives
often accompany the patients, the cost mounts up. The service launched at three
primary health centers is targeted at the rural masses, Radha told IANS.
There
are 88 PHC's in Pune district, each manning five to six sub-centers. The PHC's
are manned by two doctors each and equipped with basic medical facilities,
including operation theatres, laboratory and a pharmacy. The staff consists of
15 personnel who travel to the sub-centers to implement government programs on
primary health, vaccinations, leprosy and AIDS.
The
telemedicine project, she said, will ultimately connect all the PHC's in the
district. In the first phase, three PHC's in Wagholi, Chakan and Paud regions would
be linked with the district administration of Pune and the specialists.
"If
we have the headquarters connected with these PHC's, we can respond
immediately. If there is an emergency, we can at least rush medicines. There
are at least five to six doctors always present at the headquarters who can
respond even if there are no specialists."
As
part of the project, a two-day training program was conducted recently for 12
doctors. According to Chetan Shetty of doctoranywhere.com, "These doctors
along with the doctoranywhere team will train the key users of the computer and
impart training about the software provided for telemedicine at each health
center. A supervisor and nurse will also be trained," he told
IANS.
He added that internet connectivity was not a problem in most districts of
Maharashtra.
Suresh
Ramu of doctoranywere.com said most PHC's were operational from the premises of
the district administration run schools and most schools had computers that
could be used to provide this service
Ten
specialists (two each from each category) have been chosen from dermatology,
nephrology, neurology, cardiology and gastroentrology. Doctors at the PHC's
will refer complicated cases to the specialists in major cities who in turn
will give their advice within 24 hours.
The
TCCI has donated three Pentium computers for the pilot project. The district
administration will provide computers to other PHC's.
The
service will be started at the PHC's at Hole in Baramati tehsil, Otur in Junnar
tehsil and Nirgudsar in Ambegaon tehsil within a month and in another 40 PHC's
within a year, said Radha.
Source:
Bytes
for All/India Abroad News Service
Project Contact:
A1, Hermes Vishal, Meera
Nagar,
North Main Road, Koregaon
Park,
Pune 411001, India.
Ph: 020-4001251, 6055393
Apollo
Hospitals Telemedicine project, started in 2000 in a sleepy village in Andhra
Pradesh, is now present in over 11 remote locations in India, connecting them
to centres of medical excellence in Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. The project
has already benefited over 3749 patients. In a move that will strengthen the
reach of medical excellence to the North-East region of the country, Apollo
Hospitals Group recently launched its telemedicine link between Indraprastha
Apollo Hospitals at Delhi and Naga Hospital at Kohima (Nagaland), the third
consecutive link by the group to the region.
The
Telemedicine Center at Nagaland has been set up by Apollo in collaboration with
Marubeni India Pvt. Ltd. and the active support of the Ministry of Information
and Technology.
The
link will enable medical practitioners of the state to access expert advice
from specialists at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, allowing for live and real
time discussions of cases, ready transferability of medical records and images
and even real time assistance from Delhi for complex procedures being
undertaken at Kohima.
The
Delhi-Kohima Telemedicine Link was inaugurated from Delhi by Pramod Mahajan,
minister for Parliamentary affairs, Communications and Information Technology
with S C Jamir, chief minister, Nagaland who presided at the inauguration from
Kohima. Also present at Delhi were Rajeev Ratna Shah, secretary, Department of
Information Technology and Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals
Group.
Speaking
at the launch, Mahajan said, “The need for quality healthcare is today emerging
as one of the most fundamental issues for the nation. With medical centres of
excellence located only at the major metros, it is imperative for the
development of the nation that concepts such as telemedicine, that bridge these
critical healthcare divides must succeed. I congratulate Apollo Hospitals Group
in taking the lead, yet again, in bringing the international quality healthcare
within the reach of our people and addressing this critical need of even our
most distant fellow countrymen.”
Speaking
on the occasion, Dr Prathap Reddy said, “Telemedicine as a technology has not
only emerged as a tool to expand the reach of medical facilities to the lengths
and breadths of the nation, it has emerged as a driver of societal change,
bringing traditionally distant communities closer to each other. We believe
that telemedicine, as a concept, will go the distance in bringing the people of
the country closer together while furthering our mission here at Apollo of
bringing healthcare of international quality within easy reach of every
Indian.”
The
Delhi-Kohima telemedicine link will enable the transfer of valuable opinion and
interpretations to complex medical cases, and also the transfer of Patient data
and images using the telemedicine software MedIntegra. It will also enable
specialists from Delhi to view, in real time, images such as Color Doppler,
Ultrasound, PFT, TMT, ECG, Digital Stethoscope, Digital Microscope, among
others. In addition to these, facilities such as Color Doppler, Ultrasound,
PFT, TMT, ECG, X-ray have also been provided at the center at Kohima.
It
is expected that the telemedicine facility will do away with the cost of
travelling from Kohima to bigger cities for medical treatment as well as
improve the quality of medical expertise available at Kohima itself. The
telemedicine facility will also be used for Continuing Medical Education (CME)
for the local doctors of Nagaland, enabling them to upgrade their skills by
attending video-conferencing based medical programmes offered by Apollo
specialists.
The
Apollo Hospitals Group is an acknowledged leader in telemedicine in India.
Under the aegis of its division called The Apollo Telemedicine Enterprises
Ltd., the group has already set up over 10 telemedicine link ups between the
Apollo Institutions at Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai and distant locations
across the country. The group also partners with government organisations such
as ISRO to provide telemedicine facilities to the far-flung areas of India.
Source:
/www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com
Project Contact:
Apollo Telemedicine at 703.288.1474
Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to build a dedicated health
satellite which will take telemedicine to the remote areas of the country. It
is evaluating the necessary systems and the feasibility of having one such,
according to the ISRO Chairman and Department of Space Secretary, Dr K.
Kasturirangan.
The
satellite will be the first of its kind in the world and may take 36-42 months
to be realised. Meanwhile, the organisation has begun working with hospitals,
medical and engineering students and assessing the ground systems across the
country.
Dr
Kasturirangan was speaking here on Monday at the launch of Karnataka's first
telemedicine project put up jointly by ISRO and Narayana Hrudayalaya of
Bangalore.
The
healthsat would tentatively have 12-14 transponders and a simple ground system
that could be operated on minimum cost. It would provide telemedicine and
tele-education for paramedics.
Dr
Kasturirangan said ISRO planned to have one telemedicine project in each State.
It already supports the Apollo-SHAR project in Aragonda near Chittoor (Andhra
Pradesh) with Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. It is working with SRMC, Chennai, to
connect Andaman & Nicobar Islands, while exploring projects for Ladakh and
the North East. The other ISRO projects cover Tripura, Assam, Lakshadweep and
Orissa.
The
Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre which is co-ordinating the
project plans to expand the telemedicine network by including more hospitals.
Telemedicine
would save costs and needless commuting for patients. Establishing ground
systems may cost around Rs 17.5 lakh. With volumes, the cost would
significantly come down.
The
Karnataka Telemedicine Project which was inaugurated by the Chief Minister, Mr
S.M. Krishna, on Monday, links the 70-bed Chamarajanagar District Hospital and
the NGO-run Vivekananda Memorial Hospital at Sargur in HD Kote with Bangalore's
super speciality cardiac care centre, Narayana Hrudayalaya.
ISRO
had provided bandwidth on Insat 3B while Hrudayalaya had supplied medical
equipment.
The
images were being transmitted within two minutes against the standard of six to
eight hours, Dr Deviprasad Shetty, cardiothoracic surgeon and Managing Director
of Hrudayalaya, said.
The
twin pilot projects cover a population of nine lakh within a radius of some 300
km, according to Dr H. Sudarshan, State Health Task Force Chairman, who runs
the NGO Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra for tribals in B.R.Hills.
The
Sargur unit has seven doctors treating tribals from around and is adding a 40-bed
hospital soon. The telemedicine service is free for the poor while others will
be charged a user fee of Rs 100 a day.
Source:
Apr
09, 2002
Project Contact:
Dr
Devi Shetty,
Narayan
Hrudayalaya
Email:
hrudayalaya@sify.com
THERE’s
every chance that you would miss his single-storied house-cum-office in Mendki
village. Except for the nondescript 2’x1’ ft signboard placed above the
entrance with a cryptic `Soya choupal, Mendki’ written on it, there’s little
evidence of what’s inside. In fact, till the end of 2000, few of his neighbours
knew about Yugalkishore’s latest endeavour. But now, at least 800-1,000 farmers
in the village have joined Yugalkishore’s e-choupal community. And for ITC’s
International Business Division (IBD), which began the initiative in June 2000,
Mendki is one among 2,500-odd villages in Madhya Pradesh (MP) where a quiet
digital revolution is reshaping the lives of farmers.
So
has ITC jumped onto the Internet bandwagon too? Well, not exactly. ITC, which
exports Rs700 crore worth of agricultural commodities (and hopes to increase
this to Rs2,000 crore by 2005), has discovered a way to bypass the age-old mandi
system and buy directly from farmers. Till the end of last year, it picked up
almost Rs50 crore worth of soyabean crop from farmers in MP. In the next couple
of years, it expects the offtake to pick up to about Rs150-200 crore. By buying
directly from farmers, ITC derives two primary benefits. It can source produce
of a far better quality. This commands a higher price in the international
market. That’s because most farmers tend not to mix impurities the way a
middleman would. Besides, by avoiding the intermediaries, ITC is able to save
an estimated Rs250 a tonne. The farmer, too, stands to gain much more than he
would if he sold through the mandi. For a long time, farmers had no
other option but to hit the local mandis, where they realised only
70-75% of the end prices. But now they can hope to do better. For India’s
antiquated agricultural system, that’s a big deal.
On
the face of it, it didn’t take much. Inside Yugalkishore’s house, all that ITC
set up was a battery-powered Internet-enabled Pentium desktop computer along
with a printer. It takes him long to log on – connections are just as bad in
Mendki as they are in the cities or even worse. But eventually the screen
flickers into life with the itcibd.com portal.
The
portal carries the mandi prices across the state, which is fed in daily
by each of the mandi commission agents who have joined the ITC system.
It also offers the prices that ITC hopes to buy at. So, once the farmers of
e-choupal know the prevailing prices at the mandi as well as at the
choupal, they can choose to either go to the mandi or take their produce
directly to ITC’s processing plant 25 km away. Last year, Yugalkishore, who is
designated as a sanchalak or lead farmer, persuaded a few to try the
latter.
Since
then, Yugalkishore’s make-shift Internet cafe has been humming with activity.
The reason? It isn’t as if they get better prices. On the contrary, most of the
time, ITC’s prices are almost the same as those prevailing in the mandi.
Sohan,
a young 30-year old farmer, tells us why he prefers to stick to the e-choupal.
"At the mandi, we are made to wait for hours on end and treated
very shabbily". If the mandi is crowded, it takes him two days to
dispose off his produce. So he has to spend money to stay the night. Then he
has to pay for the cost of bagging his produce (Rs15 a tonne), transportation
(another Rs15), and on loading and unloading (Rs3 per tonne). "Besides, as
the commission agent at the mandi uses a small tol kata (weighing
balance), very often I end up getting paid far less. I also lose a fair deal
because the agents tend to throw a lot of my beans away while evaluating
quality," says Sohan.
So
are the tangible savings in the choupal model significant? Mohit Arora, ITC’s
manager of the e-choupal initiative in Indore, says savings range between Rs400
and Rs500 a tonne for an average farmer depending on how far he is from the
nearest processing centre or storage point. At ITC’s huge processing centre in
Devas, the motto is customer relationship management. The layout at the factory
has been designed so that waiting times are reduced to two hours. Material
handling systems ensure that tractors, trolleys or trucks can directly unload
their produce without spilling a single grain, a modern weighbridge ensures
precise weighing and cash is paid to the farmer in less than 10 minutes.
That’s
not all. Based on the tests done on the produce in the plant, ITC is quickly
able to assess quality standards across the various choupals. "We then
advise the sanchalak, who, in turn, is able to get the farmers in his community
to improve their yield and quality standards", says Arora. Through the
same portal, ITC also provides information on weather, soil conditions, online
diagnostics of pests and diseases, information on the crop status across
different districts and a few advisory services, such as what fertilisers are
best.
"Very
often, the farmer is unable to figure out price movements. So, by the time he
reaches the mandi, the price may have come down," Arora says.
Through the choupal, that uncertainty is removed. And due to the improved
realisations, the farmer can now invest in better inputs like seeds,
fertilisers and pesticides. IBD CEO S. Sivakumar says he hopes to provide more
customised information soon so that individual farmers have greater incentives
to log on.
When
ITC began experimenting with the model, the masterstroke was to appoint a lead
farmer as the community leader for each choupal. This way, ITC did not have to
invest in separate kiosks; farmers accepted the concept better if the
coordination was done by `one of them’. Sivakumar says: "Of course, we had
to choose the sanchalak very carefully. He couldn’t be too big a farmer.
Otherwise, his interest levels in making the choupal work would be low. If it
was a small farmer, he wouldn’t be accepted by the rest". Now, ITC invests
Rs60,000 – 80,000 on the IT infrastructure, while the sanchalak pays for the
operations (telephone and power), and the local canvassing. For the sale of
soyabeans, he earns a 0.5% commission.
Of
course, there has been the issue of the role of the mandi commission agents.
Once the asymmetry of information was knocked out, his power in the channel
would reduce. "We were clear from the outset that intermediaries had a
role to play and that e-biz couldn’t disintermediate them", says
Sivakumar. So a new role was envisaged for them: they would be samayojaks, or
coordinators. Not only would they use their ties in the villages to nominate sanchalaks,
they would also be responsible for the relevant mandi documentation. In
far-flung villages, situated miles from ITC’s processing centres, the samayojak
would also aggregate the grain and bring it to ITC. For this, he would get a 1%
commission. Initially, most commission agents were understandably apprehensive.
Just about a dozen agents among the 150-odd agreed to join the system, while
about 100 said that they would prefer to wait and watch. But, over time, they
too began to see that the change was inevitable. "We told them that if
they were doing five units of profit on five units of transactions, that would
come down to one unit of profit. The upside was that he would now do as many as
50 transactions".
After
the network was put in place, ITC began exploring how to tap into the farm
inputs market through it. In late 2000, it tied up with Monsanto to sell seeds
directly. This year, it has looked at gas lanterns and other assorted items.
The sanchalak collects the money from farmers and places firm orders.
The relevant company then ensures delivery. For this service the sanchalak
earns about 2-3% commission. The samayojak, in turn, receives around
1-3% depending on the product sold.
For
ITC, this is an important revenue stream (it gets 2-3% commission from each
transaction). The participating company gets a direct channel to the customer
that is entirely pull-based. As one farmer told us, he is now aware of what to
buy and when, and not depend on the dealer, who is prone to giving incorrect
information that sometimes ruins the crop. But the key for ITC is to preserve
the integrity of the relationship with the farmer and carefully monitor the
products that flow through the channel.
Sivakumar
says he is treading carefully. "We won’t do anything to damage our
relationship with these farmers." That explains why the placard ITC has
put up just above the entrance to Yugalkishore’s house almost meshes with the
rest of the rustic surrounding.
Source:
Businessworld,
February 04, 2002
Project Contact:
Foundation of Occupational Development (FOOD India)
Eight
years ago, Loyola Joseph of the Foundation of Occupational Development (FOOD India),
began asking himself: "How do we leverage information and communication
technologies (ICTs) for development?" FOOD India, a nongovernmental
organization based in Chennai, South India, has 102 project sites and conducts
activities, experimentation, and research related to information and
communication technologies for development (ICTs), employment generation, and
other aspects of sustainable development.
Last
year, Joseph’s search for a way to harness technology to improve the lives of
local people led to the creation of India Shop, an e-commerce site through
which local e-marketers sell the work of Chennai-area artisans to customers
around the world.
Creating
employment, supporting artisans
Joseph
recognized the potential of e-commerce to create employment and generate income
for young people living in the vicinity of Chennai — particularly to improve
the lives of young families. "People spend up to half their salaries on
transportation to work, and paying for their meals while at work," says
Joseph. "At the same time, their children often come back from school to
empty homes because both parents are at work when school is over. If the
parents can work from home, they will not only save money, but can also care
for their children."
In
addition to improving the living conditions of the e-marketers, India Shop
generates money for the artisans who work in hundreds of villages surrounding
Chennai by promoting their products. This keeps centuries-old traditions alive
— the handcrafting of saris and the sculpting of Hindu deities, for example.
Getting
the project off the ground
Joseph,
who has a master’s degree in social work and ran his own manufacturing firm
before founding FOOD India 20 years ago, worked with Santosh Narayanan, FOOD
India’s ICTs coordinator for the past seven years, to create India Shop.
"I
first got the idea of setting up an e-commerce site when I attended a Pan Asia
Networking (PAN) workshop," remembers Narayanan. Held in
Singapore in 1999, it introduced participants to various aspects of e-commerce,
from the technicalities of building a Web site to the legalities of
intellectual property.
India
Shop became a reality with a $60,000 grant from the International Development
Research Centre’s (IDRC) PAN program initiative. PAN supports applied research
in ICTs carried out by Asian developing nations. In addition, FOOD India
contributed $40,000.
The
funds were used to cover the cost of staff salaries, 15 personal computers, a
digital camera, a wireless router, training for 100 e-marketers, research
expenses including reference material (such as guidelines for e-marketers that
FOOD India developed), and participation in e-commerce conferences.
Training
e-marketers to make sales
FOOD
India recruits young unemployed or underemployed college graduates as
e-marketers, trains them, and encourages them to work from home using a
computer and an Internet connection. Some e-marketers work individually, while
others organize in small groups to share equipment.
FOOD
India’s e-marketers are trained to provide online customers with detailed
information about their potential purchases — sometimes even visiting artisans
to take photos of the texture and embroidery designs of saris, for example,
then emailing the images to customers. They also learn the importance of
consistent follow-ups to close sales, and how to seek out new customers by
visiting chat-rooms and discussion groups about Indian culture. They even pack
and ship out the orders.
E-marketers
earn a sales commission of 10 % of the value of all the goods they help to
sell, or between 2,000 to 10,000 Indian Rupees a month (CA $65 to $326). To
date, India Shop has trained and employed 100 people aged 22 to 30, 40 % of
whom are women. The site has 1,800 products crafted by 40 artisans available
for sale, and brings in an average of nearly $3,200 a month, mostly from
customers who live beyond India’s borders.
In
future, India Shop plans to revise its business model to become
self-supporting. It will increase prices and start charging a margin for
transactions to finance its continuation and growth.
A
model for other businesses
India
Shop’s success has resulted in a number of spin-offs. The site attracted the
attention of the Government of India, which awarded FOOD India a five-year
contract to establish and manage Internet Bazaar, a cyber shopping mall
dedicated to promoting artisans and crafts throughout India.
India
Shop is also the model for a new home-based merchandising business that will
provide income and employment for women. Under this initiative, local women
will manage a virtual supermarket. Each will receive a CD-ROM containing a list
of basic household necessities, such as sugar, tea, soap, and laundry
detergent. They will then take orders from their neighbours, consolidate the purchases
using applications on the CD-ROM, e-mail the bulk orders to a local warehouse,
sort the delivered orders, and distribute them to customers.
Source:www.idrc.ca
Project Contact:
Foundation
of Occupational Development
63-C
Block, 1st. Floor, Bharathiyar Complex
Jawaharlal
Nehru Road
Vadapalani
Chennai - 600 026.
E-mail: food@xlweb.com
Leprosy
still remains a public health problem in India—contributing approx. 400,000 new
cases to the global pool of lepers. WHO estimates there are about 1.3-1.5
million leprosy patients with grade-2 disability in the world.
Bombay
Leprosy Project (BLP) is a NGO that has been engaged in leprosy control work in
the slums of Mumbai for more than two decades. BLP is the first NGO to
demonstrate that the leprosy services can be carried our along with general
health care services in an integrated manner—applying physical, surgical and
vocational rehabilitation-- in urban areas with enormous cost savings to the
donors. Besides providing free medical relief to leprosy patients, BLP has been
providing disability services to a large number of patients coming from all
parts of the city, its suburbs and even from the neighboring districts.
BLP
has undertaken several clinical trials with newer drugs, which are of great
significance in today’s context for achieving the goal of leprosy elimination
and ultimately reaching a state of a "World Without Leprosy". The
deformed leprosy patients receiving disability services at their door-step need
to be followed up to ensure service compliance and to evaluate the progress of
disability status. Hence, these patients need to be monitored for a long time,
even for as long as 8 to 10 years, using a team of community volunteers (CVs)
trained by the paramedical workers (PMWs) of BLP. These CVs, involved in
suspecting new leprosy cases among the slum population by door-to-door survey,
also provide domiciliary medical treatment, monitor the progress of nerve
damage, offer field based disability care and identify clinical problems
occurring in some of the patients who have already completed the prescribed
course of treatment. While performing these activities, they come across
several medical problems in the field for which they need to seek advice from
the doctors available in the Central Monitoring cell for instant consultation
on the management.
The
advent of modern telecommunication equipment such as ‘Mobile phones" and
"Pagers" has come to BLP’s rescue to overcome the communication
barrier. These gadgets enable the workers to establish contact with the Central
Monitoring cell even from the depths of the congested slums and rural areas as
the communication network has wide coverage (roaming facility). BLP is the
first project to use these instruments in leprosy management since 1998 to
establish contact with the CVs working in the slums as well as remote areas and
thereafter give specific advice or instructions on the management of complications
that might be encountered by them. The PMWs & CVs working in the field are
equipped with mobile phones and pagers which have made a breakthrough in
providing instant medical consultation to leprosy patients thereby preventing
the occurrence of consequences such as reactions / neuritis and development of
new disability, by providing instant (on the spot) decisions on the immediate
treatment with steroids. This technology has been found useful in improving
patient care and also in avoiding delay in communication.
Source:
www.datamationindia.com
Project contact:
Dr. R. Ganapati,
Director,
Bpmbay Leprosy Project (BLP),
11, VN Purav Marg,
Sion-Chunabhatti,
Mumbai – 400 022.
Tel:022-5220608 / 5223040;
Fax:022-5296486
E-mail:blproject@vsnl.net
Internet Kiosk for Slum Kids – A Delhi Govt Effort
The project has
been conducted in the Ambedkar Nagar colony of the capital. In
these huge ghettos, live hundreds of thousands of untouchables even now in
abject penury; working on menial jobs such as cleaning of roads, offices,
working in private homes (usually for cleaning the toilets), setting up little
hand-carts selling odd fruits or vegetables. The average income in Ambedkar
Nagar does not exceed US$80-90 per month. To make matters worse, the families
are big – there is no concept of family planning here due to lack of literacy.
To help improve the
conditions of these slums as well as to spread computer awareness; the Govt. of
Delhi initiated a "slum-computer kiosk" project in
November 2000.
The kiosk has been
pulling a record crowd of kids. They want to spend hours and hours simply
surfing sites in English, which they understand very little, and those in
Hindi. Quizzes, interactive puzzles excite them. They go over the puzzles again
and again; surf the sites they like for long hours. A computer-literate
attendant keeps a careful eye on the kids. Sometimes the jostling of the kids,
wild cries and rejoicing as well as fighting becomes too much even for the
attendant to handle; however he always has the residents of Ambedkar Nagar
around him; so they are happy to spring to his assistance. Together they
discipline the kids; even threaten them at times that they would take away the
machines and close down the kiosk. This has an immediate sobering effect. And
they go back to their positions in the queue, waiting for their turns or the
kids simply bunch up with other kids and learn together. They feel sad whenever
the Internet is down; or the machines malfunction. In sheer frustration &
anger, choicest abuses are reserved for the authorities as to why they cannot
have uninterrupted Internet access; and why the UPS does not support
power-backup for longer hours.
The mothers willingly send the
kids away to the kiosk for self-learning and for self-training. They feel
overwhelmed after their kids started going to the kiosk; their grades
have improved in Math as well as in Sciences. After December, the
schoolteachers of the kids are happy with their increasing concentration and
discipline. Besides they are managing to learn English all by
themselves. Mothers are demanding separate hours for their daughters and have
already written to the authorities requesting for separate time slots for the
girls. The mothers are pressing the authorities for more and more content
on the Net as well as more and more of multimedia based
self-paced educational material.
Project Contact:
Secretary
(IT),
Govt.
of NCT of Delhi
3rd
floor, Bikri Kar Bhavan,
I.P.
Estate,
New
Delhi -110 002
Email:itdelhi@bol.com
Freedom Foundation: Using the Net to Help
HIV-positive children
The Freedom
Foundation is a Bangalore-based voluntary group that offers treatment programs
for alcoholic, drug-addict and HIV positive people.
Currently the
Foundation supports 141 HIV positive kids apart from several hundred HIV
positive adults; and offers them a home away from their homes. The Foundation
also offers anti-retroviral medication.
The foundation is
headed by Dr Ashok Rau, who waged a relentless battle to persuade several
schools to admit their children; before he could convince a Missionary Charity
School to admit their HIV positive kids.
Gradually, these
kids have started learning English apart from Kannada. The school teachers have
also been very helpful in their assimilation process. The Foundation allocated
the computers that they previously used for maintaining their accounts for the
education of these children. The machines were upgraded and made net enabled,
the kids were given basic training to use computers and the net. They were
provided details of bulletin boards and URLs of other HIV positive
organisations; so that they could chat with their compatriots elsewhere.
The kids started
using the machines for long hours simply chatting with other HIV positive kids
from other countries. The chats present a very fascinating perspective into the
minds of HIV positive kids and this may be novel experiment first of its type
in India whereby technology has been deployed for restoring self-esteem and
confidence in a group of kids who had nothing but despair and fear in their
hearts.
Ten year old Mahesh
asked his HIV positive friend, a much older & wiser boy from South Africa
"How long are you going to live? I want to meet you, but may not get the
chance at all. I am too weak to travel to South Africa. No one will take me
there. My friends here tell me I may not live to see this Diwali. Can you come
down to Bangalore and meet me and my other friends?". With utmost wisdom
and care for his long-distance friend in his heart; the South-African kid tried
to counsel Mahesh. He said "Don't be afraid. Even if you are not there,
all of us will meet in the heaven and celebrate Diwali & Christmas
together. Don't despair; you may get well. Our Doctors were telling us we now
have a good chance of recovery".
Twelve year old
Ramaiah mailed his Thai friend a colored scanned picture of his favourite star
Shahrukh Khan. His friend sent him a thank you e-mail from Bangkok and asked
him if he wanted the picture of his favourite hero who happens to be a Thai
basket ball player. Ramaiah was thrilled to know and narrated the e-mail to his
HIV positive parents seeped in India's film-culture; that basket ball players
could be celebrities as well.
Rau says that the
greatest contribution of this experiment has been that now these kids don’t’
think about death all the time.
Project Contact:
Ashok Rau
Freedom Foundation
Trust
180 Hennur Cross,
Bangalore-560 043
e-mail: freedom@bg1.vsnl.net.in
TCS – Using
Computers for Adult Literacy Programs
TCS has used the primers made
by National Literacy Mission/State Literacy Missions to develop a multimedia
program for adult literacy.
400-450 commonly used words are selected and are woven into a multi-media based
learning program using 'puppet show method', stories, music, and pictures, to
make the content interesting for adult learners. Starting from simple words,
the program moves on to reading sentences.
The program focuses on people
in the age group of 20-50 years, who have missed schooling and are speaking
some dialect of their mother tongue. The program is also running in Tamil,
Telugu and Hindi. Programs in Marathi, Bengali and Kannada are also being developed.
It has been observed that
gradually the learners begin to take an interest in learning how to write their
name or put signatures. In about 40-50 hours of learning, people start reading
posters, their ration card or children's report cards, bus routes, cinema
posters and (basic) newspapers.
The project has made use of the company's used computers, and more than
400 PCs have been donated.
Project Contact:
Maj. Gen. B. G. Shively
Consulting Advisor,
TCS,
54B Hadapsar
Industrial Area, Pune 411 013
Tel: 020-6871058
Fax: 020-6810921
Swayam
Krishi Sangam (SKS) is a Grameen Bank replication MFI that serves very poor
women in highly drought-prone Deccan region in India, where inhabitants dot a
sparsely populated rural landscape. As of February 2001, SKS served 1,790
customers, for whom agricultural work, including horticulture and livestock
rearing, is the main economic activity. SKS operates four branches in 102
villages. Since its inception in 1998, the total disbursement had been $116,000
and the repayment rate has been 100 percent on income generating loans (a fifty
week term and twenty percent flat interest), seasonal loans (a twenty-five week
term with twenty percent flat interest), and emergency loans (interest-free,
with a four to twenty week term).
From
the onset, SKS intended to base lending operations on a highly specialized
Grameen ("village") banking model adapted to customer needs. Before
offering services they organized participatory rural appraisals with villagers
to conduct market analysis. The analysis showed villagers wanted flexible
products with small repayments that would be commensurate with their low
incomes of under a dollar a day. Also, since they spent their entire day
working in the fields, they could only spend a minimal amount of time to obtain
those products. The challenge then was to deliver very small loans and accept
very small deposits, in a sustainable manner, to villagers who lived quite a
distance from one another.
SKS
implemented common efficiency-building methods such as streamlining products
and introducing a computerized MIS, to make their operations most
cost-effective. But, as with many other MFIs, eventually these methods hit the
"efficiency wall". Since SKS delivers very small loans to poorest of
the poor, and since loan officers face high travel costs to reach remote
villagers, SKS needed to operate at higher levels of efficiency than other MFIs
in order to reach sustainability.
Management
explored other options for increasing efficiency, and found that the biggest
gains could be realized by streamlining the 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. field meetings
between loan officers and customers. Customers can only meet during these
morning hours as they spend rest of the day working in the fields. Since loan
officers only have about two and a half hours to meet with groups residing at
great distances from the branch office, the officers could only visit two
centers each morning, 80 customers per day. Loan officers spend greatest
portion of their meeting time simply recording transactions in collection
sheets and customer passbooks. In response, management devised the Smart card
method to increase loan officer productivity - increasing number of group
meetings loan officers could hold each morning, thereby increasing customer
load and improving the bottom line.
How
It Works
Smart
cards offer a way for loan officers to dramatically reduce the time they spend
with each client, reducing the center meeting from 60 to 30 minutes. It would
further allow loan officers to see one or two extra centers on a given day
(depending on the population of the village). With a small hand-held computer
allocated to each loan officer, and a Smart card in the possession of each
customer, loan officers reduce meeting times and increase productivity
significantly.
Before
Smart cards
Customers
gather one morning each week for their center meeting. Each meeting lasts about
an hour, with approximately one minute dedicated to each of the maximum of
forty customers, comprising of up to eight solidarity groups of five women. A
loan officer spends up to an hour traveling to the meeting place in time for
his first meeting of the day, which begins at 7:00 a.m. and ends at 8:00 a.m.
He meets with each customer and updates payments manually, once in her passbook
and once in her own records. After the first meeting, the loan officer must
travel to the next village, which can take up to a half hour, to arrive at the
next meeting by 8:30. With the remaining 60 minutes before customers must go to
work, the officer can conduct only one additional meeting.
After
Smart cards
With
the new technology, the loan officer downloads borrower information from the
main computer terminal into his hand-held PC each morning before his first
group meeting. At this meeting, each group member gives the loan officer her
Smart card in place of a passbook, which the loan officer inserts into a
special reader on his handheld computer . Using a custom-designed interface,
the computer displays information from Smart card. Both, handheld device and
Smart card then record the transaction, whether with a single button-press if
the customer makes her payment in full for all loans (as is typical in Grameen
methodology), or with an entry representing that she is a few rupees short.
Loan officer then repeats the process for deposits and loan disbursals. He then
returns the Smart card to the customer and continues with next. Transactions
that usually take a minute each can be done in half the time. After he has
finished meeting with all his groups, he returns to the branch office and with
press of a button uploads all information into the main system. A read-only
computer is left in the village for customers to check their balances.
The
Technology
The
environment of the Deccan region, where SKS operates, ranges from hot and dusty
in dry season to monsoons in rainy season, management chose the sturdiest
hand-held technology available. Instead of PDAs (though small and sensitive to
adverse conditions), SKS chose the slightly larger and better protected
hand-held computers (costing $670), which have a bigger terminal and a more
protective shell. Though sensitive to dust and humidity, they are slightly
sturdier than the PDAs. As majority of transaction/loan information is held
either in Smart card (which costs about $3.30 each) or in main computer terminal,
memory capacity of hand-held computers need not have to be as large as that of
a typical PDA. Reduction of staff time at each village and increased travel
time leads to decrease in operational expenses (see Table 2), despite the
prohibitive capital expenditure.
Although
some practitioners worry how customers will react to new technology and whether
they will trust and embrace it, the founder of SKS notes that for customers SKS
serves, an original passbook is just as foreign to them as is new Smart card.
Ability to accept and work with new products and technologies is a requisite
for any villager who wants access to financial services from SKS. However,
during the first year when customers have inhibitions and lack confidence in
Smart card, SKS hand-held computers will be equipped with a printer to issue
receipts. This will be phased out eventually, lowering hardware and stationery
costs.
Added
Efficiency
Operating
costs of SKS increased with investment in hardware, software, and training. SKS
forecasts an increase of 50 to 100 percent in loan officer productivity and 200
percent in load capacity, and a savings of at least 18% in operating costs.
Further, SKS forecasts savings accrued at $5,000 per year per branch, which
translates into $250,000 per year for an institution with 50 branches, or $5
million per year for an institution with 1000 branches.
Enhanced
Financial Control
By
automating nearly 200,000 transactions, processed manually earlier by loan
officers, Smart card reduces fraud and error. When using Smart cards and hand
held computers any errors in recording a transaction are shown in real-time so
that the correction can be made immediately. Potential for manual errors is
further eliminated as recording a full on-time payment requires the push of
only one button on a hand-held device and another keystroke uploads data onto
main computer terminal. Accounts can be reviewed daily as they are directly
transferred to the main computer/database literally hours after group meetings,
thereby eliminating fraud and error. Smart cards will enhance information to be
updated on real-time basis and consequently allow management and stakeholders
to monitor operations and respond to problems at the earliest. Strong financial
controls foster trust from customers as well as from investors.
Scalable
Financial Services
Smart
cards can manage numerous and diverse products. SKS foresees upcoming
opportunities for the product. For instance, customers who need emergency
loans, for hospitalization etc., have access to cash advances 24 hours at a
branch ATM rather than wait for weekly meetings. A customer who consistently
makes timely repayments may be rewarded special privileges with a
"gold" card. Additional services may include credit linkages with
local merchants, pre-approved lines of credit, and ATMs in market towns. Groups
with excellent repayment histories may be able to skip group meetings
altogether and carry out all their business with an ATM. SKS expects that it
will discover even more uses for the Smart card in the future.
Source:
www.digitalpartners.org
Project Contact:
Vikram
Byanna Akula
CEO,
Swayam Krishi Sangam
Email:
vikram@sksindia.com
Website:
www.sksindia.com
JAWS –
Software for the Visually Impaired
A
project to impart computer education to blind school children has been launched
on a pilot mode in Andhra Pradesh. Karishma Enterprises, Mumbai; Freedom
Scientific Inc, US; the Devnar Foundation for the Blind; and the State
Government's Office of the Commissioner for the Welfare of the Disabled, here
have come together in this initiative.
Called
the India IT Freedom Project, the initiative aimed at imparting computer
training to blind students from class VIII, with the curricula being the same
as that taught to children in regular schools, said Dr A. Saibaba Goud,
ophthalmologist and founder-trustee of the Devnar Foundation.
The
Florida-based Freedom Scientific has donated $50,000, including its screen
reading software named JAWS, while Karishma Enterprises has helped in the
design of the teaching curriculum with the software. Devnar Foundation has
provided facilities for training school teachers on the software and the State
Government has given the hardware support, which includes multimedia computers,
UPS, course material etc.
The
pilot project would cover 10 schools for the blind, covering 300 students in
Andhra Pradesh, he told newspersons on Monday.
The
requirements to make the entire project operational are a computer with
multimedia, JAWS software which converts a normal PC into a talking computer,
an open book OCR reading software, braille printer for providing course
materials in braille and access to printed computer manuals and books.
The
first batch of 10 teachers from 20 schools for the blind in the State has been
trained on these software and hardware tools. There are nearly 2,500 visually
impaired students in these schools.
Mr
Charles Mullins, Vice-President, Freedom Scientific, said, "I visited
six/seven schools for the blind in four States during February 2002 and chose
Hyderabad to formulate this collaborative project. We want to extend this
project to other parts of the country in a phased manner, depending on the
progress here."
He
said the software and the training would help the visually-impaired children
access computers, send and receive e-mails and surf the Internet, read printed
text or documents, access information, read classics and also independently
write their exams and thus eliminate the need for a scribe.
The
JAWS software had provided such empowerment in the US and in many European
nations, Mr Mullins said.
Mr
Ram Agarwal of the Karishma Enterprises, the distributor of the software in the
country, said students in higher classes starting from VIII were best suited to
take up computer training so that they could be on par with other children in
regular schools.
An
exhibition of the new technology devices developed worldwide for the blind and
the visually impaired has also been organised at the National Institute for the
Mentally Handicapped, an institute under the Union Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment.
Source:
Hindu
Business Line
Aug
06, 2002
This
project was conceptualized more than four years ago, when IT awareness in the
country was limited to big urban centers only. The fact that illiterate and
semi-literate farmers accepted the system and are operating it confidently, is
an achievement by itself.
Computers
are being used for a very basic activity like collection of milk for the past
so many years and rural masses are comfortable with it and have reposed their
confidence in it. Local entrepreneurs could spot the latent potential and have
spread the system in the remote areas, through diligent work and timely
support. They kept their system, without any monetary compensation for weeks
together, for the DCS to try out and feel comfortable with it.
The
popular and widespread usage of AKASHGANGA breaks the myth that ICT will not
help in solving the day-to-day problems of the rural masses. On the contrary,
the farmers are very open to adopting new technologies (without being granted
any kind of subsidies!), provided it delivers tangible benefits.
In this case the benefits can be summarized as: * Speedier collection of milk
(shorter queues!) and timely disbursement of payment. * Lower prevalence of
corrupt practices. * Maintenance of DCS accounts is regularized and on time.
AKASHGANGA
(meaning ‘The Milky Way’) is being used at the Dairy Cooperative Society (DCS),
which is a farmer-owned, grass-root level unit in the cooperative structure.
All the farmers (members) of the DCS congregate twice a day at its premises to
sell milk.
Before
AKASHGANGA, all the milk collection activities were performed manually. Due to the
climatic conditions, milk would often get spoilt, as producers had to wait in
long queues. Secondly, the payment for the milk sold would get held up. The
simple technology used in this product has enabled the timely collection of
milk and thus, generated higher profits for the producer, now paid well in
time.
A basic milk collection transaction done by AKASHGANGA comprises:
* Measuring weight of milk with Electronic Weighing Scale
*
Fat testing using Milko Tester
*Capture
of unique member ID by the PC software
*Printing
of pay slip, with all this data and the amount to be paid.
The MSDOS based system offers scalability for an information-kiosk like
service. Thus, the Dairy Information Services Kiosk (DISK - currently being
tested at a pilot site) has been added as an enhancement, which offers a
multitude of animal husbandry related services, besides maintaining databases
and offering Internet connectivity at the DCS (Dairy Cooperative Society).
The key success factor in the cooperative movement is the ease and efficiency
of the milk collection system, whether done manually or with IT. The
elimination of the middleman, accurate fat measure of milk, thereby enabling
the producer to get a higher profit are the basic pillars on which the design
of the cooperative movement stands.
AKASHGANGA
has been implemented at more than 400 locations. At each and every location, it
is being used 365 days in a year, and for more than 6 hours in a day.
Source:
www.globalideasbank.org
Project Contact:
Mr Ujval Parghi
Shree Kamdhenu Electronics Pvt Ltd
102, Shivam Complex, Nanabazar, 388120
Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand
Ph: 2692 - 35390
ujvalparghi@hotmail.com
Baatchit – Simple IT for Rural Masses
ONCE
UPON a time, villages had their own centres of information-exchange. These were
the 'chaupals' (meeting centers and talking-points), as they're described in
North India. But then, along came TV, and broke down society into individual
members, each caught up before their own idiot box.
This
may be a somewhat simplistic explanation of things. But Anirudh Pathak (27) and
his team is working to build up options that give the villager information --
that he or she needs. Not the irrelevant information from thousands of
kilometres away that the television provides at the click of a remote-control
device.
This is essential, says Pathak (27), more so with the eclipse of the
'chaupals', which served as a place both for information exchange and
micro-business dealings. "We felt the need for a place for people to come
together, interact, dialogue and find solutions to their own economic
development," says Pathak.
Tikawali was the village chosen for this experiment. It is located some 10 kms
from the north Indian town of Faridabad in Haryana (about 40 kms from Delhi).
This is primarily agricultural land. It's peopled by villagers who lack the
information of market prices, or about jobs available, and where to find better
prices for their produce. They grope around for details on what options are on
offer for their educated youth.
In
January 2002, Jiva Institute partnered with Media Lab Asia to launch its first
ICT initiative for sustainable development titled 'Baatchit'
(www.jiva.org/baatchit).
(Media Lab Asia or MLA is a network of R&D institutions working to bring
the benefits of new technologies to everyone. To meet this goal, it is working
in partnerships with research institutions, industry and NGOs. Mumbai-based
Media Lab Asia has been set up as a not-for-profit company with seed-funding
from the Government of India.)
Baatchit means "chitchat" in Hindi. Jiva Outreach says it wants to
"enhance socio-economic development of rural communities by making
innovative use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)".
From
the North Indian town of Faridabad, Jiva -- which itself runs an innovative
website called jiva.org, and undertakes various activities including publishing
creatively-done books on computing -- has been working on this project since
early 2002.
Now,
it also runs a 'local' television outfit called 'Baatchit TV'. This offers
training to youngsters on how to become videographers. Each day, it puts out
'Tikawali news'. Other non-television 'channels' offer information on health,
development, or employment. There is also a small amount of wholly-local advertising,
and some potential of entertainment.
"This
whole project is based on the principle of ICEO -- information exchange,
community-building, entertainment, and opportunities (of an economic
kind)," says Pathak.
Tikawali
is the pilot village for the project. Interactive sessions and workshops have
been organized at the Baatchit center to raise awareness about local issues, to
inspire dialogue and to facilitate networking and collaborative efforts that
enhance the socio-economic development process.
A
prototype for the audio-visual Baatchit Community Software has been prepared in
collaboration with the villagers of Tikawali and experts from Media Lab Asia.
Currently,
it includes modules on employment (Rozgar), a video message board (Aapka Manch)
and an iconic search (Jankari) with a facility to add new modules as the
software evolves with time and usage.
The
software's iconic interface has been specially designed to cater to those who
are not literate.
Baatchit's
mission is "to establish a nationwide network of Baatchit centers which
provide methodologies to enable sustainable development of villages."
It says once the Baatchit centre is successful at Tikawali, it could be
replicated in other villages. The goa is to assist villagers in establishing a
"continuously developing economy within the village".
In
doing so, the project wants to "identify human systems" as they exist
within the village, and find out ways these could be enhanced by using ICTs. It
also wants to develop a visual community software system to support the
existing human systems which contribute to the area's socio-economic growth and
development.
Big
dreams? Yes, and challenging too...
Villagers,
feels Jiva, could gain from creating local video content -- including news and
entertainment shows -- that would go on to raise awareness about the needs of
their own community, and the solutions for problems they face.
Not
that this project is just fazed by the new technologies. Simpler and age-old
communication tools -- like a physical messaging board, on which notices are
simply stuck -- are also put up on display.
There
is a 'rozgar-board' (employment board) linked up with three private placement
agencies that offer jobs from the nearby town and even Delhi. This is not too
far a distance for villagers to go to if the job is suitable.
"One
of the first thing people needed was jobs. There were tenth, twelfth standard
students and graduates who simply didn't know what to do with themselves on
getting through the exams. Now they're beginning to find work. If someone
needed an errand boy in Delhi, he could as well get him from the village rather
than from the city itself," says Pathak. Of course, skill upgradation and
getting more creative jobs will be a long-term concern.
This
experiment brought in officials to the village, where they interacted with
locals and replied to their questions. These interactions were video-taped. The
aim? To keep a record, to explain to others of what was possible, and also to
build the confidence-levels of villagers.
A
group of ten village youth were trained to be videographers. Each evening, they
broadcast a 20-minute long programme through cable TV. This reaches some 16
villages in the area and is called 'Baatchit TV'. "The idea is to have
local content generation. We're also doing (video-based) documentation on
social issues," says Pathak.
"Conceputalisation,
story-boarding, casting, scripting and editing is all being done by the village
youth themselves," says he, as he displays examples of their work stored
on a notebook he's carrying. "People thus begin to realise their own
issues and their own solutions," he adds.
Groups
of women took up the opportunity to start micro-entrepreneurship activities;
some went into pickle-making, others started a sewing centre. Jiva worked on
attempts to teach basic economic and business-related concepts to the 'barefoot
entrepreneurs'.
Likewise,
a Tikawali Bazaar is being set up. To give it a 'branded' identity, shops in
the locality are being painted a distinctive yellow, each carrying the name of
the village bazaar!
"Every
shop will carry the template. The idea is to draw people from the nearby towns
and cities to buy in their supplies from here. Not only they get a better
price, but the vegetable is plucked from a nearby field just half-an-hour away
from the town," says Pathak.
Villagers
are being helped to get into fields that would have a local market. One person
is working on setting up a battery-charging system that could cater to
villagers running tractors in this agricultural-area.
"Earlier,
villagers just continued living as they were. They were not thinking of
bettering themselves. This dialogue-making process brought their problems
forward, and helped achieve a sharper understanding of this. We said, we would
not do anything ourselves (and the villagers would have to take the
initiative)," explains Pathak.
To
work-around their way past problems like illiteracy, the interfaces of the ICT
programmes use less of text. There are icon-based interfaces, and a lot of
multilanguage solutions. Using ICT, the villager is sought to be given
information on jobs available. Searches for information brings forth
audio-visual results.
"We're
presenting this center as an incubator for socio-economic development. Once our
videographers get trained, we will be asking them to move out, so that their
place can be taken by a fresh lot," says Pathak.
Jiva
Institute's chairman is Dr Satya Narayana Dasa, who has been working on the
goal of aligning traditional Indian knowledge systems with modern sciences and
technologes. Dr Dasa graduated from the prestigious IIT (Delhi) with a Masters'
degree in Induatrial Engineering in 1976, and holds a doctorate in Sanskrit
besides either other degrees in various subjects.
Source: bytesforall.org
Project Contact:
Anirudh Pathak
Jiva Institute
Sector 21-B
Faridabad 121001
Haryana
Phone: 0129-5431198, 5429640
Tel/Fax:
0129-5295547
E-mail: anirudh@jiva.org
In
pursuit of the ‘technology at your doorstep’ mantra, scientists at the Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh, have developed a
battery-powered `infothela’ or `IT kiosk’ equipped with an assortment of
Internet and telecom facilities to impart the benefits of information technology
to people in remote areas.
According
to professor Prashant Kumar of the IIT’s mechanical engineering and design
department, a prototype of the infothela was ready and would work with the help
of BSNL’s cable network.
In
the first phase, experts plan to conduct the services of this appliance between
Kanpur and Lucknow, covering about 50 villages.
The
all-weather infothela has been designed keeping in mind the outdoor services
that it will provide. It is shock-and dust-resistant and will offer the user
17-colour display.
The
200 kg, Rs 70,000 wireless infothela, developed under the IIT’s Media Lab Asia
Project, will enable the common man to access information about education,
health, the weather, agriculture and employment and keep him abreast of new developments.
It
will also come in handy in checking land records. The most attractive feature
about the infothela is the `digital mandi’ (digital market), which will provide
an electronic platform for the business of agro-commodities.
Professor
Prashant said: “We envisage that application of the infothela will touch the
roots of the village economy. This task can be accomplished by enabling digital
marketplaces for agro-commodities. This will also alleviate the cash crunch
faced by farmers through the active participation of various banking and
para-banking nstitutions.”
Source: Times News
Network, November 16, 2002
Project Contact:
Prof.D.Kunzru
Dean, Research &
Development,
Dept. of Chemical Engineering,
IIT, Kanpur - 208016
Telephone: 0512-597578(off);
597193(dept.), 598780; 590636(home)
Fax : 0512-590104; 590134
Email: dkunzru@iitk.ac.in
The
Indian farmer has always suffered for lack of knowledge about prevailing
agricultural prices and demand at the Mandis. The long chains of vested
interests and the sheer spread of the markets not only makes it difficult for
them to take decisions regarding produce mix, but also deprives them of whatever
little bargaining power they may have had.
In
a recent initiative to correct this anomaly, various state agricultural
marketing boards (APMCs) have come together to form an Agricultural marketing
information network (Agmarknet), hosting a portal called agmarknet.nic.in. This
project has a budget of Rs 10 crore.
The
website has links to various APMCs and mandis across the country, as well as a
few live links to major mandis like the Navi Mumbai APMC.
It’s
possible to check out at this site the delivery positions and prices of
various commodities and vegetables at practically every mandi in
India.
Commodities
are divided into seven groups here — cereals, pulses, fibres, spices, fruits,
vegetables and oilseeds. Surfers can search mandi-wise for commodity, or
commodity-wise in each mandi. Presently, Agmarknet reports information from 73
markets across India.
Agmarknet’s
proposed aim to create a ‘nationwide network for speedy collection and
dissemination of market information’, could potentially reduce prices paid to
intermediaries and bring benefits to a wide cross section of farmers and
consumers.
Secondly,
Agmarknet also aims to computerise data about market fees and
charges, arrivals, dispatches, sales transport, losses and wastage and various
issues like APMC infrastructure and taxes.
It
envisages connecting, eventually, 670 mandis and 40 agricultural boards across
India. At 75, Maharashtra has the maximum number of wholesale markets, or nodes
connected, followed by Andhra Pradesh (65) and Uttar Pradesh (64).
The
National Informatics Centre of the Government of India says that it will
procure, maintain and install the hardware and software for the sites and train
the operators to upload and uplink. Each wholesale market or node that is
connected to Agmarknet will pay Rs 2,750 per year as internet access
charges.
Contact:
Mr
Moni,
DG,
NIC
Phone:
4362790
Email: moni@hub.nic.in
Fully Computerised Gram Panchayat
Situated about 25 km from
Bangalore, Belandur gram panchayat is the first in Karnataka to computerise its
administration. What makes this project unique is that it is an independent
initiative funded by the village development committee (VDC).
Belandur is a
comparatively well off panchayat, which is assured of year-round irrigation
from the Belandur lake. (Rice cultivation and vegetable farming are the
mainstay.) However, this prime water source is being polluted by the
large-scale dumping of sewage from Bangalore city, an issue of major concern here.
The main industry in Belandur, which is garment manufacture, employs a large
section of women from middle-class households. There are also a large number of
government employees living here, who commute to the city.
Belandur's e-governance
project started with a single computer that was brought to the village in 1998
to replace the panchayat's old typewriter. This brought Belandur to the notice
of Compusol, an IBM and Microsoft joint venture company, which is currently
involved in research and development of e-governance software packages to suit
the Indian context. At present the panchayat office has three computers, one
for each of the bill collectors.
Working closely with the
panchayat members and village residents, Compusol managed to devise software
packages to suit the needs of panchayat administration, handling the recording
of property details, tax collection, data management and so on. Since this was
the company's maiden venture, the packages were provided free of cost. The only
investment made by the panchayat was towards the purchase of hardware, a total
of around Rs.70,000.
Property-related records such
as land revenue details and land dimensions are now stored in the computer.
Records of bills paid are made available to members of the public. Since the software
uses the local language, ordinary residents have experienced no problem
with getting involved. In addition to speeding up processes such as tax
collection and property transfer and reducing the workload of the three bill
collectors, the e-governance project has set off other developments. Following
the computerisation of tax collection, the panchayat has recovered huge
outstandings. This has allowed the panchayat to channel funds for
development projects such as macadamising roads and digging borewells. Now
every household has daily water supply and pays Rs.25 a month as water tax.
Project Contact:
K Jagannath,
Panchayat President
Ph: 080-8439888
(Off), 080-8439301 (Res)
Email:
belandur@mantramail.com
Rural
Relations: Spreading Computer Literacy
in Schools
Call
him a walking talking encyclopaedia of rural India or just a lover of Indian
villages. No matter how you describe him, the fact remains that Pradeep
Lokhande has personally visited over 4,000 villages in India, recorded their
populations, markets, education systems, consumer habits, and can rattle off
these figures just like that.
That's
creditable. But more so is the fact that he hasn't stopped at just travelling
or documentation. He has used his travels to learn about the great digital
divide between rural and urban India and is working towards taking computers to
28,000 village schools. Since February 2000, he has already installed 102 used
computers, the first one being at the Mandardev village school in Maharashtra.
All
this under the aegis of "Rural Relations", a rural consumer relations
organisation that he runs in Pune. Its activities span 28,000 villages in
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and giants
like P&G and HLL have hired his services. It was during his market research
and regular communication with the rural communities of students, teachers and
parents that he began to understand the urgent need to eradicate computer
illiteracy and inculcate a scientific temperament among rural children. He
realised that a mere introduction to the computer - the epitome of a modern
lifestyle - can do wonders for the confidence of these children.
"When
these village children go to cities for employment or further study, they often
get baffled at the sight of computers," says Lokhande. "One cannot
imagine life without computers and yet such a large segment of our students
have never even seen one, forget worked on one. It is possible that this can
lead to a low self-confidence." Which is why, Lokhande's primary aim is to
make rural children aware of a computer and its functions. "I want them to
touch, try out and feel the PC," he says. Toward this end, Lokhande and
his team have gone about collecting used computers from donors and gifting them
to schools free of cost. The initial cost incurred by them is Rs. 1000 or so,
and that comes out of Lokhande's pocket.
But
the computers are not randomly distributed to just about anybody. The team
first reviews the request from the school. It then checks if the school has
(preferably) a student population of at least 200, at least one teacher who has
received computer training at a government workshop and that the school does
not already own a computer. It then provides the computer for its secondary
students, believing that children in this age group are more open to new
information.
The
team works on the premise that after this initial introduction, the school will
try and harness enough funds on its own to either upgrade the existing computer
or then buy a new one and initiate computer education in the school. The
current figures show that 37 of the 102 schools have been pushed into buying
new computers or upgrading the systems by the students.
Lokhande
has a reason for the use of second-hand computers. He says, "Even at home,
we see that nobody lets kids touch brand new items. They are kept as display
items, and that's precisely what we don't want. Moreover the cost factor is
crucial." About 10 % of the computers have come from a leading research
organisation and the remaining from other private firms or individuals, whom he
is especially grateful to. Unfortunately, the corporate industry has not been
too generous in its support.
But
lack of enthusiasm is not new to Lokhande. He remembers the launch of this
project in 1998, when he had asked children from the rural schools he had
visited to write letters and seek assistance from 28 public personalities.
"These were luminaries from diverse fields like IT, media, business and
even politics. I asked the kids to write to them and tell them that with the
coming of the 21st century, they wished to be computer literate too and sought
their support." Needless to add, he did not receive a single positive
response. That was when he started off on his own, beginning with Mumbai and
requesting citizens there to donate their used PCs.
"However,
the response of the students is unbelievable. The day we take the computer to a
school is a once-in-a-lifetime moment for many of them. The way their eyes
light up makes it all worthwhile," says Lokhande, with visible emotion.
This particular project has been detailed with the "non-resident
villager" as his target. His reasoning is that each of us has our roots
somewhere in some village and to honour those roots, we must come together and
give something back to the rural societies.
For
that matter, his entire rural relations outfit functions on a similar
philosophy. In his objective to market concepts and not products, he begins by
introducing subjects such as oral care and hygiene and then bringing in
toothpastes and soaps. Following that, he ensures sustained communication with
the villagers, continuously sending them health care and other tips and
inviting their feedback. The result being that hundreds of letters pour into
his office and the communication chain is never broken.
It's
not surprising that Lokhande has been able to relate so well to the rural
sector. He himself hails from Wai, a town about 140 kms from Pune. Having gone
through the rigours of small-town life himself, he wishes to bring about a
change, either through his profession of rural marketing or then through his
vocation of community service.
Source:
www.indiatogether.org
Project Contact:
Pradeep Lokhande/ Ambar Adhav
Tel : 91 – 20 -
6811526
E-Mail
:rural@ruralrelations.com
Professor
Brij Kothari, associate professor in Ravi J Mathai Center for Educational
Innovation at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad conceived a project
that made literacy a sort of entertainment feature. He believes that adult
literacy programs failed because of their poor implementation. Kothari’s
program has a quiz interface called Kaun Banshe Aksharpati (Who will become
literary rich). It is computer software that will run on touch screen kiosks to
be installed in rural areas. It will basically test the literacy level of the
user and will generate a report in a field where the user has failed.
A
Web camera will record the user’s picture which will be displayed on the kiosk
screen where an anchor guides him or her through some pre-recorded helpline
messages. Characters will be displayed at the center of the screen and four
options at the four corners of the screen will ask you to identify the right
word. The user can then proceed to answer the next question out of a total of
55. After every five correct answers, a social message will be displayed and
the user will have the option to choose any song out of a jukebox, which will
be played with subtitles. The subtitles, Prof Kothari maintains, will reinforce
the relationship between what a user hears and what he can read. At the end,
the user gets a certificate, which he can print and maintain as a record. The
certificate will also reflect the areas of improvement in characters as well as
consonants. It also gives a critical feedback to the user as well as the
government as far as the level of literacy is concerned. The user can benchmark
his level and try for a better level next time till he achieves his target.
Prof
Kothari, a PhD in developmental communication, says his model will generate
revenue and can be sustained for long. "The penetration will be enormous
and companies can take this opportunity to advertise their products through
these kiosks.
This
will also help generate revenues to run the kiosks," Prof Kothari informs.
The
government has already introduced computers in schools and almost all the
schools have PCs at their command. With no software to measure the level of
children’s education or the literacy level of the people in the area, the
computers have not given any real proof of their potential. Prof Kothari
believes that it should be either the government or an NGO could run the
program in the rural Indian populace. The software trial run is already over
and the interface is expected to be launched this year.
"Besides,
nobody will have to spend anything at all. A village entrepreneur will install
the kiosk and earn money from advertising. What the government or the NGO need
to do is bridge the gap between a potential advertiser and a kiosk owner,"
he says. Taking the same concept as a base, Prof Kothari also plans to explore
the medium of TV, which has a larger penetration. The government spends
millions in producing UGC programs and airing them at a time when no one
watches them. But Prof Kothari plans to buy prime time slots from Doordarshan
to air a special kind of Chitrahar, with same language subtitling (SLS) running
below the screen from June this year. SSL costs a mere 1 paise per person per
year.
Source: www.dqindia.com
Project Contact:
Brij
Kothari
Wing
14, Indian Institute of Management
Vastrapur, Ahmedabad -380015,
Gujarat.
E-mail: brij@iimahd.ernet.in
The
UNDP-assisted project on GIS-Based Technology For Local-level Development
Planning was executed and implemented by the Union Department of Science and
Technology during November 1996 and December 2000, in association with leading
academic institutions, data generating agencies and Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) in the country.
Some
of the tools and techniques developed under the UNDP-assisted initiative
include the Geo-referenced Area Management or the GRAM++
GIS package and Decision Support Modules for selected sectors of local level
planning. Water resources management, land use planning, energy budgeting and
infrastructure development were identified as the key focal themes under the
project.
The
pre-cursor to this initiative was a UNDP-assisted project with the Survey of
India that focused on setting up a digital cartographic facility at the Modern
Cartographic Centre, Dehradun.
Through
the efforts of this centre, a digital cartographic database was
established in the country. Prior to this the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR) was assisted by UNDP to establish facilities for remote sensing
technology for land development at the All India Soil and Land Use Survey
Organisation.
Source:
www.undp.org.in
Project Contact:
P
S Acharya
Scientist,
Ministry of Science & Technology
Ph: 011 – 6567373
In
order to achieve fast and efficient Decision Support System, UNDP has employed
Geographic Information System for the Kutch district. The system is useful in
the processing of the survey data. Geodatabase is prepared by laying the
various databases on the district, taluka and village maps of the district.
Source:
www.undp.org.in
Project Contact:
Mausami
Soni
Gujarat
Disaster Management Authority
Ph:
9825095139
This
initiative aims at capacity building of public authorities for improving
citizens' access to information for achieving transparency and accountability
in governance at all levels. It will demonstrate the use of IT for efficient
information management and dissemination to strengthen the supply side of
information and at the same time it will use ICT based initiatives to
strengthen the demand side of information (through mass media campaigns,
networking of decentralised institutions etc) that is pertinent to a broad
array of services citizens expect of government departments, including
performance of poverty reduction programs.
Source:
www.undp.org.in
Project Contact:
Jt Secy, Dept of Personnel & Training
Ph: 011- 6106314
S&T
Applied to Rural Transformation (START)
The
program provides an opportunity to test, refine and demonstrate projected
models which seek to bring technology and people together. One technology-based
institution each in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, a CSIR
laboratory (RRL Bhopal) and an NGO (SRI Ranchi) act as pivots and mother
centres and support a network of twenty block level technology resource and
dissemination centres.
These
centres in turn, provide interface for communities, SHGs and NGOs to acquire
and utilise technologies relevant to their needs. Cementing this interface is
the use of IT which facilitates and enables rapid exchange of information
within the network and upstream between the TDCs and the wider scientific
establishment of laboratory and institutions.
Under
each TDC, there will be ten Technology Resource Centres each, which will all be
interconnected through the internet. The activities per se of the TDCs and TRCs
are not likely to be IT-related but the IT connectivity will help to exchange
and disseminate information.
Source:
www.undp.org.in
Project Contact:
Technical
Development & Application Centre,
Bhopal
Ph:
0755 – 48901
S&T Entrepreneurship Parks (STEPS) &
Technology Business Incubators (TBIS)
Under
this sub-programme, UNDP will support two of the 13 STEPS already established
by the Department of Science & Technology in different parts of the
country. These are the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and the PSG
College of Technology, Coimbatore. There will also be two TBIS, one at IIT
Delhi and one possibly at Annamalai University, Chennai (not finalised as yet).
The TBI at IIT Delhi will be heavily IT oriented. Also, all the 13 STEPS, the
two TBIS, DST and APCTT will be linked on the internet. APCTT, which implements
the sub-programme will create a web site for this purpose. Two NUNVs have been
recruited to operate this S&T database.
Source:
www.undp.org.in
Project Contact:
Dr
PKB Menon
Jt
Advisor, Dept of Science & Technology
Ph:
011 – 6517186
After
the super cyclone in 1999, every rumor of a new cyclone makes the village
people more than worried. It was like that in the year 2000, one year after the
catastrophe that affected the coastal area of Orissa and killed more than ten
thousand people. Having this in mind, the villagers from Balikuda district
started to abandon their houses when they heard that a new cyclone was going to
affect the area. It was just a rumor, but they were traumatized and reacted
instinctively trying to escape to a safer region.
The
villagers were desperate to get accurate and reliable information. The IT
Kiosks established that year by United Nations Information Technology Services
(UNITeS) helped the communities on disaster preparedness, as part of the
project Bridging Digital Divide in Disaster Prone Areas of Orissa. From
these IT kiosks, the community could access the Internet to get
information about weather and Disaster Preparedness.
The
Block Development Officer (BDO) and United Nations Volunteers were trying to
convince the villagers that the cyclone, that was actually forming, would not
affect the district. The people didn’t believe and kept leaving their houses.
“They were afraid of loosing everything again: family members, house,
properties, etc. They were in panic because they had suffered it just one year
ago, it was very recent”, comments the project coordinator, Sujit Mohanty.
The
computer, which is usually used as a source of information, at that time was
used also as a proof. The BDO and UN Volunteers gathered a group of villagers
in the IT Kiosk and showed them the US Navy website, where they found the path
of the cyclone that was going to affect the country. In fact, Balikuda was not
going to be affected, and that was the necessary evidence to calm the community.
After this exposure they stopped leaving the village and the life was restored
to normal.
“If
they had received a phone call or just an explanation, they would not have
trusted it. But seeing it with their own eyes, they started to believe. The computer
helped as a testimony, maybe in a way we have not imagine before”, concludes
the project officer.
Source:www.undp.org.in
Project Contact:
Sujit
Mohanty
Ph:
0674 – 534755 / 534850 / 534851
Website:
http://www.unites.org
The
project ‘One Village One Computer’ is for introducing IT solutions in backward
areas of Maharashtra, a state in India. The title is suggestive and it aims at
setting up of information centers for a group of villages around each center.
This center will act as an information + communication + education center for
that region. The center will be run by the local youth, will collect
information relevant to the local population and have local participation at every
step. All the information, contents will be in the local language Marathi,
owned and used by the local population. All such centers will connect with each
other voluntarily, pull together information, help each other on equal
footings. In developing this model primary importance is given for information
& knowledge, the human capital, training a large number of cadres step by
step in necessary IT tools and secondary importance is given for large
investments in hardware, connectivity etc. Hence any dedicated group can start
with almost nil investment locally and then grow step by step. This cost
effectiveness at the initial stage is important for a rapid and spontaneous
spread of the model. More resources needed can be added at a later stage. The
model is based on the principles of knowledge economics, particularly on the
Endogenous Growth Theory. The model also supports the efforts at creating
appropriate ICT technologies for backward areas like Simputer, WLL
communication technologies, Akruti Multilingual Software for Indian Languages
etc. Collection of useful and relevant information and drawing masses locally
in the project forms the first stage. The model is adaptable to the local
conditions of different locations. It can sustain itself and generate small
employment for the local youth. Over a period a database of natural and human
resources can be generated which will be vital for the local economic
development. The local educated youth will gain in IT education to begin with
and then provided with other e-educational resources for their further
development. Ultimately at the highest stage the model should lead to
generation of innovations at the local level. The innovations will be locally
relevant and suitable for backward situations and will not only technical in
nature but also in the fields of education, economy, culture and local
administration etc. It is not important to benefit people only materially
without empowering them in real sense. If confined to that, the local
population may get marginalised in spite being appeared to have progressed.
With adequate and appropriate databases at hand collected through their own
efforts, grass root level motivated groups can themselves analyse the data,
draw proper conclusions and orient their efforts towards desirable solutions
through agitation, if and whenever necessary. The model will seek for
collective solutions as against individualised solutions. No closed blueprint
of this plan is drawn and the model is kept open for experimentation and
emergence. Many times good experiments at the local level stagnate or die down.
If the people are empowered with IT tools, and IT developmental models, the
innovations and valuable experiments can be digitised and transmitted
everywhere. Thus the cutting age technology is to be introduced in the most
backward areas. To implement this project, these solutions are provided to the
existing social movements, grass root social organisations already working for
many years. These organisations are socially more aware and socially
responsible in their lives, aware about the developmental issues of backward
areas in India. A dedicated fresh local group of youth can also start. With
more experience such groups can be guided properly. If such cadres are made
aware of the powers of IT tools, are provided with appropriate technologies of
IT, modern analytical tools and appropriate developmental models for backward
areas, greater impact on the situation can be achieved. In essence: 1. IT and
IT tools should not be looked upon as external agents but should be integrated
in the development process itself. 2. The essence of Knowledge Economy and IT
is in its price and resource cost reduction and should be taken advantage of
fully in the developmental process. 3. Human knowledge assets, technology,
knowledge become critical in the Knowledge Era rather than traditional capital.
4. In the human history there were many path breaking technologies. People
always got benefited by the way of availability of the products of these
technologies. But the technologies themselves remained essentially out of their
reach. With the emergence of IT, now the technology itself becomes available to
the common man. 5. With IT, floodgates of knowledge have opened to the most
backward areas. 6. Women and ethnic groups world over are always kept away from
technology. For example in India women are not allowed to plough by customs.
Now it is time for them to get hold of the technology in their own hands. 7.
Many of the points mentioned above are the NECESSARY conditions available in
the situation and are by no means the SUFFICIENT conditions. Towards that lot
of work need to be done. 8. Technology is not something given but can be shaped
for the benefit of society. The same can be said of the social sciences. With these
pointers in mind we have made some experimentation in the state of Maharashtra
in four districts. In these we have identified people’s issues, collected
databases for that and focussed the issues as far as possible. In the process
we have used IT and empowered people in using the IT tools. We have planned to
focus women’s issues in the same way throughout the state of Maharashtra in the
coming months.
Source:
server778.dnslive.net/
Project Contact:
Anil
Shaligram
Project
Co-ordinater
Phone
number: (022) 5363122
e-mail: anilshaligram@yahoo.com
Shaligram
House Opposite Old Municipal Building Station Road (Subhash Road)
Thane
– 400601
Maharashtra
A
website called `Gramsampark’ has been developed in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
A complete database of available resources, basic amenities, beneficiaries of
government programmes and public grievances in all the 51,000 villages of
Madhya Pradesh can be obtained by accessing the website www.mp.nic.in/gramsampark/.
With
this, Madhya Pradesh has become the first state in the country to make such
information public and transparent, thereby making the system more accountable
to the people. Information is now just a mouse click away for anybody interested
in the development of Madhya Pradesh’s villages.
Gramsampark
has three sections -- Gram Paridrashya (village scenario), Samasya Nivaran
(grievance redressal) and Gram Prahari (village sentinel). An 11-point
monitoring system has been put in place where programmes are monitored
village-wise every month.
The
state government has decided to add four more programmes under the monitoring
system, which includes untouchability-eradication, women’s empowerment, water
conservation and campaigns for sanitation. The programmes include ensuring the
proper functioning of hand pumps in villages, ensuring the repair of defective
transformers within a week, ensuring regular teaching and distribution of
mid-day meals and regular payment of salaries to schoolteachers.
The
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh announced that the site would be
made public from October 2, allowing people to lodge their complaints and check
the authenticity of the information. He said that the chief secretary himself
would monitor all complaints and take the appropriate action. District
collectors could use the information to redress grievances.
Referring
to the website, Singh said that during the past few months, a wealth of data,
which was not available even with the concerned departments, had been
collected. He added that a separate software was being developed for cities
whereby all the information would be available on-line. People could lodge
their complaints on the website and there would also be facilities for on-line
payments.
Source: UNI, September
24, 2002
Project Contact:
National Informatics
Centre (NIC),
C-wing Basement, Vindhyachal Bhawan, Bhopal.
Karnataka
schools use computers to enhance learning
The
Karnataka government is launching 55 more community learning centres across the
state after the success of a project where computers were set up in 35 rural
government schools. Independent research commissioned to assess the impact of
the project indicates that there has been a marked increase in learning
achievement, following the introduction of computers.
The
project, a joint initiative between the government of Karnataka and the Azim
Premji Foundation, was set up on a pilot basis, in mid-2001. Its aim was to
demonstrate that technology initiatives, such as the use of software to
reinforce certain aspects of mathematics, geography, environmental sciences and
Kannada, have a positive impact on the interest levels of children and increase
their learning achievement levels. In this case, computers for education also
aimed at increasing attendance and enrolment rates.
The
new centres will be set up in the Chitradurga, Kodagu, Bangalore Rural,
Chikmagalur, Shimoga, Hassan, Davanagere, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara
Kannada and Tumkur districts.
Children
from Hemmanahalli village, in Maddur Taluk, 70 km from Bangalore, are
representative of the change that has taken place.
Twelve-year-old
Pratap wants to become a police inspector. His father, Shankar, is illiterate
and makes a living from one acre of land. Pratap wants to graduate and this is
driving him to study well. He is conscious that he is a first-generation
literate and is proud that he has taught his father the alphabet and also how
to sign his name.
Nandini,
also a class 7 student, wants to become a doctor. Her parents have studied upto
middle school. Her father, Mahadevappa, is a bus driver and the family lives a
frugal life. They are proud of Nandini. Nandini’s mother keenly follows up her
daughter’s progress in school.
These
children are completely at ease with computers. They enjoy learning and are
making the most of the opportunity offered to them. Though they operate in
Kannada, they now aspire to learn English.
Source: Deccan
Herald, November 24, 2002
Project Contact:
Azim
Premji Foundation
Head
- Advocacy and Research,
Azim
Premji Foundation
5,
Papanna Street, St.Marks Road Cross,
Bangalore
- 560 001
Telephone
: 91- 80 - 2272264 / 2273665
Fax
: 91 - 80 – 2291869
The
telephone is no longer a rarity, at least in some villages in Andhra Pradesh,
thanks to a unique experiment to make this modern gadget accessible to the poor
at a rate that is well within their reach
About
70 per cent of households in Kalleda village, in the Warangal district of
Andhra Pradesh, roughly 200 km from Hyderabad, have phones in their homes.
About 50 per cent of Dalit homes are also connected thanks to an initiative by
a Hyderabad-based NGO, the Rural Telecom Foundation (RTF).
The
experiment involves the sharing a single phone line by four households, a
concept that was used in the West in the initial days of the telephone, to
improve access and familiarise users with the advantages of the telephone.
The
International Telecom Union, a specialised wing of the UN recommends using
party lines to bridge the digital divide. Although the concept of a `party
line’ was incorporated in the Indian Telegraph Act, it was never tried out.
A
party line is `a telephone connection where two or more parties share a common
line to a departmental exchange’. The party line, renamed `gram phone’ by the
RTF, is extremely cost effective: it costs a mere Rs 12.50 per month for an
individual household. The user gets 30 free outgoing calls and an unlimited
number of incoming calls.
The
instrument with the outgoing call facility is placed in the group leader’s
house from where the outgoing call has to be placed. The installation charges,
of about Rs 800, were borne by the RTF for the 350-odd connections in the
village.
The
facility has become so popular that in the three months since it was installed,
more than 1,520 clients have queued up for it in the cluster of villages where
it is proposed to be introduced after Kalleda.
A
succinct comment on the utility of an easily-accessible phone line comes from
one of the villagers: whether for patti (cotton) or sampatti
(wealth) or aapatti (a crisis situation), a phone is helpful! Nakka
Sailu, a daily-wage earner, explained how, thanks to a phone call, he was able
to reach a relative who was waylaid by miscreants and left on the roadside near
Shyampet, 20 km away.
The
facility is also economical, since earlier not only would news of relatives in
other places reach the villagers late, but, in cases of emergency, they had to
visit them, thereby losing a day’s wages and spending an additional amount on
bus fare.
Madan
Mohan Rao of the RTF, one of the brains behind the project, said that for the
common man, the phone is a real tool of empowerment. “Next to death,
information is a leveller. The cost of accessing that information perpetuates
inequality,” he said.
Besides,
Madan added, the common or party line can help blur divisions in a
caste-ridden, unequal society. “Everything is a call away, from a doctor to a
politician to a government official. It also leads to a more responsive
system,” he said.
According
to the International Telecom Union, a one per cent increase in tele-density
(phones per 100 people) leads to a three per cent increase in GDP. Thanks to
the installation of the 300-odd party lines in Kalleda, this village is almost
on a par with the district headquarters of Warangal and the Andhra Pradesh
capital of Hyderabad. While tele-density in Warangal is 10.27 per cent, and in
Hyderabad 10.43 per cent, in Kalleda it is 9.59 per cent.
RTF
board member Anita Manwani says that every state government should consider the
gram phone scheme as a tool for creating basic infrastructure in villages.
Other members of the group, telecom expert Joseph Perneyezi and Uday Kumar (an
IIT Kanpur graduate), both USA-based, have jointly developed the know-how of
the low-cost party line. They donated their intellectual property to the RTF.
The
good news for potential phone service providers is that 95 per cent of gram
phone subscribers have paid up their bills. The poor, as numerous studies have
shown, are ideal customers, whether of small loans or as small entrepreneurs.
They merely want price-sensitive and efficient products and services.
Source: Deccan
Herald, September 29, 2002
Sashi
M. Kumar
Network
Deployment, Business Modeling, and Planning
Tel.
040-756-3831, 756-6655, 374-1067
email:
tsoft@hd1.vsnl.net.in
Kuppam: An ‘i-community’ in
the making
Even
as the Andhra Pradesh government is working to provide broadband connectivity
of one megabyte per second in each of the five mandals that make up the Kuppam
constituency, browser-based Web services to access government benefits,
agricultural information, educational resources and healthcare records, are
being test-run. With assistance from a global community leadership training voluntary
agency, World Corps, and the chief minister’s schemes for unemployed youth, a
new breed of Kuppam’s young entrepreneurs has come forward to set up a chain of
Community Information Centres (CICs). These local cyber dhabas also
serve as copier shops, telephone booths and dissemination points for a variety
of government welfare schemes.
A
correspondent from The Hindu, who visited the ‘intelligent community’ in
the making, as part of a media group, saw tangible signs that the Andhra
government’s thrust to harness IT as a socio-economic driver was bearing fruit.
Auxiliary medical personnel like midwives, who make door-to-door calls to the
64,000 houses in the five villages that make up this southern mandal in
Chittoor district, routinely enter data about births, deaths, immunisations
done, family planning measures adopted, etc, into a personal computer at the
nearest Primary Health Centre (PHC). As the second phase of the AP-HP effort
takes off this week -- to last one year in a total experiment planned for three
years – personnel will be provided hand-held computing devices where they can
directly log their entries in the field and put them into a base computer at
the end of a field trip.
Even
in the hitherto most ‘backward’ of the five villages -- Gudipally -- where
literacy is currently around 24 per cent, a single-PC CIC has sprung up. The
three young men who jointly run it supplement the income from browsers and
e-mailers, by selling stationery and fancy goods. “We get farmers coming in to
ascertain the vegetable wholesale prices in Chittoor and Bangalore, by STD
calls,” explains S Subramoni, who shared a Rs 3 lakh bank loan with two friends
to set up the cyber dhaba. “But many locals come here to e-mail their
relatives and our youth surf the job employment sites.”
World
Corps coordinator, Deepa Pravin, explained that the agency provides rigorous
training in responsible entrepreneurship to local applicants and assists them
in identifying socially relevant local business opportunities. Anand Tawker, director
of HP’s India i-community project and convener of the joint committee that
steers the AP-HP initiative, explained that the major objectives of the Kuppam
experiment were planned for completion in the coming 24 months. And, that a few
large private sector Indian companies were likely to help in achieving some of
the goals. HP will provide technology inputs like voice-activated systems for
interactive local services and solar-backed photography and printing services
as a self-employment package. It has taken the help of Indian software agencies
to realise Telegu language interfaces and create literacy-testing systems.
Project
workers felt that Kuppam, which is only 90 minutes away by train from
Bangalore, has the potential of becoming a major vegetable and fruit supplier
if its reach to the urban centre could be e-enabled.
Andhra
Pradesh chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, who is the legislative
representative from Kuppam, has promised his 275,000-strong electorate that his
target is to make the constituency 100 per cent literate within the project
period.
The
US printer giant hopes to replicate this first-of-its-kind experiment in China,
as part of its announced `e-inclusion’ initiative to deploy part of its global
workforce in bridging the developing world’s digital divide. However, its role
in the Kuppam project has been low-key, if sustained. None of the villagers
recognised the letters `HP’ or associated the mostly Indian taskforce with the
American company.
Source: The Hindu,
October 10, 2002
Project Contact:
(India)
Headquarters Hewlett-Packard (India)
Ltd.
Chandiwala Estate
Maa Anand Mai Marg
New
Delhi - 110019
Phone:
91 - 011 - 6826000
Fax:
91 - 011 - 6826030
Same
Language Subtitling (SLS) of film songs is an extremely simple and ridiculously
economical concept that capitalises on the powerful conjunction of music and
television to infuse everyday entertainment with reading practice. In Same
Language Subtitling, the lyrics of film songs shown on television appear as
subtitles in the same language as the audio.
This
simplest of additions to popularly watched song programmes in every state and
every language, could contribute to colossal gains in the literacy levels of
millions of Indians. Literacy levels of millions of those whom we consider
literate are abysmally low presently. Yet television increasingly commands an
overwhelming share of media presence in an average Indian household. The
dominance of television is matched in programming only by the insatiable appetite
for film-based entertainment.
Gujarat
Experience
Same
Language Subtitling is more than just an idea with potential. Gujarat is the
first and only state where it has become a reality, thanks to the efforts of
three collaborating institutions in Ahmedabad - the Indian Institute of
Management (Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation or RJMCEI), ISRO
(Development and Educational Communication Unit or DECU) and Doordarshan Kendra
(State TV for Gujarat).
'The
subtitled words change colour to exactly match the audio'
Since
May 1999, the weekly telecasts of 'Chitrageet' - a programme of Gujarati film
songs - are being subtitled in Gujarati. The subtitled words change colour to
exactly match the audio, making it easy for neo-literates to follow along with
the song. Over two thousand postcards received from literate and neo-literate
viewers alike have almost unanimously been in favour of subtitling. Generally,
people enjoy Same Language Subtitling because it helps them to sing along, to
get to know the song lyrics, even to write down parts of the song. Due to the
complementary effect of sound and subtitles, many claim to 'hear' the songs
better. "A partially deaf member in my family started dancing while
watching this programme," wrote Rameshbhai Naik, a painter from Kadi
village in Mehsana district.
The
power of Same Language Subtitling lies in the fact that it is covertly
educational. On the surface it enhances the entertainment value of popular song
programmes and simultaneously makes reading practice an incidental, automatic
and subconscious process. Same Language Subtitling weaves lifelong literacy
transactions in a home environment at a ridiculously low cost per person,
compared with what the National Literacy Mission and individual states are spending
on Post-Literacy.
Currently
in Gujarat the combined centre and state expenditure is approximately two US
dollars per neo-literate per annum. Less than 5 per cent of the neo-literate
population is covered. With Same Language Subtitling of one weekly episode of
Chitrageet, at least 25 per cent of the neo-literates (3.5 million persons) can
get 30 minutes of reading practice per week for one year. For Gujarat, the
yearly cost of Same Language Subtitling per person comes to only 0.0066 US$.
The
economics of Same Language Subtitling become even more attractive in states
with larger populations. In the Hindi belt (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh), which accounts for almost half the
country's illiterates and neo-literates, Same Language Subtitling of one weekly
episode of Chitrahaar would give weekly reading practice to over 120 million
neo-literates at a lowly 0.0001 US$ per person per annum.
Same
Language Subtitling's presence in everyday television viewing makes it a
lifelong strategy of regular and incremental impact on the reading skills of
millions and it becomes so without compromising entertainment.
The
target viewership of Same Language Subtitling on television is broad. It
includes school-going children who can get out-of-school reinforcement, school
drop-outs who can relearn eroded skills and millions of adults who
enthusiastically pick up basic skills under the literacy campaigns but have had
few opportunities or perhaps have lacked personal motivation to engage in
regular practice. A major advantage of Same Language Subtitling is that it
invites reading without depending on personal motivation for literacy practice.
Source:
www.globalideasbank.org
Project Contact:
Brij
Kothari,
Indian
Institute of Management,
Ravi
J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation,
Wing
14, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad-380015,
Gujarat,
e-mail: brij@iimahd.ernet.in
I. Sisu Samarakshak: Integrated
Information for Early Childhood Development (I2ECD)
The
Hyderabad Field Office, in co-operation with the state governments of Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka, with the IT firm CoOptions Technologies Ltd., has
initiated Sisu Samrakshak; a pilot project to harness information and
communication technologies (ICTs) to accomplish the following:
Provide access to rapid, accurate and up-to-date
information on matters of human development, including child health, maternal
care, HIV/AIDS, water supply and sanitation and other time-sensitive
information to families and communities;
Provide information and on the job training support to
front line functionaries such as Anganwadis, ANMs, teachers and other
workers; and
Augment current programmes supported by the state
governments and UNICEF (i.e. integrated border district health programme,
integrated programming in health, children’s development/nutrition and water
supply-sanitation) to accelerate achievement of goals pertaining to children’s
and women’s development.
II. Collaboration with Bridges
to the Future (BFI)/Intentional Literacy Institute
UNICEF, with the World Bank and JP Morgan Chase, is
supporting Bridges for the Future of the International Literacy
Institute/University of Pennsylvania and the Government of Andhra Pradesh to
implement a project harnessing IT to enhance education outcomes of
out-of-school children. Associated partners include World-Links, Educomp
Datamatics and the Azim Premji Foundation.
III.
Data Collection and Research
UNICEF HFO has been undertaking research in the
following since 2002 and which will continue into 2003:
UNICEF Strategic Policy Paper on Biotechnology for
Child-Oriented Development:
This document will seek to outline
the ways in which UNICEF policy and programming could facilitate the effective
use of Biotechnology resources to achieve child-oriented developmental objectives.
This document will examine recent and pending applications in health,
nutrition, agricultural biotechnology, and other areas of relevance as they
emerge from interviews with leading Indian and international biologists, human
rights advocates, and others working in the field of bio-ethics.
Source: UNICEF
Project Contact:
William
Thompson
wthompson@unicef.org