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![[Four online projects take the power of the Internet to Indian villages]](06lead.gif)
Anita Bora
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In a remote village of Madhya Pradesh, a farmer goes online to register a complaint about the quality of drinking water and check the scholarship status of his son. He receives a reply within seven days.
Elsewhere, a villager teaches a bunch of children the intricacies of using a computer and accessing the Internet.
And in another corner of the country, a group of village women tune into their favourite songs online.
The Internet is going rural in India. Slowly, but surely. Four projects, combining the collective might of state governments, NGOs and corporates, are taking cutting edge communications and information technology to Bharat. Gyandoot, Tarahaat, Information Village Research Project - all winners of the Stockholm Challenge Award and Greenstar are taking the first steps towards bridging the digital divide.
Rediff Guide to the Net takes a peek at how they are doing it.
Tarahaat
Gyandoot
Greenstar
Information Village Research Project
Information Village Research Project, Pondicherry
The main aim of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, based in Chennai, is to empower rural people through access to timely and revelant information.
The Information Village Research Project is one way in which the Foundation hopes to achieve this goal.
This paper, published by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation explains how the project works. A group of ten villages in Pondicherry have been connected to each other and the Internet.
Internet connectivity is provided by dialup lines while locals produce the content. All this is conducted through a village centre which is the central point for the villagers.
The MSSRF works on the model where "generic information found in the networks, including the Internet, should be rendered into locality-specific knowledge" and has been implementing this in all the participating villages.
The kind of information provided in the village knowledge centres is specific to the needs of the rural community. It covers the prices of agricultural inputs (such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides) and outputs (rice, vegetables), market (potential for export), entitlement (the multitude of schemes of the central and state governments, banks).
Other local information covered is health care (availability of doctors and paramedics in nearby hospitals, women's diseases), cattle diseases, transport (road conditions, cancellation of bus trips) and weather (appropriate time for sowing, areas of abundant fish catch, wave heights in the sea).
For example, weather information like wave heights and wind directions, so crucial to the fishing and farming communities in this coastal Union
territory, are downloaded by the project staff from a United States Navy Web site. This is then translated into Tamil and broadcast over the public address system.
There are other ways in which villagers benefit. A weaver
was able to sell a silk saree through the internet for $ 10, a price he
would never have fetched in the local markets, while women can check out
various self-employment schemes through the kiosks.
The efforts of the Foundation were recognised when IVRF won the Stockholm
Award in 2001 under the Global Village category.
A research associate with the Foundation indicates that in the long run, MSSRF plans to withdraw, compelling villagers to think about sustainability.
And that would perhaps be the day when rural India comes into its own.
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| Tarahaat: One stop rural shop |
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