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Throughout our discussion we have asked, "Will ICTs help in India's rural development ?" One view is voiced by Dr. Martin Lees Rector of the United Nations University of Peace, who would answer that question by saying, "Most definitely not." We may not agree with him but it is important to take into cognizance the University of Peace's views, as it was set up in 1980 by Mr. Rodrigo Carazo, former President of Costa Rica, on the initiative of the United Nations General Assembly, and the University specifically examines extreme inequalities in access to, and control of, resources including knowledge and opportunity. For my own country, India's, stand-point Dr. Lees' views are very important to consider, as in 1988, at the request of Chinese Premier Zhao Xiyang, he initiated a program "China and the World in the Nineties", an international consortium of world leaders to advise Chinese leaders on its economy. As part of this effort, Dr. Lees established "The China council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development".
Dr.Lees feels even though 200-300 million people are moving ahead in India, there are still 700-800 million people who are not participating properly in the growth process. The most important factor in India is the demographic expansion -- the best assessment of India's population growth, 1.5-1.6 billion people in the next 50 years or so, is a tremendous challenge not only for the government of India, but also for the world in general.
Perhaps the most accurate answer to the question I raised above is to say that we must set our priorities carefully, and ICTs *alone* can't bring about rural development. The basic problem in India still remains one of EDUCATION FOR ALL -- 40% OF INDIA'S POPULATION IS ILLITERATE. All modern economies have demonstrated in the past that education is the first step to building the capacity which people can then use. If the Indian economy grows at 5-6 per cent per annum as it has been growing over last 2-3 years, then over 10-15 years the size of the Indian economy would have doubled. Even with this level of growth it cannot by any means bridge disparities and eradicate poverty. Therefore introducing ICTs alone will not meet the development challenge. For ICTs to succeed in India, education for all must be the first priority.
It is, of course, important to note that the proportion of the economy involved in some or other form of adaptation or usage of ICT is still very small. The proportion of people involved in the ICT Industry, especially in the rural areas is negligible. Thus, another priority action, in order for the benefits of ICT to trickle down as well as contribute to the rural prosperity, would involve setting up several rural and village level micro-enterprises. For example, under their "Township and Village Enterprises" program China has set up more than 20 million small enterprises in the countryside, including hundreds and thousands of ICT-based enterprises, since the beginning of the 1980s. This has helped :
**create employment in the non-farm sector; and
**prevents vast migration to people from the rural areas
Many similar success stories are indeed beginning to change the face of rural India. One example is the way ICT has changed the life of a 21 year old tribal youth Goverdhan, son of a landless Bhil daily wage earner who takes home not more than US 85 cents per day. Goverdhan has been earning approximately US$ 80 per month ferreting out crop market rates, e-mailing villagers grouses, generating caste and land certificates out of his rural cyber kiosks. On the side, he also teaches village children basic computing. He was on the verge of giving up plans of going to college for a degree in history as he had no money to buy books. That was when the Madhya Pradesh Government under the Gyandoot project (which I described in my previous message), began to fund rural networked cyberkiosks to offer villagers a range of services through an Intranet based at the district HQ. Goverdhan became the first coordinator or a manager of an information center called soochanalaya in the local language. Many kiosk operators during lean crop season; earn up to US 25 cents per page, typing villagers applications, giving US$6 per month of computer education to the kids or even churning out astrological charts and forecasts.
Another ICT success story comes from the coastal state of Pondicherry, a fishing hamlet on the shores of the Bay of Bengal where now loudspeakers dotted around the fishing villages crackle to life by announcing the weather forecasts. The announcer also gives the details of the tide, wind direction and height of the waves. Earlier, the fishermen used to scan the skies to hazard a guess about possible storms; however now the fishermen are always prepared even during stormy weather conditions. Another story comes from the sugar-cane belt : Some 400 kms, south-west of Bombay, India's industrial capital lies the sugar-cane belt of India where aged dairy and cane farmer Mahadeobhau Chowgule is happy with a PC installed in his Pargaon village, which gives him information about the harvesting time for the crop, the results of the crop sampling (a field officer from the cooperative takes a sample of the crop of every farmer which is tested for the volume of the sugar and quality) and a forecast about the expected yield. The software also keeps records of all his transactions with the local sugar and milk cooperatives. Previously Chowgule used to travel some five kms. away a dozen times every year to get this critical information, to the Warana Sugar Factory, the local cane growers cooperative; only for getting information about 500 tons of cane every year. Now, of course, he trusts his computer in Pargaon, which is one of the 70 villages wired under the Wired Village Project.
Yet such success stories are still very few and far in between. Major impediments include :
- Illiteracy amongst the vast multitude of people
- Major power-cuts and 'brown-outs' affecting the country-side ranging from 5 to 12 hours every day. Even though uninterrupted power supply systems are used; yet they prove insufficient to cope up with the power breakdowns.
- Serious band-width issues and connectivity problems. Even though technology is available to upgrade the band-width; not enough resources have been budgeted by the Government to change this scenario. However once a few projects for the upgradation of the band-width on the anvil get commissioned, there should be a significant improvement in the connectivity.
- Financing difficulties encountered by the local grass root level institutions as well as by the state governments. Drastic steps are needed to inject funds for the development of the ICTs in the rural areas; increasingly by the participation of the private sector.
- Acute shortage of project leaders and guides who could ensure implementation of the ICTs at the grass root levels. Unfortunately most professionals want to work in the urban areas where there are ample opportunities available to them for growth as well as prosperity. In the absence of these 'techno-catalytic' resources; development of ICTs in the rural areas will always be very slow.
However there is no disputing the fact, that the ICTs are paving the way to digital empowerment, and hopefully to poverty alleviation in India's hinterland. The ICT revolution has arrived silently in India's heart land and has also begun kicking!!
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