Impact of ICTs in Rural Areas (India) Phase II – Information Village Research Project

supported by

International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Canada

implemented by

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) Terminal Report [2000-2004]

Introduction

As momentum builds up around the globe for debating and directing the future of ICTs in society,

a key concern that cannot be ignored is the fate of the world’s villages, especially in developing

countries, where most of the human population lives. What are some notable success stories on

this front? What has been their guiding vision and evolving infrastructure? How can these lessons

be captured, exchanged and multiplied?

This terminal report is an attempt to tell the story of the Rural Knowledge Centres [RKCs], its

human face, evolutionary path, future directions, trials and tribulations. It is a work in progress,

and will undoubtedly evolve as the story of this bold and inspiring human adventure unfolds. How

has ICT-blended development impacted the lives of the rural poor? Can such experiments

survive after seed donor funding has dried up? What knowledge assets can be created,

exchanged and leveraged by rural communities? Why are such knowledge-intensive experiments

so few in number around the world? How can policymakers and local community stakeholders

sustain this experiment? This terminal report attempts to address a wide range of these critical

issues.

Genesis

Technological divide has been an important factor in enlarging the rich-poor divide both among

and within nations since the onset of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. With explosive progress

in many areas of technology, like information, space, bio- and nano-technology, this divide is

increasing. The challenge now is to enlist technology as an ally in the movement for economic,

social and gender equity. Therefore, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation [MSSRF] chose the imparting of a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to technology

i.exe

development and dissemination as its main mandate when it started functioning in Chennai in 1989.

The foundation launched a series of annual inter-disciplinary dialogues on ICT-enabled

development from 1990 onwards, titled “New Technologies: Reaching the Unreached”. The first

dialogue in this series was related to biotechnology. The recommendations made at this dialogue

resulted in the organisation of the Biovillages initiative.

MSSRF held an Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Information Technology: Reaching the Unreached [Annexure 1] in January 1992 with the support of International Development Research Centre [IDRC], United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], Department of Space, Govt. of India, International Tropical Timber Organisation [ITTO] and Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology [CAPART]. The dialogue output

made it clear the future of food security in the developing world especially South Asia is

dependent less on resource intensive agriculture and more on knowledge intensity. In the coming

years, agriculture will have to be developed as an effective instrument for creating more income,

jobs and food and such a paradigm of sustainable agriculture will be both knowledge and skill

intensive. The key step in the use of ICTs in sustainable agricultural and rural development is the

value addition made to generic information to render it locale specific. It is on the latter that the

rural families, particularly the marginal farmers and the assetless can act on to improve

productivity of labour and inputs. Biovillage Programme

It took a while before we could actually move forward to test our ideas on what intelligent and

innovative application of ICTs can do in rural development. We went through the route of testing

the impact modern biology could have on rural livelihood, largely thanks to the life-long interest of

Prof. M S Swaminathan in biology. We set up several ‘biovillages’ and worked closely with the

rural population in the villages of Pondicherry. On hindsight, we realize how valuable this

experience was. It is through the ‘biovillage’ project that the foundation staff and the rural

communities came to know each other well.

The biovillage programme [Annexure 2] helps the villagers use the available resources in a

sustainable way as an additional source of income by using biological tools. Some of the

biovillage activities are: Fish pond, mushroom cultivation, paper and board from banana waste,

rain water harvesting, cultivation of pulses, ornamental fish growing, using water from the

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fishpond as manure for the coconut, hybrid seed production, trichograma (biopesticide), fodder

and dairy. The main aim of these activities is to stop degradation of existing resource base.

From a Small Beginning

MSSRF – IDRC Information Village Research Project was designed as a test bed for research

into how information and communication technologies could be used in rural development.

This project was launched in January 1998 in the Union Territory of Pondicherry with the support

of IDRC, Canada, and the first phase came to a close in June 2000. The second phase of the

project commenced in February 2001 and came to a close in July 2004. The second phase

supported by both IDRC and CIDA. During the interim period, funds from the Ford Foundation

grant came in handy to sustain the project activities. We have also used Ford Foundation funds to

upgrade our communication technologies in some villages.

The entire project is based on community ownership of technological tools as distinct from

personal or family ownership and it encourages collective action for empowering communities.

Information needs assessment

Initially we have conducted two surveys: One is related to information linkages in the rural areas

and the other is on the reach of electronic media.

To get a clear picture of the state of existing communication habits and channels in the rural

areas, especially among the poorer households, we conducted detailed survey covering 10% of

the resident families in the proposed area of coverage in 1998. The predominant sources of

information are the local shopkeeper, the market place, and the input supplier. A very

considerable amount of information transaction takes place between the rural poor households

and this also acts as a primary source of information [Annexure 3].

From our earlier research in 11 villages, we found that reach of electronic media, especially

television, is reasonably high when one considers the prevalence of poverty in the villages

surveyed. They do not have even 1 phone per 500 people [Annexure 4].

We also collected information through surveys on district and village profiles, economic activity,

maps, information needs, education levels and institutes, healthcare, quality of life, information

disseminators (primary and secondary), infrastructure, local interaction patterns, problems of

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landless laborers, self help group market needs, traditional helath practicioner, artisans and small

merchants, and profiles of underprivileged communities [Annexure 5].

Hub and Spokes Model The Village Knowledge Centres are connected in a hub and spokes model with Villianur as the

hub [Annexure 6]. Our project staff operates this. Our field experience shows that community

ownership and participation are necessary conditions for success.

Setting up of these Village Knowledge Centres was preceded by large-scale consultation with the

local communities. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) [Annexure 7] was used as a method to

identify information needs of the community. PRA was also used to assess how far the

community was willing to go in operationalising the local centre, by way of making in-kind or

cash contributions. This was also used in the identification of a group of individuals who

would be consensually chosen by the community for managing the local centre. In each case,

the community provided an accessible rent-free building, electricity and volunteers, many of them

women. The project provided all the needed equipment and training and helped in collecting data.

The project pays NO money to the volunteers. The rural community has a sense of ownership.

The following rural knowledge centres are established during Phases I and II with the help of

IDRC, CIDA, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of Pondicherry and Volkart

Foundation with different models.

Location Establishment Year

Operated by Type of Village Situated in

Villianur 1998 Project Staff Block

Development

Head Quarters

Rented Building

Kizhur 1998 Private House

owner & Village

Voluntary

Organisation

Agricultural

Village

Private House

Embalam 1999 Women Self

Help Group

Agricultural and

Milk Production

Village

Public temple

room

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Veerampattinam 1999 Volunteers

selected by

traditional

panchayat

Fishermen’s

Village

Panchayat

[Village Council]

building

Poornangkuppam 1999 Temple Trust

and

Grampanchayat

Agricultural and

Horticultural

village

Public Temple

room

Pillayarkuppam 2000 Village

Volunteers

Biocentre (Hub of

the Biovillage

Programme set

up by M S

Swaminathan

Research

Foundation)

Own building of

M S

Swaminathan

Research

Foundation

Thirukanchipet 2000 Village

Volunteers

Agricultural

labourers village

Govt. TV Room

Kalitheerthalkuppam 2001 Village

Volunteers

Agricultural and

Milk Production

Village

Part of the

Noon Meal

programme

Room

Nallavadu 2001 Volunteers

selected by

traditional

panchayat

Fishermen’s

Village

Panchayat

Building

Periyakalapet 2003 Volunteers

selected by

traditional

panchayat

Fishermen’s

Village

Panchayat

building

Koonichampet 2003 Youth Socially

underprivileged

people –

Laborers

Community Hall

Moorthykuppam 2004 Volunteers

selected by

traditional

panchayat

Fishermen’s

Village

Panchayat

[Village Council]

building

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Three knowledge centres [not used in the table] were closed due to irregular operation hours,

discrimination against socially underprivileged people, noticeable damage to equipment and

attempts made to appropriate the centre’s property using political power.

The project was participatory right from day one. The relation between MSSRF and the

village community is one of partnership in progress, and not donor and recipient. The entire

village community – men and women, landed gentry and the landless, educated and the

illiterate – was consulted and involved. We adopted a policy of ‘inclusiveness.’

Connectivity

Initially, communication links for the RKC network were based on Motorola VHF Business Radios. The VHF design is based on two major components. The intelligent controller of two-

channel network, capable of interfacing with telephone line is full duplex operation. The controller

does the primary switching with EPABX/PSDN and diverts the call to the selective subscriber unit.

The controller with two Motorola GM300 base radio makes as a full duplex single channel

controller with the capability to connect two telephone inputs. It can store up to 4000 subscribers

ID for selective calling.

The subscriber unit is based on Motorola GM300 and GP300. With the combination of two units

of GM300 with the suitable interface board of ST869 in full duplex mode, we can add the

intelligent controller to the subscriber in full duplex mode. With the help of the interface board, we

can combine both Rx & Tx GM300 radio and convert as a loop line interface. This loop line can

be connected to the Exchange or to a simple telephone. The interface is capable of generating

ring voltage needed for the telephone instruments to generate the ring tone. The interface also

has an intelligent system to scan 15 channels.

The VHF technology is normally used for one-way communication, e.g. the walkie-talkie used by

police, army, security forces in large campuses, port authorities, railways, road constructors, etc.

This technology is different from telephones in that the two parties cannot speak at the same

time. Using GM300 and ST869 interface board we have enhanced VHF technology into two-way

communication.

Though the range for this wireless channel is up to 20 km across 360 degrees, the maximum

speed is only 4.8 Kbps and messages could be sent only sequentially.

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To overcome these disadvantages, particularly inability to transmit large volume of data, we

examined the possibility of using other technologies such as Time Division Multiple Access

(TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) combined with Wireless in the Local Loop and

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS). We also tested World Space Radio Satellite

communication. After several discussions with experts and analyzing topography maps, we chose

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum technology provided by UC Wireless Inc.

The VIP 110-24 is the building block of the UC Wireless proprietary “VINE” Network topology.

The VIP 110-24 is used to interconnect Ethernet LANs (Local Area Networks) and WANs (Wide

Area Networks) across large distances, creating a virtual single network. This unique network

topology can also be used to provide broadband Internet access by a Service Provider or to

interconnect multiple nodes in a private network.

The VINE technology allows a complete wireless network to start with as little as two radios, and

gradually grows, a node at a time, into a very large and complex wireless network. New nodes

can be added at any time with the sole requirement that they must have line of sight connectivity

to another node already on the VINE. The new node, once attached, becomes a potential

attaching point for other nodes.

The VIP 110-24 is a spread spectrum transceiver that implements the VINE protocol. The radio

includes a 10/100 Base T Ethernet port for connection to the Local Area Network (LAN). The

radios can be set to operate in either Bridge mode or Router mode. In bridge mode, any station

connected to the LAN can see any other station connected to all the other LANs at the remote

sites. No special configuration of the user stations is necessary, as each of them recognises that

there is just one Ethernet.

The VIP 110-24 is a spread spectrum radio operating in the “Industrial Scientific and Medical”

(ISM) band from 2.400 GHz to 2.4835 GHz. Spread Spectrum technology allows operation

without a license with an output power of up to 23 dBm at speeds up to 11 Mbps (mega-bits per

second).

Coverage distance is 22 km, and line speed is much higher with this technology (theoretically 11

Mbps), but the signal travels only point-to-point and not 360 degrees.

At present six centres viz., Veerampattinam, Periyakalapet, Koonichampet, Embalam, Nallavadu

and Kalitheerthalkuppam are connected with Villianur through Spread Spectrum. Thirukanchipet,

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Poornangkuppam, Kizhur and Pillayarkuppam are connected with Villianur through VHF duplex

radio.

Video conferencing facility is available in all the Spread Spectrum villages.

Two other technologies were also tested, viz., Internet Broadcasting System and Reporting Terminal Experiment with the support of Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad.

Many of the databases related to Information Village Research Project are created in the

Informatics Division of MSSRF in Chennai. Smaller files are transferred from Chennai to

Pondicherry as email attachments. Larger files were transferred via CD initially; an experiment in

2001 with Internet broadcasting via the Space Application Centre did not work out due to

problems in Internet and satellite connectivity.

Fishermen for emergency communications also tried the hand-held Reporting Terminal, often

used for military applications, but there were problems with the heavy weight of the terminals,

one-way communication and short battery life.

Now the Veeranam drinking water project (State Government of Tamil Nadu drinking water

project) and Neyveli Lignite Corporation (Central Government Mine) have adopted VHF

technology after several discussions with our staff.

EID Parry (a Private Company) has adopted Spread Spectrum Technology.

Incidentally M/s V Link the company that helped us install these technologies in IVRP, is

employed by these institutions.

KU Band Satellite Based Internet Connectivity

Till 2001 the hub was getting Internet connection through three dial up accounts. Since 2002, we

have KU band satellite based Internet connectivity (64 kbps) to our hub at Villianur. This Internet

connection has been distributed through Spread Spectrum to six villages. But the Internet

connection is very slow.

We use these new technological tools in our effort to bridge the social and economic divide

between the haves and have-nots.

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Content

Creation and updating of relevant content to suit local needs is a key factor in the programme.

Prior to commencing content-building activity, extensive consultations were held with the

participating village communities through small group meetings. Based on the requirement of the

local community, we developed several databases [Annexure 8] to fulfill their requirements.

These are frequently updated. A considerable part of information is accessed from the local

sources.

As per the information assessment surveys, the content services were designed to be context-

sensitive, language-sensitive and time-sensitive, and ranged from agriculture and aquaculture to

animal health and meteorology.

In addition to basic information about agriculture, surveys indicated that rural communities would

also be interested in information services about government financial schemes for the poor,

healthcare, nutrition, sanitation, employment, food prices and education. Our attempts to use

ICTs to satisfy such information needs of the poor ensured that the RKCs would become the hub

of generating, archiving, exhanging and dissemination of locally relevant knowledge in the local

language. The RKC was also visualised as a source of information and learning about alternative

employment, and a breeding ground for new entrepreneurs and innovators.

A key focus was achievable and understandable outcomes: after all, for farmers, "harvesting is

believing." The information value adders were trained to ensure that the information products

were ideally suited for consumption by rural communities: for instance, by rephrasing complex

technical jargon into simpler terms. Conversely, some were also trained to convert research

inputs from villagers into more structured and validated forms for research organisations and

policymakers.

The value addition centre in Villianur generated a number of databases, to fulfill the specific

information needs of the local communities. The Intranet Web page includes the information on

local happenings, government schemes, government entitlements, agriculture techniques,

livestock information, health [both human and animal], questions and answers section, rural

yellow pages, recipes, employment news, events, audio clips related to agriculture, education,

market prices, rural technologies, weather including wave height alerts for fisher folk, Codex

Alimentarius information for different crops.

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The hub provides the market intelligence of various commodities, vegetables in the regulated

markets and also the stock availability of bio fertilizers, bio pesticides, and seeds in Pondicherry

Agro Service and Industrial Corportaion godowns. On day-to-day basis we provide the

information on price index on paddy, pulses, cereal and commercial crops – cotton, groundnut

etc., for three regulated markets – Thattanchavadi, Madagadipet and Kanniakoil.

RKC provided the interpreted weather information [http://www.accuweather.com,

http://edition.cnn.com/weather/asia, http://www.regionalmetrological.com], wave height

information [http://www.navo.navy.mil] and agro advisory bulletin [http://imdagrimet.org] to the

both farming and fishing community.

Department of Police has provided information on fundamental rights of women, consumer rights

and the marriage acts for Hindu, Muslim and Christians.

District Rural Development Agency disseminates / and provides the loan to Self Help Groups to

start the following low cost micro-enterprises through RKC.

Milch animal, Fish vending, Departmental store, Milk parlor, Repacking of grocery, Goat rearing,

Vadagam products, Floriculture, Tailoring, Passenger van, Floriculture, Horticulture, Mushroom

cultivation, Poultry, Vermi composting, Leather products, Handicrafts, Agarbathi & candles, Coir

rope making, Mat weaving, Food preservation, Restaurant/Tiffin centre, Soda/cold beverages/ice

cream manufacturing, Ice blocks, Printing & binding/stationeries, Mud block making/construction

activity, Information kiosk, Battery operated vehicles, Fish drying (solar dryer) and Renewable

energy works.

Based on Dalit [socially underprivileged people] community needs Adidravidar Development

Corporation Ltd., Pondicherry provides the information on loan cum subsidy and margin money

scheme, training scheme, schemes of National Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Finance

& Development Corporation and non-banking loan cum subsidy schemes to RKC.

Community Newspaper

Based on six years Rural Knowledge Centres experience we learnt to use the right technology to achieve specific goals. Horses for courses, as they say. We are handling a

mix of technologies and the mix has to be smart enough to meet our objectives. We also

need to train the local volunteers in their use. Thus we manage social mobilization on the one

hand and technology management on the other, and bring these two together to reap

maximum synergy. We have an open mind on technology. In the beginning we started with

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somewhat high-end technologies such as interconnected computers and communication

technologies, but we found even traditional technologies have an important role to play.

The impact of our Knowledge Centres improved dramatically when we launched a twice-monthly

newsletter called "Nammavur Seithi" [News of our village] [Annexure 9] in February 2002. We

encouraged villagers to write articles about several issues. The village children also submit

several drawings and articles. Government officials, NGOs and private companies are also

providing much useful information regularly. We expanded the community newspaper network to

35 villages based on the demand. The govt. departments and All India Radio have included

“Nammavur Seithi” for dissemination of govt. news along with regular newspapers.

We conduct several writing and drawing competitions for children at village level and selected

articles and drawings are published in “Nammavur Seithi”.

The impact of this newspaper has exceeded our expectations. Those who did not know about the

knowledge centres came to the centres in large numbers and wanted to use the services

provided, especially advertising their products and services. The newspaper made our knowledge

centres better known in the entire Union Territory of Pondicherry. Within two days of release of

the first issue in February 2002, we received more than 60 calls. Some people told they had only

heard about "Kamadhenu" (the mythical cow that gives whatever one wants), but now through M

S Swaminathan Research Foundation they obtain development news relevant to the community.

Many villagers find our newspaper refreshingly different from the commercial newspapers and

magazines that devote considerable space to news about crime and violence, politics, and

international affairs. We also use blackboards and billboards at our centres to display the

latest news and announcements. We have learned that simply because something is old we

need not discard it. And the latest and most advanced technology may not be relevant to

local needs.

Public Address System

Three of our village knowledge centres are coastal villages with 98% of the families involved in

fishing. The information requirements in these villages are different and more focused on the

safety of fisherman while at sea and on fish occurrence near shore. These villages also receive

information on wave heights 48 hours in advance, downloaded from a US Navy web site

[Annexure 10]. We broadcast the interpreted information through a Public Address System for

the benefit of fishermen. The PA system is also used for announcing various government

schemes related to fishermen on a regular basis, fish market details, employment news,

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distribution of rice, kerosene, sugar etc. in the local fair price shops. We are using both traditional

and modern technologies to spread the information to the villages.

In 2003, Judicial Bench conducted the first Lok Adalat [Makkal Needhi Mandram] in Pondicherry.

In the Lok Adalat program people are educated on the judiciary’s roles and responsibilities, whom

to approach at the time of any legal issues etc. They also explain the importance of repayment of

loans received from the banking institutions. Banks and Judicial bench use our PA system and

community newspaper for spreading the judicial training programme information to the

community.

Multimedia Micro Enterprises Training CD

At present, the banks and district rural development agency in Pondicherry mostly provide loans

to start dairy units. Most of the rural community does not know about other micro enterprises. The

MSSRF’s Biovillage programme and a few individuals have set up several micro enterprises. We

provide this information to other people. We have developed a multimedia CD [Annexure 11] giving information on how to start micro enterprises such as soap oil production, pickles from

lemon and mango, phenyl production, ornamental artifacts from coconut shells, fodder cultivation,

statues from soft stone, mushroom cultivation, detergent production, coir making and terracotta

idols.

Training and Content Creation of Village Knowledge Centres

We gave training to village volunteers on the use of computers – for typing, formatting pages,

picture editing, data analysis and presentation. Later we employed a private software company so

the villagers could get a certificate. After the training each village volunteer submitted individual

project reports and brochures [Annexure 12]. Now the villagers are doing job work like designing

wedding cards, invitations, and typing college project work. Besides they are taking computer

classes for students and conduct computer examinations and issue a certificate. We provide

training in Basic System Maintenance & Trouble shooting to the village volunteers. We also

provide screen-printing training to volunteers.

We are also giving training to rural volunteers through newspaper reporters in collecting and

presenting information crisply. All the information sent to the hub is collated and transmitted to all

the villages.

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From 2002 all the RKCs submitted their annual report [Annexure 13] created by knowledge

workers. Each report contains the following:

• Where is the RKC situated?

• When was it started?

• Training details

• What are the equipments available in the RKC?

• What are the information available and their details?

• What are the contents they produce?

• How do they disseminate the information to the villagers?

• What are the difficulties they faced? Their suggestions

We are also giving training to rural volunteers through newspaper reporters in collecting and

presenting information crisply. All the information sent to the hub is collated and transmitted to all

the villages. Many volunteers in village RKCs are capable of creating content and make web

pages.

The question of content creation is crucial to this project. The village residents are most

interested in dynamic and customized information. This is a resource-intensive activity and has

implications for sustainability in view of the potential of involving more locals to create and

manage local and customized information content. An encouraging development in this regard is

that some village knowledge centres create contents related to Agriculture, Animal Husbandry,

Education, Employment, Health, Govt. announcements, Income generating enterprises, General

information and Environment. Even after MSSRF withdraws from the scene they will create the

contents on a regular basis and share the information among them.

We also provide Basic English Knowledge training for knowledge workers.

Focusing light & Video Conferencing

In Veerampattinam, normally the fishermen use the lamp on the temple tower as a lighthouse

[Annexure 14]. After the spread spectrum antenna was set up, the villagers recommended the

setting up of a powerful lamp on top of the spread spectrum antenna tower, which was higher

than the village temple tower. This has enabled the fishermen to see the light from a greater

distance even on a misty winter night, thus increasing the safety factor for avoiding rocks close to

the shore. Now this facility is available for Nallavadu and Periyakalapet also. Video conferencing

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facility is available in all the Spread Spectrum connectivity villages. This facility is mainly used by

the SHGs and students to clear their doubts with officials and experts.

Community Banking Software [Self-Help Group Accounting Software]

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) involved in organizing micro-credit arrangements have expressed

willingness to pay fees for using PCs and the network to conduct financial transactions. The

RKCs help in forming / assisting SHGs at its project sites, and helping them in identification of

income generating activities and providing the necessary logistic and management support in

starting such micro-enterprises, and help to link the SHGs with commercial banks for availing

financial assistance under the government schemes. We have developed accounting software [Annexure 15] for SHGs with the help of District Rural

Development Agency and SHGs to keep their accounts regularly and submit the monthly reports

to Banks and District Rural Development Agency. Based on our experience we found several

SHGs were not maintaining the account properly. Now the SHGs are scrutinizing their accounts

and we are receiving several letters from different SHGs to keep their accounts in the system.

Rural Yellow Pages

We have developed rural yellow pages [Annexure 16] for 12 villages with more than 400

different addresses classified into different categories, viz. carpenters, masons, electricians,

agricultural equipment rental shops, fertilizer shops, rural banks, educational and social

institutions, hospitals, pharmacies, maternity health workers, milk societies, etc. For example, one

can know who is renting out a tractor and at what price.

Role of Partners In every programme, harnessing the power of partnerships is very important. It is only through

partnership we can bridge the gap between “Scientific know-how” and “Field Level do-how”. We are working with a number of partners.

Sustainable Agriculture & Environmental Voluntary Action (SEVA), Madurai

Many old people have their own traditional knowledge in various fields. But they may not be

sharing the information with other people, thinking that the information may not be important for

others or assuming that everybody knows it. During the “Nammavur Seithi” content collection we

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approached village people looking for traditional knowledge, particularly in the area of health.

People submitted home remedies for cold, ear pain, pain in veins, fever, etc., pest control

methods for agriculture and symptoms and remedies of animal diseases. Many people told the

project staff that they did not know that so much information was available in the village. They

found the information very useful and cost effective, as all the resources are available locally.

Based on this experience we conducted several interaction meetings with traditional healers [both

human and animal health] along with Sustainable Agriculture & Environmental Voluntary Action

(SEVA), Madurai. Students also participated in this workshop. So far we have collected more

than 600 herbal remedies related to human health and animal health.

Nowadays many poor women have access for credit through women groups or through banks.

They depend on rearing of livestock for their livelihood. The increasing cost of maintenance of

animals, sudden disease outbreak and high cost of allopathic treatment make the livestock

rearing activity uneconomical. Sometimes they are unable to repay the loan amount availed for

rearing animals and become defaulters. The need for giving training on First aid and Herbal

Healing practices for animals is realized; it will enable the villages to become aware of low cost

veterinary practices and simple but very effective sanitation and management practices which will

reduce the risk of uncertainties or input cost in animals. These will add value to their animal

husbandry practices and thereby increase their income level. Such low cost and indigenous

practices are eco friendly without producing residual toxicity or side effect. This will also ensure

clean organic production of animal products.

Based on the above need we also conducted training programmes for sharing of ethno veterinary

practices with local healers, preparation of herbal products, identification of medicinal plants,

knowledge of digestive system in animals, first aid practices, preventive treatment for various

infectious disease, use of medicinal plants in the preparation of herbal medicine for treating the

animals against selected disease and animal feed, fodder and nutrition.

These training programmes also covered how to maintain hygiene and sanitation in the cattle

shed and the practices and precautions to be followed at the time of mulching an animal and

administering the native medicines.

Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pondicherry

Cattle rearing are a very important occupation for majority of the landless families in the Union

Territory of Pondicherry. It is also significant that majority of the cattle keepers among the

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landless are women. There are various ways for extension organizations to influence farmer

decision-making, which calls for an understanding of the information systems along with the

livestock farming systems. Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences is carrying

out a research project focusing on animal health knowledge dissemination among the landless

peri-urban cattle owners. Under the research project the college organizes several stakeholders

meetings to know about important diseases of cattle and various extension approaches, which

have serious livelihood implications especially for the poor to prevent and treat these diseases.

MSSRF also participated in the meetings. These meetings found the Live stockowners are

looking for information on repeat breeding, abortion, mastitis, bloat, diarrhoea, deworming, tick

infestation, foot and mouth disease.

The college and the University of Reading, UK have conducted several studies including

investment preferences, proportion of income derived from livestock, household expenditure,

primary problems with livestock, livestock disease problems, sources of advice/help, source of

drugs, time to drug supplier and consumer preferences.

Based on the surveys the college and University of Reading, UK have developed touch screen

multimedia modules related to cattle health knowledge. They have also conducted several

training programmes for Rural Knowledge Centre villages. Now they have provided two touch-

screen computers [Embalam and Koonichampet] along with modules for RKC programme

[Annexure 17]. We have also collected several success stories.

Smt. Vimala, W/o. Sri. Sivakumar, 73 Kamarajar Nagar, Kizhur.

It is common belief in villages that after artificial insemination cows should not be allowed to sit or

lie down assuming that the semen will drop out and the animal will not conceive and hence they

tie the animal high in such a way that the animals can not sit or lie down. After attending the

training at RGV College she understood that tying up the animal should not be done. She is now

feeding her animal with nutritive and balanced feed.

Smt. Kasthuri, W/o. Sri. Boopathi, Balmurugan Nagar, Embalam

She is having three cows. They are now giving milk. One cow is a pregnant. She benefited by

attending the training at RGV College. After the attack of Mastitis, maintaining the animal

becomes uneconomical. After the attack of mastitis for her animal, through the training she has

understood that she can claim Rs. 4100/- through Insurance. She has also learnt how to feed the

animals properly.

16

Ms. V. Kantha. Thideer nagar, Pooranankuppam

During this training, she has understood how to feed the animal with balanced, nutritive feed. By

following the advise of the veterinarian, she is now able to cut down the feeding expenses. Her

animals are now healthy and the yield has increased. She has also understood how to prevent

the contagious diseases.

Smt. Mangayarkarasi, W/o Sri. Kaliamoorthi, 19, East Manaveli, Kalitheerthalkuppam

She is having one cow. This training has helped her to understand the proper timing of

inseminating, when it is in heat. She has understood that it should be inseminated within 24

hours after the first sign of heat. She has also learnt that the animal has to be fed with Bengal

gram to facilitate the animal to come to heat and the importance of de-worming the animals.

Potential Fishing Zone Electronic Board, Hyderabad

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has provided the Potential

Fishing Zone (PFZ) electronic bulletin board for Rural Knowledge Centres programme [Annexure 18] (Veerampattinam). The board displays the information on potential zones of fish aggregation

including latitude, longitude, depth, direction and distance from the landing centres / light houses.

Aravind Eye Hospital, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry

In partnership with Aravind Eye Hospital, Pondicherry, we organize village level awareness

meetings. In these meetings we explain different eye diseases, prevention and treatments

through diagrammatic presentation. Now the Hospital provides training for our village knowledge

workers on how to identify long sight, short sight and cataract. So far six volunteers have been

given extensive training. After that the knowledge workers do the survey in the villages and send

the electronic patient record in the prescribed format to Aravind Eye Hospital along with the digital

photograph of the problematic eye. An ophthalmology assistant screens the patient records and

finalizes the type of treatment and date.

The questionnaire for ophthalmology patients and list of patients who got the treatment are

appended [Annexure 19].

We also plan to do periodical eye examination for diabetic patients, examination of school

children and prescription of glasses with simple field equipments.

17

We have collected some literature related to different eye problems and the information on

treatments. Now MSSRF and Aravind Eye Hospital are in the process of creating interactive

course material for teachers and the general public.

Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai

Another initiative is to create TB free zones with the help of Tuberculosis Research Centre,

Chennai. The centre has kindly started to provide training for village knowledge workers on

identifying TB patients. TRC has provided all the education materials [Annexure 20].

India Meteorological Department

IMD has been regularly sending ALL INDIA AGROMET ADVISORY BULLETIN [Significant past

weather, significant weather forecast, Main crops, Stage, Advisories] to us [Annexure 21]. IMD

also provides Tamil Agro Advisory Bulletin. This will be helpful for farmers to make their farm

plan.

SAGODARI

On July 24, 2002, the Financial Express published the following news.

“The state directorate of prisons started a computer-training course for the inmates of the

Bhubaneswar Central Jail. According to the Orissa Inspector General of prisons Bidya Bhusan

Mohanty, such training courses would be introduced in other jails of the state, with a view to

helping the prisoners become computer literate.”

Based on the news we are also thinking of doing something for people in distress, especially

victimized women. We contacted “SAGODARI”, Short Stay Home for Women & Girls, affiliated to

the International Abolitionist Federation.

SAGODARI helps the socially exploited women, destitute widows, victims of marital and familial

discord or emotional disturbances, women in moral danger and unwed mothers. They offer

shelter, security, counseling, medical care and rehabilitation to women and girls. 30 inmates,

between the ages of 18 and 43, are staying in the organization.

Our women staff visited them and found that they need the following.

• Computer training because even in a small shop they look for familiarity with computers

18

• Training in accounts software

• Need for good books particularly books on moral values

• Health related information

• Information on starting small scale industries.

Now we are regularly inviting the teachers of SAGODARI for our micro enterprises training. After

the completion of training the teachers provide training to the women staying in SAGODARI

[Annexure 22]. We also include the teachers as our resource persons when we organize village

level meetings for women to find out about their problems. Our aim is that before being

discharged each inmate is provided with vocational skills and empowered to face life’s

challenges.

VOLONTARIAT

Now our village volunteers are providing micro enterprises training through VOLONTARIAT as

consultants [Annexure 23].

Ariyankuppam Coconut Farmers Association

Ariyankuppam Coconut Farmers Association regularly shares their information with our RKCs.

We also conducted Coconut Farmers Interaction meeting associated with Ariyankuppam Coconut

farmers association [Annexure 24].

Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore

In collaboration with Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore we have initiated Computer Assisted

Learning Centres programme in RKC villages with the help of Department of Education,

Pondicherry. In Villianur we have trained 200 teachers. About eight government schools in seven

Rural Knowledge Centre villages are covered under this programme. Every day about 70 children

participate in the programme.

Department of Health

Department of Health has base level health data collected by auxiliary nurse mid wives working in

health centres. They want us to spread this information extensively through our network. It will

help them to assess diseases prevailing in the area and take preventative measures [Annexure 25].

19

Department of Industries

Department of Industries shares information on various self-employment opportunities and

training details.

Election Commission

The Election Commission has provided us the electronic voters list. They also used the

knowledge centres to demonstrate to the public how to operate the electronic voting machine.

PONLEIT (Pondicherry Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited)

PONLEIT (Pondicherry Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited) provides several flash cards

[Annexure 26] on animal health, major diseases, preventive methods, etc. They also provide

information on how to maintain coconut trees and fodder. We provided a computer to

Kalitheerthalkuppam Milk Cooperative Society to maintain the daily milk account and speed up

the communication process to the PONLEIT where the milk collected would be sent.

Mannadipet Commune Panchayat

The Commissioner of Mannadipet Commune Panchayat has allotted space in the community hall

at Koonichampet to set up a new village knowledge centre. The government also provides free

electricity to run the knowledge centre [Annexure 27].

Romain Rolland Library, Pondicherry

We donated 1500 books received from Friends of MSSRF, Japan to Romain Rolland Library

[Annexure 28] of Pondicherry. These include biographies, autobiographies, history of the world,

high-level literature books, novels, stories, etc. We wrote several letters and met with the Director

of Art & Culture regarding the linkage of Pondicherry rural libraries to the knowledge centre

programme. Unfortunately our efforts have not been successful.

20

Department of Fisheries

Department of Fisheries shares the information on entitlements related to fishermen, fishing

materials details, market information, etc. to RKC. They also seek our help to set up Port

Information Centre at Pondicherry Port [Annexure 29].

We have conducted several fishing community interaction meetings along with officials from

Department of fisheries, Banks and Experts. Based on the discussions, women in

Veerampattinam started the “Sri Sengazhuneermariamman Fisherwomen Co-operative Society”

with the help of Department of Fisheries. The main purpose of the society is to avail any welfare

schemes from Department of Fisheries and to mobilize money among the members and give loan

to the needy people for self-employment. Veerampattinam RKC continuously provides training

and useful information to the society.

Department of Agriculture

Department of Agriculture wants to link their farm clinics and also launch a new web site to

provide market information. After that we had several discussion with officials. Development

Commissioner and agriculture officials visited our centre. We also shared all our materials with

them. Based on that Department of Agriculture started three “Uzhavar Uthaviyagam” (Farmers

Help Desk). It is situated in three block development offices.

District Rural Development Agency (DRDA)

District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) provides information on various social welfare

schemes and subsidies to our below-poverty-line self help groups. The Agency constructs low

cost toilets in the villages through our network. DRDA regularly allots stalls in exhibitions

sponsored by the government to our women village volunteers for selling their products. DRDA

also seeks our help to set up Multipurpose Income generating knowledge shops in DRDA SHGs

building [Annexure 30].

National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development

National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development officials regularly attend our village level

meetings and explain about the loan facilities for small-scale cottage industries. They have also

allotted loans to our women self-help groups.

21

All India Radio

All India Radio relayed interviews of Thirukanchipet villagers under the programme of “The Voice

of the Village (Grammathin Kural)”. The villagers raised several policy issues such as the

minimum wages issue and why the govt. is not providing subsidy for education of male children.

Under the ‘Silicon gramam’ programme the activities of Thirukanchipet and Nallavadu knowledge

centres are covered. we collaborate with the All India Radio (AIR), Pondicherry, and provide

content for many of their programmes relevant to the rural communities. Text written by RKC staff

at Villianur on envioronmental protection was regularly broadcast for two minutes by AIR,

Pondicherry for about 40 days from February 1, 2002 to March 10, 2002. Each broadcast lasted

two minutes. Under the OKN now we are broadcasting 15 minutes programme for every week.

Many govt. departments want us to publicize their schemes to rural community through our

knowledge centre network and community newspaper.

Participation of Rural Women

Gender concerns are central to the project. More than half the volunteers are women. This has

positively reflected in the increase in the number of women users. In the evening some

knowledge centres (KCs) provide counselling to women. Many women have formed Self Help

Groups (SHGs) paying monthly subscriptions. They borrow money from the SHGs, when there is

a need, especially for education of children and starting cottage industries. The interest on the

money borrowed accrues to the SHGs. The KCs help women get training related to new

economic opportunities like incense stick manufacturing, pickle making, phenol and soap oil

production and ornamental artifacts from seashells [Annexure 31]. Handling of PC and

answering men’s questions give women new confidence and status in the community.

Through District Industries Centre (DIC) we provide training on Bakery products for

Veerampattinam women SHGs. Through Department of Technical Education we provide the

training in tailoring for Nallavadu and Kizhur SHGs. We also conduct several family counseling

interaction meetings in association with SAGODARI. The participants divide into groups and they

discuss many issues. The rapporteur of each group made a presentation. MSSRF and

SAGODARI are regularly solving many family problems.

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ICT-enabled Development: South – South Exchange Traveling Workshop

Last two years we have conducted South – South Exchange ICT-enabled development Traveling

Workshop with the support of IDRC, Hivos, IICD and GKP. The purpose of the workshop is the

exchange of development perspectives between village communities in Tamil Nadu and

Pondicherry in southern India and civil society organizations from developing countries with

specific focus on ICT-enabled development.

The objective is to learn from one another, be stimulated by a good example and distinguish

which experiences could be used straightaway and which ones need to be adapted to the local

situation. The end result must be that the participants augment their capacity in ICT for rural

development and thus deliver better quality services to their target groups.

The participants from Africa have already initiated a few programmes based on what they had

learnt from the workshop. Based on an observation made by some African participants – about

the lack of active participation by women in the village level meeting held at Nallavadu and the

absence of women volunteers at the local knowledge centre - the village panchayat meeting

decided to form women self help groups in the village. The Embalam village knowledge centre

volunteers not only helped form the Nallavadu women self help groups but also provided the

Nallavadu women training in maintaining the rural knowledge centre.

This year we will conduct the third South-South Exchange ICT-enabled development Traveling

Workshop from October 15-22, 2004 with the support of Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP),

Malaysia.

National Technology Day

Govt. of India celebrates technology day on May 11. This is to celebrate the nation’s

achievements in science and technology as well as to take stock of our strengths and

weaknesses. Every year RKC Knowledge Workers make presentations in their own language

(Tamil) under the title of Opportunities and Challenges. Ministers, media, govt. officials,

distinguished guests from several academic institutions take part in these workshops. They raise

several questions to the village volunteers.

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Voice of the Fishing Community

Every year the Government of India implements a ban on fishing for 45 days. This is mainly for

facilitating reproduction of fishes (growing time for fingerlings). During the period fishing

community faces severe livelihood problems. RKC conducted several fishing community

interaction meetings [Annexure 32] in association with Fisheries department and fishermen

unions and brought out their recommendations. They want alternative business opportunities,

such as production of medicines from fish and agriculture activities near the shore. They need

fishing related courses at Pondicherry University and training for ornamental fish growing.

Open Knowledge Network (OKN)

We launched the Open Knowledge Network [Annexure 33] in collaboration with OneWorld

International. OKN is a human network which collects, shares and disseminates information in

local language and seeks to contribute knowledge about heath, local culture and practices,

education, agriculture, government schemes, jobs and markets. Through this network access

points from India and Africa share their local news through a WorldSpace Satellite and Internet.

The local news is produced in Tamil and Swahili and the Meta tags are in English.

Every week 15 minutes we relayed audio contents of OKN through All India Radio. The contents

related to traditional knowledge.

Impact Study

We have conducted several impact studies, evaluation workshops and on-site interaction

meetings [Annexure 34] through college students, village volunteers, members of women self

help groups, etc.

o Telecentres Volunteers Workshop

o Users and Non-Users survey

o Impact Study of Daily Fish Rates

o Impact Study of Minimum Wages Fixed by Labor Department

o Impact Study of Use of Information Centres in Fishing Villages (Veerampattinam and

Nallavadu)

o Impact Study of Usage of Poornangkuppam Village Knowledge Centre (Coastal and

Horticulture Village)

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Replication of Knowledge Centres Concept in Gulf of Mannar Region

Gulf of Mannar is situated in the southern part of Tamil Nadu near the Sri Lankan coast. In this

area Dalits and Muslims are engaged in traditional fishing. In recent times other backward

communities have taken up to fishing using big mechanized boats and nets. Because of catching

of pregnant fish, juveniles and sea grass dragging, the fish population is reduced considerably.

Modern fishermen kill a large number of sea cows. In order to protect biodiversity in this area and

to wean fishermen from over fishing, we have three alternative activities for fishing families with

the support of UNDP, namely agar production, fish pickle making and pearl culture, all of which

have considerable commercial potential. In order to strengthen the above activities and to enhance

livelihood security and employment opportunities for the poor fisher folk an RKC was set up at

Thangatchimadam [Rameswaram] under the ISRO-MSSRF VRC programme. PFZ board was also

set up with the generous support of INCOIS. Through this RKC [Annexure 35] we will be providing

with near real time charts, based on satellite derived potential fishing zones, for fishing and

information on sea state, wave heights and other conditions related to the behavior of the sea.

Harnessing the tools of the Space Age for Rural Transformation

“We have a great deal of opportunity here because we have great competence in this country in

space technology, space satellites, communication and television. We have great capacity in the

fields of information technology and bio-technology. We also have lots of traditional wisdom, for

example in the case of medicinal plants which are the hope of health security systems not only in

India but of the world,” according to Prof. Swaminathan [Reference: interview with Parshuram

Ray], September 2002.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and MSSRF launched the Village Resource Centre

programme in Septemebr 2004. This programme will mark the beginning of the Space Age for

rural well-being. It will help to reach every rural household with location, need, gender, livelihood

and time specific knowledge (i.e. value added information) [Annexure 36]. Through this network

we will provide the services of Tele-education, Tele-Medicine, Online Decision Support,

Interactive Farmers’ Advisory Services, Tele-fishery, E-governance services, Weather services

and Water Management. This programme will cover both farm and fisher families based on the

motto: “Food, water, health, literacy and work for all and for ever”.

For each block we have formed working committees consisting of representatives from research

stations, traders, SHGs, farmers, landless laborers and govt. departments.

25

Based on discussions with rural communities we find that they need an integrated advisory

system with the help of research institutes, policy makers and meteorological department. Very

soon ISRO will provide the Satellite connectivity for RKC hub [Villianur].

User Register

In all the Knowledge Centres we have user registers [Annexure 37]. From these registers, we

find that most of the villagers use our entitlement database. Incidentally, as the programmes

become widely known, we find greater transparency in governance. Samples of the user register

from our coastal villages are appended. Maintaining the register helps us how we go further and

what kind of information rural community will need.

Making an Impact: ICTs in Real Lives

The completed project has led to identification of a few key elements that should go into the

successful use of ICTs in rural development in the Indian context. For many the criteria for

evaluating telecentres until now seem restricted to the financial “success”. The bottom line being

if a telecentre or radio station makes money, then it is sustainable. No consideration about social

sustainability or the impact on social change. Sustainability deals with a wider range of

issues. Let us look at ownership, for example: community ownership is key to the sustainability of

a community communication project. However, this ownership can have multiple facets. Having a

legal title to the facility is one of these, but it is not sufficient to guarantee sustainability. Having

managerial responsibility, control over content, and a say in the project’s future are equally

important. Sustainable community ownership requires that the community has not only legal

ownership, but that also is prepared to take responsibility for the project because it has

internalised the sense of ownership.

In the past six years, this project has been the source of several success stories. I am appending

a few stories.

- Fishermen like Pannerselvan of Veerampattinam village now get life-saving weather

alerts about sea storms thanks to information relayed by the VKC via a loudspeaker in

the street.

- Anandi, a young woman of Embalam village, became a widow at an early age. She found

information via the local VKC about a government scheme for widows. She applied for a

loan and now has bought a milch cow, which has given her economic independence and

a more respectable life.

26

- Ranganathan of Kizhoor village found out about employment opportunities in the

Pondicherry Fire Service through the VKC; he now has a job thanks to additional help

from VKC volunteers in preparing his job application

- Narayani, an enterprising woman from Embalam, learnt via the VKC of a possible loan

(worth Rs. 10,000) from the Women and Child Welfare department, which she was able

to obtain for setting up a vegetable shop

- Shanmugam of Poornakuppam village contacted experts via the local VKC to find out

about intercrops in his coconut and mango groves; he was recommended banana and

snake gourd

- A group of women from Kizhoor village were able to leverage the entrepreneurship

support groups at the local VKC to help them set up their own business unit for making

and marketing incense-sticks

- Kasirajan, a cashew farmer in Manavali, contacted the VKC to tap agricultural expertise

for tacking pest problems. VKCs have also helped identify pesticide solutions for

Murugaiyan, a farmer with urad (lentil) crops, and Krishnamoorthy, a cotton farmer

- Youngsters like Vetrivelan of Nallavadu village have been able to pick up ICT skills

ranging from using fax machines to wordprocessing in the native language, Tamil, a

source of pride for Vetrivelan as well as his aging grandmother

- Sheela, a woman from Veerampattinam, set up a women’s cooperative society thanks to

support from the VKC; 250 members have already signed up

- Villagers in Kalitheertalkuppam have even discovered that a computer printout of a civic

complaint would get quicker responses from government officials as compared to a

handwritten complaint!

- Lakshmi, a 25-year old woman from Kizhoor village, identified training sources in tailoring

for herself and 20 other women; she is now an independent tailor

- Kandipan, a middle-aged farmer, has been able to find better prices for his paddy crops

in another nearby market via the local VKC, instead of getting the lower rate from a local

trader

- A mother of two girls was able to obtain information from an insurance company for a

scheme for one of her girl children which would make a Rs. 500 deposit worth Rs. 10,000

when the girl reaches the age of 18

- Villagers in Thirukanchipet have access to market rates for wages from the VKC, and are

able to fetch better rates for themselves from middlemen

- The workers union of a cotton yarn factory is using the local VKC to manage its accounts

and records

27

- Rural teachers use the resources of the VKC to prepare question papers for exams from

the 6th standard onwards, thus better preparing students for the “shock” of seeing 10th

standard exam questions in paper instead of blackboard for the first time!

- Illiterate fishermen are able to receive information about government loans and schemes

via announcements made on loudspeakers, relayed from the local VKC. Government

agencies now send information on such schemes directly to the VKC

- VKCs in coastal belts have helped set up cooperative units for the fishing community so

that they can make ornaments from shells, during times when they do not fish in order to

enable fish stocks to replenish themselves

- Village entrepreneurs have been able to leverage the VKCs to contact a mango juice

powder provider in Bangalore and a jellyfish preservation company in Chennai, thus

setting up their own local enterprises

- An autorickshaw operator analysed market data available from the VKC to pitch his

vegetable distribution services to the Kailash beach resort

- Common uses of the VKCs are for printing birth and death certificates, voting cards,

employment forms, registration forms and income level certificates, which would

otherwise take several hours and round-trip tickets to the nearest city

- In Embalam, a group of 48 women, all from the assetless labour families, have obtained

insurance for themselves against accidental loss of life or limb. This is the first insurance

ever done in this village, and this was brought about because of the information provided

by the Rural Knowledge Centre

- Janakiraman (name changed) is a farmer in Embalam holding a plot of 2 acres. He

started cultivating a hybrid variety ("Ponni") of paddy this year, the first time in six years.

This time he obtained information on the price of seeds and its availability from the Shop

at the right time. He mentions that two more farmers were enabled to cultivate "Ponni"

similarly.

- Sundari, a women labourer in Embalam, was able to negotiate better with a landed

proprietor for wages this season. Part of her wage is paid in kind in grain. Knowledge of

grain prices in the nearby markets enabled her to make sure that she got the right

quantity of grain as wage. Earlier, she had to go by whatever the land owner said was the

price.

- A volunteer at Kizhur mentions that a number of users who needed to spend an hour

commuting to the nearby sugar refinery to get information on input (fertilizer) availability,

have been able to save effort and time through placing phone calls to the factory

managers

- Several farmers in Kizhur have had their sugarcane crops ravaged in the previous years

by “Red Rot” disease, resulting in unbearable losses. After the establishment of Rural

28

Knowledge Centres, prior to start of planting, they established contact through the RKCs

with an entomologist who prescribed easily implemented preventive measures.

- Based on govt. entitlements information, several women have got loans and have started

their own businesses. Some of them obtained training in new business opportunities.

Now the village women volunteers and self help group members have established good

relationships with govt. departments and officials and contest elections to local

panchayats and societies.

- Employment news provided by the knowledge centres is found very useful. Several

people have got employment in fire service department, army, private companies, police

service, education department, etc. Private companies and employee unions are also

using our system and preparing their accounts, salary certificates, subscription details,

employee details, etc.

Acclaim for Rural Knowledge Centres [a few samples] [Detailed Comments Annexure 38]

Emanuel De Barl

Director, British Council, South India

The work of this project is the 21st Century equivalent to the introduction of the Public Libraries in

the 19th century in the UK

Bruce Alberts

President, National Academy of Sciences, USA

As scientists, we need to study and learn from these experiments - so as to make a science out

of connecting the world to knowledge resources. With the technology moving so fast, it is critical

to "learn by doing" in this way, so that we learn how to make the next wave of the technology

even more useful for productive and sustainable economic development.

Kevin Pantan & Basil Baldwin

Faculty of Rural Management, University of Sydney, Orange

The dissemination of information through computer technology is the best I have seen. It is

especially important for empowering women. We met many women who spoke most eloquently

and asked us the most challenging questions. Obviously their use of the technology has given

them the knowledge and confidence to ask these questions.

29

Lieutenant General S N Sihka

Governor of Assam

I think there is tremendous scope for ushering a social and economic revolution in our rural areas

with the use of modern scientific technology.

Hon.Dr Webedaya Beatrice

Ministry of State for Health, Uganda

This project has demonstrated that with minimal infrastructure one can transform a society

through IT.

Bo Dar Bergman

SIDA, Sweden

As SIDA representative, I feel quite impressed by your achievements. One very important feature

of making use of ICT is to make it sustainable, to collect revenues so that the services can

continue, when the flow of aid funds cease

Library & Information Services Association

Kalpakkam Chapter

Information is power. This is really felt in this centre.

Dwight Wilson

World Corps, Seattle

What you are doing is very inspiring. I hope we at World Corps can learn more and perhaps take

some of this information to help us in our efforts.

Mark Waschaur

University of California, Irvine

I have traveled around the world and I find your project to be one of the finest examples of IT for

community development. The world has much to learn from your work and I will be honoured to

have the privilege to help pass on what I've seen here.

R.K. Chauhan

ADC to Governor of Tamilnadu

I realize now how front line technology can be used for real empowerment of the poor, and

transparency in government by making people aware of their rights.

30

Marie. André Manger

French TV, Canadian Broadcasting Company

I strongly believe in communication as a means to create a better world and the Knowledge

Centres enhance this belief.

Ms Barbara Keating

One World International, London

The generation of local content for local needs, supported and run by the local community itself is

the best example of social capital I have ever seen.

Mr Alex Whiting

Panos Institute, London

I have been very impressed both with the way the villages were able to develop the project to

meet their needs and with the thoroughness + honesty with which the impact of the project is

being assessed.

Alfonso Gumucio Dagron

Development Communication Expert, Rockefeller Foundation

A good example of telecentres that really care about providing appropriate information to their

constituency is the network known as Village Knowledge Centres, set up by the Swaminathan

Research Foundation in Chennai. The concept is articulated around community needs, not the

opposite.

There is one thing that we can not separate from any ICT project in Third World Countries: the

development of local databases and local web pages that are relevant to the people and that take

into account their daily needs, their culture and their language. If this is not embedded into a

project, I doubt it will have any positive results for the community. This is why the Village

Knowledge Centres in Pondicherry (M S Swaminathan Research Foundation) are such an

important and coherent experience. While most telecentres that have failed to deliver are like

Cadillacs in rural areas, the Swaminathan “knowledge centres” are like barefoot doctors and the

Green Revolution, both of which have delivered and are appropriate to their contexts.

Kevin Pantan & Basil Baldwin

Faculty of Rural Management, University of Sydney, Orange

The dissemination of information through computer technology is the best I have seen. It is

especially important for empowering women. We met many women who spoke most eloquently

and asked us most challenging questions. Obviously their use of the technology has given them

31

the knowledge and confidence to ask these questions. Equally important are the ecological

benefits that will flow from the BIOVILLAGES. This concept needs to be disseminated were

widely. It could be an important component of a global sustainability approach.

Prof Peter A. Singer, Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics and Director, University of Toronto

Joint Centre for Bioethics

I was extraordinarily impressed. The people on the project seemed extremely knowledgable

and passionately committed. The villagers seem to really benefit. I met one 17-year-old girl

whose father was a fisherman doing her homework for her BSc in Zoology. She told me she

was using the computer to improve her employment prospects. Most moving for me was that in

the middle of a Dalit village where 130 families live on about $1 a day and the villagers live in

straw huts with dirt floors, stands an information station with several computers and many

schoolchildren inside working away! That says something to me about the future of those

children.

The success stories -- saving lives of fisherman using weather information, improving the price of

selling rice using market information, finding employment of villagers as fireman using

employment information -- were very impressive. The focus on a bottom up approach, value

added information, and economic opportunities were obvious - and obviously effective.

The project is recognized as a model for the use of information in development. The support by

IDRC is prominently acknowledged. As a Canadian, I felt proud that our government, through

IDRC, is supporting this project.

Awards

This project won the Motorola Dispatch Solution Gold Award [Annexure 39], for the year 1999

– a global contest for the innovative use of two way radio communication. “They embraced the

technologies and basic communication system for supply of useful information in order to improve

quality of life”, reads the citation.

The project also won the Stockholm Challenge Award in 2001 under the Global Village Category [Annexure 40]. The Jury’s Motivation of this project is as follows.

”Project Information Village Research is an outstanding embodiment of the spirit of the Stockholm

Challenge to promote inclusion through the use of information and communication technologies.

Today, thanks to Information Village Research, ten villages near Pondicherry, India, are linked

32

with computers, providing information on such aspects as health, crops, weather, and fishing

conditions. These new technology tools are bridging the economic and social divide between the

haves and have nots. They are empowering everyone with knowledge and opportunity by an

inclusive use of local languages and a multimedia format that allows all to participate. Because of

this project, some traditional barriers have fallen. For example, a temple that formerly excluded

low-caste people now opens its doors to everyone so they may use computers. This project is a

wonderful example of the benefits of IT, and of the power of information and opportunity”. Observations and Suggestions by Others

A few experts from various organizations and an anthropologist made short visits to the project

sites and has discussion with project staff and villagers and gave valuable suggestions

[Annexure 41].

• Success Stories of Rural ICTs In A Developing Country, Report of the PANAsia

Telecentre Learning & Evaluation Group’s Mission to India, PANTLEG, IDRC,

DECEMBER 1999

• Prof. Grant Lewison, City University, London EC1V 0HB, England – September 10, 2003

• Dr Vedavalli, Anthoropologist

• First-hand evaluation of the 'Pondicherry Framework' – Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach,

Director, OneWorld South Asia – 2001

• Evaluating Policy Influence of ICTs for Rural Areas. The MSSRF Information Villages

Research Project – EVALNET (Evaluation for Sustainable Development in Africa), Dr

Zenda Offir and Dr Lise Kriel, April 2004

• Excerpts from talks by Bruce Alberts, President, National Academy of Sciences, USA

o Science for African Development, Talk delivered at the Substantive Session of

the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland,

July 17, 2001 o Expanding the Institutions of Science, President’s Address, 138th Annual

Meeting, Washington, D.C, April 30, 2001 o Science and the World's Future, President's Address, 136th Annual Meeting,

Washington, DC, April 26, 1999

o A World that Banks on Science, President's Address, 141st Annual Meeting,

Washington, DC, April 19, 2004

33

Articles from MSSRF The Rural Knowledge Centres staff has written a few papers based on their field experiences and

presented their work in several workshops, and national and international forums [Annexure 42].

• ICTs and Poverty Alleviation, Subbiah Arunachalam, Current Science, Vol. 87, No. 7, (10

Oct 2004)

• Reaching the unreached: How can we use ICTs to empower the rural poor in the

developing world through enhanced access to relevant information? Subbiah

Arunachalam, 68th IFLA Council and General Conference, August 18-24, 2002

• EXPANDING THE VILLAGE KNOWLEDGE CENTRES IN PONDICHERRY, S.

Senthilkumaran and Subbiah Arunachalam, Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 23,

No. 2, Autumn 2002

• Toward a Knowledge System for Sustainable Food Security The information village

experiment in Pondicherry By V. Balaji, K. G. Rajamohan, R. Rajasekara Pandy, and S.

Senthilkumaran vbalaji@mssrf.res.in, As submitted to the Workshop on Equity, Diversity,

and Information Technology at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, OnTheInternet

[http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/0401/balaji.html]

• Information and Knowledge in the Age of Electronic Communication: A Developing

Country Perspective – Part I & II by Subbiah Arunachalam, Chennai, India, Bytest for All,

[http://www.bytesforall.org/5TH/arun.htm], March. /April' 2000

• Fishing with the Web in Veerampattinam, ICT Stories, Venkataraman Balaji and Subbiah

Arunachalam, 20-04-2001 [http://www.iicd.org/stories/articles/Story.import117]

• Information Shops: Taking IT to Rural Communities. Voices for Change 3(3): 28-29,

Shanmugavelan, Murali and S Senthilkumaran

• Assessment of Impact of Information Technology on Rural Areas of India, Subbiah

Arunachalam, S Senthilkumaran, APWIN March 2001 Vol. 3, pp. 132-140

• ICT-enabled knowledge centres for the rural poor – A success story from India, Subbiah

Arunachalam, An essay submitted to the 2002 International Paper Contest on

International Digital Libraries and Information Science & Technology Advances in

Developing Countries

• Information Village, Students Britannica-India, V Balaji & K Balasubramanian, Volume 6

• Creating the instruments for A knowledge revolution in rural India, M S Swaminathan,

The Hindu, Sunday, Jul 20, 2003

34

Articles in the Press about MSSRF’s RKCs

Many outsiders (including from the press, academia and research students) have visited the

Rural Knowledge Centre project sites and written about the project [Annexure 43].

• The Web 's the way to catch a fish or arrange a marriage. Michael Le Page goes online

in India, Village-life.com, New Scientist magazine, vol 174 issue 2341, 04/05/2002, page

44

• From Beedees to CDs: Snapshots from a Journey through India’s Rural Knowledge

Centres, Julie Ferguson, IICD, IICD Research Brief – No 4, January 2003

• Connecting Rural India to the World, CELIA W. DUGGER, The New York Times, May 28,

2000

• M.S. Swaminathan: Brain Food For the Masses - The father of a 'green revolution' that

staved off famine in India 40 years ago has a new cause: delivering information to the

underclass By SANJAY KAPOOR, Asiaweek.com, June 29, 2001

• EXAMINING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF RURAL IT INTERVENTIONS: LESSONS

FROM THE FIELD, Shivraj Kanungo, George Washington University, Washington, DC

USA, kanungo@gwu.edu, 2002 . Twenty-Third International Conference on Information

Systems

• The Internet Comes to Rural India, Keane Shore, November 5, 1999

• Global Village wins Stockholm Challenge Award, DEEPA H RAMAKRISHNAN, News

Today, September 28, 2001

• Information villages: Connecting rural communities in India, Katherine Morrow, LEISA

MAGAZINE, JULY 2002

• Internet Reaches Rural Poor-Appropriate Technology, Vol 27, Part 1

• Stories for Change, Fishing for information, InfoChange

• Changing rural lives, ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR, Frontline, Volume 18 - Issue 24, Nov. 24 -

Dec. 07, 2001, India's National Magazine from the publishers of THE HINDU

• The Rural Connection, Rediff.Com, 2001

• Fischer in the net, Meena Menon, NZZ Online

• Canadian program helps cast information net over India's poor, Web access brings

promise of better life for underclass, Martin Regg Cohn, ASIA BUREAU, thestar.com

• Villagers get cyber savvy, ANANYA MUKHERJEE, 2000, Indian Express Newspapers

(Bombay) Ltd.

• Information villages' in Pondicherry, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA, 1998

• Village wide web, The Week, December 2000

35

• Wiring up a Knowledge Revolution in Rural India, Lalitha Sridhar, OneWorld South Asia,

09 September 2003

• Tokyo Connection to E-volution of an Indian village, Ravi Mehta, April 2000

• Knowledge Centre inaugurated in Pondicherry, December 2001

Box Items or Part of the Report

Several articles and brochures include Rural Knoweldge Centre activities as an box item or

referred [Annexure 44].

• Making Waves, STORIES OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION FOR SOCIAL

CHANGE, A REPORT TO THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, BY ALFONSO

GUMUCIO DAGRON, FORWARD BY DENISE GRAY-FELDER

• ICTs and Rural Development: Review of the Literature, Current Interventions and

Opportunities for Action, Robert Chapman and Tom Slaymaker, Working Paper 192

Results of ODI research presented in preliminary form for discussion and critical

comment

• TELECENTRE EVALUATION A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE, Report of an International

Meeting on Telecentre Evaluation, Edited by Ricardo Gómez and Patrik Hunt, IDRC, FAR

HILLS INN, QUÉBEC, CANADA, SEPTEMBER 28-30, 1999

• BOX 2.5 - Innovating with the Internet, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1999

• Comparing Approaches: Telecentre Evaluation Experiences in Asia and Latin America,

Katherine Reilly, Master of Public Administration, Carleton University, Canada,

Katherine@reilly.net and Ricardo Gómez, Senior Program Specialist, International

Development Research Centre IDRC, Canada, rgomez@idrc.ca, EJISDC (2001) 4, 3, 1-

17

• Telecentres in Rural Asia: Towards a Success Model, Dr Roger Harris, Conference

Proceedings of International conference on Information Technology, Communications

and Development (ITCD 2001), November 29-30, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal. www.itcd.net

• Prometheus riding a Cadillac? Telecentres as the promised flame of knowledge By

Alfonso GUMUCIO DAGRON

[http://www.geocities.com/agumucio/ArtPrometheusCadillac.html]

• Box 23: NGOs Take ICT to Rural Women, THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE II WOMEN’S

FORUM, Asian Women in the Digital Economy: Policies for Participation, United Nations

Development Programme, 2001

• Information and Communication Technology and Poverty: An Asian Perspective, M. G.

Quibria and Ted Tschang, January 2001

36

• Harnessing the power of information and communications technology for sustainable

partnerships - “Seizing the extraordinary opportunities of the digital revolution is one of

the most pressing challenges we face.” Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations

• Leveraging IT for India's development - Part II, Prof. Venkatesh, Indian Institute of

Information Technology, Bangalore, venky@venky.org - Times Computing Columns

• India starts hooking up villages with Internet - Access to services touted as benefit, but

critics unconvinced, Amol Sharma, Chronicle Foreign Service, San Francisco Chronicle,

Monday, January 27, 2003

• Information Village project of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Pondicherry,

OFANEWS, September 2002

• Software Applications and Poverty Reduction, A review of experience, Jane Millar, Robin

Mansell, INK@SPRU, University of Sussex, 30 June 1999, (Revised 1 October 1999),

Final Report prepared for the Department for International Development, London

• ISSUES OF DIGITAL DIVIDE IN SOUTH ASIA: ‘IT FOR PEOPLE’ EXPERIMENTS IN

THE REGION, Partha Pratim Sarker, Bytes for All, Bangladesh, 2002 International

Conference on the Digital Divide: Technology & Politics in the Information Age

• Social Capital and Access, Mark Warschauer -- University of California, Irvine, Universal

Access in the Information Society, 2(4), 2003

• Information Technologies to Serve the Poor How Rural Areas Can Benefit from the

Communications Revolution, Georg Caspary, D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 1,

January/february 2002, p. 4-5)

• IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF APPROPRIATE AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN

ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT, Oliver Wakelin, co-authored by Basheer Shadrach [

http://www.enterprise-impact.org.uk/word-files/ICTs.doc]

• The Internet in India: Better Times Ahead? Grey E. Burkhart, Seymour E. Goodman,

Arun Mehta, Larry Press, November 1998/Vol. 41, No. 11 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE

ACM

• TELECENTRE 2000, Report 2: INTERNATIONAL CASE STUDIES, Section 2.2:

INTERNATIONAL CASE STUDY – INDIA, PATRICK BURTON, (DRA-development),

May 2000, Johannesburg

Lessons Learned

The Rural Knowledge Centre programme has been designed on the Antyodaya principle of Mahatma Gandhi, i.e., ensure that the poorest person in the village gains from the technology and that technology does not further enlarge the rich-poor divide. MSSRF’s

experience in bridging the digital divide in rural Pondicherry has provided the following guidelines

37

for harnessing this powerful tool for alleviating poverty and for ensuring sustainable ecological

food and nutrition security.

• Connectivity, content and sustainability should receive concurrent attention.

• Constraints must be removed on the basis of a malady-remedy analysis; for example,

wired and wireless technologies could be used where telephone connections are not

adequate or satisfactory. Similarly, solar power can be harnessed where the regular

supply of power is irregular. The approach should be based on the principle that there

is an implementable solution for every problem.

• The information provided should be demand driven and should be relevant to the day-

to-day life and work of rural women and men. Also, semi-literate women should be

accorded priority in training to operate the centre, since this is an effective method of

enhancing the self-esteem and social prestige of women living in poverty.

• Knowledge dissemination should be linked to access to the inputs needed to apply the

knowledge for economic activities.

• The Knowledge Centres should operate on the principle of social inclusion, thereby

presenting a win-win situation for all.

• The programmes designed to empower rural families with new knowledge and skills

should be designed on the antyodaya model, where the empowerment starts with the

poorest and most underprivileged women and men.

• The local population should have a sense of ownership of the Knowledge Centre. It

should be client managed and controlled, so that the information provided is demand

and user driven.

• The local population should be willing to make contributions towards the expenses of

the Knowledge Centre, so that the long-term economic sustainability of the programme

is ensured. Contributions in cash or kind generate a sense of ownership and pride and

create an economic stake in the operation of the centre.

Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity Out of our experience with Rural Knowledge Centres was born the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual

Academy [NVA] [August 23, 2003] for Rural Prosperity with the generous support of the Tata Social Welfare Trust, which aims to bring together experts and grassroots level people in two-

way communication. The main aim of the NVA is that knowledge should reach every home and

hut. The state level hub located at MSSRF will be the key knowledge resource that will create and

maintain web sites and databases for the local hubs in close collaboration with national and

international agencies. This will also serve as the primary data provider tied up with research

38

institutions, field stations and govt. extension departments. The state level hub links with block

level or equivalent hubs in the state. The latter hubs serve a cluster of villages. Therefore, we are

developing an information system that connects lab-to-lab, lab-to-land, land-to-lab and land-to-

land [Annexure 45].

Linkages

The Virtual Academy acts as a bridge between experts and the rural communities. The rural

people need knowledge available with experts, and the Academy facilitates the flow of

knowledge. To be able to do this the Academy has established links with a variety of

organizations. These include govt. departments (Space, Meteorology, Agriculture, Rural

Development, Fisheries, etc.), academic and research institutions (agricultural universities, field

stations, research labs), financial institutions, local government institutions, on the one hand and

self-help groups, farmers’ associations, etc. on the other.

To be effective, four kinds of linkages are being developed.

Lab to Lab: This will involve organizing a consortium of scientific institutions and data providers

Lab to Land: This will involve symbiotic linkages between the providers of information and the

users, so that the information disseminated is relevant to the life and work of rural families

Land to Lab: There is considerable traditional knowledge and wisdom among rural and tribal

families concerning the sustainable management of natural resources, particularly water.

Therefore, the technical experts should not only learn from traditional knowledge and experience,

but also take steps to conserve for posterity dying wisdom and dying crops.

Land to Land: There is much scope for lateral learning among rural families; such learning has

high credibility because the knowledge coming from a fellow farm woman or man would have

been subjected to an impact analysis from the point of view of its economic and social relevance

to the population.

Fellows of the National Virtual Academy

This Academy aims at reaching frontier technology to the resource poor rural women and men

and enabling them to become masters of their own destiny. It will help to create large numbers of

39

knowledge managers in our villages, most of whom will be women. In the initial step, we have

selected six Fellows of NVA through a rigorous selection process.

One of them Ms D Usharani was invited by Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) and One World

International to take part in the ICT4D events that took place as an adjunct to World Summit on

Information Society, Geneva in December 2003.

Ms D Usharani spoke at the launch of the Open Knowledge Network and gave away two GKP

Awards to winner in a ceremony. She played an active role in the one world stall and was

interviewed by many media persons.

Policy Makers Workshop We have conducted a Policy Makers Workshop [Annexure 46] on October 8-9, 2004. The main

aim of this workshop was to sensitize policy makers to critical issues in the use of ICTs to

promote human development in rural areas. More than 60 participants took part. One of the

recommendation of the workshop is “Every village a knowledge centre: There is a need for

developing a master plan coupled with a business plan for extending the benefits of ICT to all the

600,000 villages in India by 2007, which marks the 60th anniversary of our Independence. The

master plan should help to link technology-knowledge-rural women and men in a symbiotic

manner. The investment needs will have to be estimated and business plans prepared. A

National Alliance for ICT for Poverty Eradication may be established for launching the Every

Village a Knowledge Centre movement. Such an alliance should include the private sector,

cooperatives, NGOs, R & D institutions, women’s associations, mass media and appropriate

government agencies”.

Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre

We have conducted a Jamsetji Tata consultation [Annexure 47] on forming a National Alliance

for Agenda 2007: “Every Village a Knowledge Centre” on May 19-20, 2004. In this consultation

we discussed the issues of technology, content development and dissemination, scalability and

sustainability of the programme and capacity building, network management and servicing.

Seven task forces were formed. There are 42 initial alliance partners and more will join. Agenda

2007 is designed as an offering of the S & T and Academic community, Civil Society

organizations, Private and Public Sector Industry, Financial Institutions, International Partners

and Mass Media to the Nation on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of India’s independence on

15 August 2007.

40

National Alliance for Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre

A follow up meeting was held on July 9-10, 2004 at New Delhi. 125 participants took part. After

the meeting we have formed a General Body and reconstituted the task forces with additional

members. The document circulated to the members of the National Alliance is appended

[Annexure 48]. Conclusion

We started this research project in a small way. We expanded the programme to 12 villages and

networked and partnered with many institutions. The seed shown in Pondicherry in 1998, with

support from 1998, is now poised to grow into a mighty tree [Annexure 49]. From a small

beginning the information village has grown into a national mass movement that will cover the

more than 600,000 villages of India. In this venture we will partner with academia, research

institutions, government departments, Panchayat Raj institutions, civil society organizations,

banks, private companies, industry associations, etc. As the task we have set ourselves is

mammoth and the time is short, the only way we can achieve our goal is through forging

partnerships and forming networks. Through ICT SHGs, the Alliance will operate rural knowledge

centres, community newspapers, Internet and cable radio, tele-education, tele-health and ICT

based business activities. Rooted in the Gandhian ideal of Antyodaya (i.e, unto the last) the Rural

Knowledge Centre, pioneered by M S Swaminathan, has come to stay. We are greatly indebted

to IDRC for coming forward to support this programme at a time when it was not clear to many

that ICTs can play a major role in rural development and poverty alleviation.

41