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Eleven-year-old Ritu crouchesbarefoot beside a row of freshlypressed dung cakes in Dugarau

village in Uttar Pradesh. Encircled bycows and bleating baby goats, the pre-teen quickly takes out from her pockether mother’s mobile. “Mam, you com-ing my home,” she types. “I am veryhappy and my mother and grand-mother are very happy. Thank you.”The SMS she sends is to “Ms Judy”, amiddle-aged American Englishteacher who volunteers in her block.

A couple of years ago, this scene,enacted in a rural backwater, would behard to fathom. Ritu is, however, one of1,000-odd students enrolled in a localschool – ‘Pardada-Pardadi’, in theAnupshahar district of Bulandshahar,Uttar Pradesh. The school, about 130kilometres from Delhi, aims to educateand empower village girls.

A precocious student with an infec-tious smile, Ritu is making the most ofthis new technology and practicing herEnglish with Judy Hunger, a spunky,silver-haired teacher from NorthCarolina. “It is the best form of com-munication here, because the emailsare so stilted,” says Hunger as sheunsuccessfully double-clicks thefrozen school computer in front of her.

The internet’s snail’s pace ishardly helped by the school’s fre-quent electrical outages – at least adozen a day. “The nearby villagersare lucky if they get two hours ofelectricity a day,” says RenukaGupta, chief executive of ‘Pardada-Pardadi’ school. Uttar Pradesh’shot climate aggravates an alreadyovertaxed power grid, making thesupply of electricity intermittent

and unpredictable, and that toooften at low voltages.

The latest World Bank statisticsfrom 2008 indicate that 30 percent ofIndian villages have no electricity. InUttar Pradesh itself, roughly 18 thou-sand villages are still without electric-ity - that according to a report fromthe Center on Globalization andSustainable Development at NewYork’s Columbia University.

The same report says that even invillages where electricity is available,many villagers don’t use the servicebecause they can’t afford it.Installation fees are an average of Rs700 plus an additional Rs100 to Rs500 allocated towards what the reportcalls ‘facilitation costs,’ which is for-mal-speaks for bribes. With 40 per-cent of the state below the povertyline, Gupta says “usually villagersdon’t pay for the electricity; they don’tfeel like they should.”

“Villagers are far more willing tospend money on mobile phones thanon erratic electricity,” Gupta adds.Mobile phone services here havesome of the cheapest rates in theworld. It cost less than Rs 2 for Ritu tosend an SMS to Hunger, for example,and call rates are as low as Rs1 aminute. This has made mobile phonesfinancially accessible to poor youngvillagers like Ritu’s schoolmate 19-year-old Sony Sharma - the proudowner of a Nokia 1600 phone. Theolive-skinned teenager flashes herphone, a hunk of circuitry which hasquickly turned her into the villageDJ. By night, the tinny melodies of“Oh when the Saints Go Marching In”or “Jai Ho” echoes through endless

rows of sugarcane in her village.It is new rural phone owners like

Sony– with an earning power of lessthan 4,000 rupees monthly - whomake up India’s approximate ten mil-lion new mobile subscribers eachmonth. Investment in mobile phonesis increasing and quite visible in a vil-lage like Sony’s, where three steel cell-phone towers have cropped up on aflank of the still, greying Ganges thispast year. Sony says about half of thefamilies in her village have alreadyacquired cellphones.

The Indian Cellular Association esti-mates that by next year two-thirds of allIndians will own a mobile phone withmost new sales coming from ruralIndia. For some villagers without elec-tricity, charging the phone, however,can become a problem. Needless to say,many villagers don’t let this get in theway of their chances of owning a func-tional mobile device. Take the residentsof a Madhya Pradesh village - just 80kilometres from Sagar, for example.According to a recent CNN-IBN report,40 of them travel at least 20 km a dayjust to charge their mobiles.

Despite these infrastructural hand-icaps and inventive workarounds,mobile phones have become devicesthat villagers can rely on for connectiv-ity and predictability. Villagers inIndia are one sim card away from“equal access to information, the gov-ernment, and financial and healthschemes,” says Hilmi Quraishi, chiefofficer for , ZMQ Software Systems, aNew Delhi-based e-learning companythat designs mobile games.

Fully activating the potential ofmobile phone content may be just the

T h e Te c h n o l o g y Tr a c k e r

No Phony BusinessHow the cell phone revolution is sweeping the Indian countryside

Linda Blake

The Caravan, July 1-15, 2009 41

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42 The Caravan, July 1-15, 2009

ticket to boosting India’s global influ-ence. “Apart for being a communica-tion tool, which is the prime reason youpossess (a mobile phone) to begin with,the ideal role of the mobile phonewould be to serve as your bank, a learn-ing tool, a platform where people haveaccess to government tenders, policymatters and even to their local leadersand officers,” explains Quraishi.

In some places, mobile phoneshave helped increase business produc-tivity, allowing farmers to communi-cate directly with buyers round theclock, without the need for middle-men, and check up on prices beforethey transfer produce to the market,“thus saving money and (giving them)higher margins,” says Quraishi.

“Education for All” has been a pop-ular cellular ad campaign on televi-sion. Created in 2008, the commer-cial gushes sappy music as a teachersits before a sea of cellphones. Theteacher goes on to transmit a livemobile lesson to India’s youth, rang-ing from sun-baked tots on a Keralashore to turbaned Rajasthani chil-dren. Viewers are left with the mes-sage that mobile telephony is break-ing barriers to educational access.

In reality, India’s village-basedteachers like Ms. Judy Hunger are notlikely to have a sea of mobile videophones at their disposal anytimesoon. And, as far as Hunger sees it,most Indian villagers have justenough mobile competency to dial aphone number or shoot off an SMS.

Hunger says that built-in functionshave enormous potential to increasewillingness among village folks tolearn. She cites many villagers whoare currently not in school, but areusing their mobiles as “a self-exploratory device to learn letter andnumber basics” – the first step toovercoming illiteracy. Most cell-phones available in the villages have aRoman alphabet default. This createsa “basic familiarity with Englishscript,” Hunger explains.

India has more than 350 millionactive mobile users. Quraishi says thatthese “tools of the common man,” arefar more accessible than government-subsidised computer kiosks in villagesor heavily discounted laptops. “The fact

of the matter is,” says Quraishi “thesepeople who run these kiosks are likemasters and give very little access tocomputers to the general public.”

Quraishi adds there are many peo-ple in villages who have been able totinker with the computers thanks tothe assistance of an NGO volunteerbut are not actually given the hoursnecessary to explore the operatingsystems and use them for consistentlearning. Mobile, on the other hand,“is a personal device which peoplelearn through self exploration.” Nowonder then that Carnegie MellonUniversity professor Matthew Kamhas dubbed cellphones “the PC of thedeveloping world.”

It used to be that cellphone own-ership in rural India was limited tothe male head of the household. Now,it is more common to see “twomobiles per household in the vil-lages,” says Quraishi. Althoughmobile ownership is increasing evenwithin a single household, “it’s ashame that mobile phone content inIndia is not being utilised enough forsocial development purposes,” saysSashwati Banerjee, executive directorof Sesame Workshop India.

Banarjee runs the educational chil-dren’s television series ‘Galli Galli SimSim.’ The TV show, funded by TurnerBroadcasting, which airs on Pogo,Doorarshan and Cartoon Network, fea-tures colourful cloth characters thatteach basic social and literacy skills tochildren aged three to six. The charac-ters include Chamki, an orange-tintedMuppet adorned with little blue boysand a matching Indian school uniform.Then, there’s Googly, a gentle, shy six-year-old who has a cricket-ball noseand likes to read in solitude.

These relatable characters aredesigned especially to teach Indianchildren “who are marginalised andunderprivileged,” says Banerjee. ‘GalliGalli Sim Sim’ reaches children livingin urban slums of the six largest citiesin India – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata,Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmadabad.

“Personally I think there is a hugeamount of potential and it has been sadthat the large mobile services providershaven’t latched on to this as their CSR[Corporate Social Responsibility],”

Banjeee says. While Corporate SocialResponsibility is well developed in theUnited States “in India it is verynascent and almost non –existent,” sheadds. Banarjee simply does not havethe financial support, the kind general-ly provided by corporations, to expandinto the mobile market and reach poorchildren or families with educationalcontent on mobiles.

There is no shortage of such contentreadily available to distribute onmobile phones, however. SesameWorkshop India recently collaboratedwith Carnegie Mellon University pro-fessor Matthew Kam to pilot a mobilegame that teaches English to youngrural Indians. The pilot series featured‘Galli Galli Sim Sim’ characters.Additionally, each mobile game mir-rored traditional rural activities likeGiti Phod, where teams have to arrangerocks into a configuration while avoid-ing getting smacked by a ball.

Most school-aged participants in theproject had taken some English classesin rural school houses, but still strug-gled to spell their names or read eachletter in the alphabet. The game filled inthose educational gaps and significant-ly improved the children’s day-to-dayuse of the language. English education“is an integral component to makingIndia a commercial superpower,” saysKam. “Without a highly-skilled work-force that is fluent in a global languagelike English, how can they participate ininternational commerce?”

What’s lacking now is the “distribu-tion arm,” says Banerjee. Funded by aMacArthur Foundation grant, Kam’sMobile and Immersive Learning forLiteracy in Emerging Economies(MILLEE) project, is now sitting idle.Kam also has ambitious plans to createan audio-only version of the game thatvillage children can play while goingthrough their morning chores. Kamsays he hopes to collaborate with “theIndian educational authorities, cell-phone manufacturers and wireless car-riers to seize the mobile learning oppor-tunity.” When asked about the progresshe has made in getting a wireless part-ner, Kam points out that “there isn’tenough altruism to go around”.

Village youth will not be turningto their mobile phones in great num-

The Caravan, July 1-15, 2009 43

bers to play English education gamesanytime soon. However, there aresome innovative mobile game effortsthat are already in play. For the pastcouple of years, Hilmi Quraishi’ssoftware company ZMQ has beendistributing to rural Indians mobilegames that touch on sensitive issuessuch as HIV/AIDS, malaria, choleraand even child trafficking.

Their largest effort is the ‘FreedomHIV/AIDS’ initiative, four educationalmobile games that, thanks to supportfrom such groups as Johns HopkinsUniversity and Reliance Infocomm,have already reached 29 million peopleacross Asia and Africa. More than halfof all the game downloads generatefrom what Quraishi calls “media darkareas.” These are areas like “deep vil-lages in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradeshand Madhya Pradesh where popula-tions have no access to radio and televi-sion,” explains Quraishi. But, they havemobile phones and they are hyper-eager to use them to access informa-tion, the game-designer explains.

One of ZMQ’s most popular gamesin rural India, with 10 million playersto date, is Safety Cricket, which teach-es players about safe sex and HIVwhile they play India’s favourite sport.High scorers are praised for beingfaithful to their partners and protec-tive cricket helmets are equated withcondoms. Outs appear in the form of‘Unsafe Sex’, ‘Infected BloodTransfusions’, ‘HIV Virus’, ‘InfectedSyringes’ – and the company of badfriends. If you get out in the game, youget out in life for having had unsafe sex.

Available in black and white and invarious regional languages, SafetyCricket is for many players their onlyexposure to HIV and AIDS education.According to the latest UNAIDS factsheet released in 2008, less than one-third of Indians between the ages of15 and 24 surveyed actually knew howto prevent HIV infection. Many statessuch as Maharashtra, Gujarat andMadhya Pradesh have banned sexeducation in schools. The World Bankreports that HIV is responsible for

two percent of all deaths in India.Subhi Quraishi, Hilmi Quraishi’s

brother and chief executive of ZMQ,says that mobile games are the perfectway to cut through the politics thatpermeates HIV/AIDS preventionendeavours in India to provide usefulinformation that will actually savelives. “Nobody points a finger at what’sbeing delivered to you,” he says. “Youare actually playing a game, so it’s notserious study. It is good quality enter-tainment with good learning.”

One other recent mobile phoneeducation effort carrying a socialadvocacy message is a BBC WorldService Trust produced downloadablemp3 mobile ringtone named‘Condom-a-cappella’ or ‘CondomCondom Ringtone’, composed byRupert Fernandes and sung by VijayPrakash. This ode to safe sex – evenits audio waveform looks penile, butsheathed – blasted from millions ofcellphones with the unmistakablechorus, “Condom, Condom,Connnddom”, through most of 2008.

Two girls peeping into each other’s cell phones to see who is winning the English language mobile game

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In an interview with Reuters Health,Yvonne McPherson, country directorfor India for the BBC World ServiceTrust, said that she “wanted to create aconversation piece that would get peo-ple talking and ultimately break downtaboos about condoms”. While it cer-tainly got people singing and snicker-ing, the jury’s still out on whether thismelding of sex, singing and technologyencouraged more Indians to “strap ontheir cricket helmets,” so to speak. Theringtone can still be downloaded fromwww.condomcondom.org.

If cricket and condoms aren’texactly your cup of chai, you could liveout your Sherlock Holmes fantasy byplaying the soon-to-be-releasedCopenhagen Challenge. ZMQ has justteamed up with the Danish govern-ment to launch this mobile phonedetective game designed to educateIndian schoolchildren about climatechange. The mission: “Free Dr Kumar

from the clutches of the fossil fuelmafia and save the earth from totalannihilation.” Currently available onReliance Networks free of charge, thegame will be available May 1st onAirtel, Idea, Vodaphone, and Tata fora minor fee of Rs 5 per download.

Denmark’s Minister for Climateand Energy Connie Hedegaard saysthat India’s cellphone penetrationmade the Indian mobile network the“natural choice” for this extensive cli-mate-change advocacy. She adds thatshe hopes this information willimpact young Indians to do what littlethey can, from composting to switch-ing off the lights when they leave aroom. The impact of this campaignwill be explored when Denmark hoststhe United Nation’s international cli-mate change conference, COP-15, inCopenhagen this December.

In the coming months, ZMQ alsoplans to launch an SMS programme

for expectant mothers. “We want toempower women in villages withhealthcare and support,” says ZMQCEO Subhi Quraishi. Pregnant vil-lagers submit their approximatedate of conception and are issued aninstant mobile nurse. Much like adaily horoscope, the women receiveregular messages on their mobilephones with advice on how to main-tain their prenatal health. Once thechild is born, the mother sends anSMS reporting the gender. Eachmonth thereafter, the mother is sentnutrition factoids and critical infor-mation on appropriate inoculations.

As mobile education expands, ZMQis already busy working on the nextstage, which Hilmi Quraishi calls“Indian mobilisation goes global.” Inthe next three or four months, ZMQ willexport Mobile Yoga Classroom, a gamethat sends something quintessentiallyIndian to a global mobile audience. !

Safety Cricket, one of ZMQ’s most popular mobile games, is for many players their only exposure to HIV/AIDS education

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