A Great Plan for Rural India
Posted : July 19, 2005 at 11:15 am [IST]
If every thing goes alright, by on August 15, 2007- the 60th anniversary of the country’s Independence, each of the 600,000 villages will have a Village Knowledge Centre (VKC) based on broadband Internet connectivity.
As a positive approach, a national alliance of 150 partner organizations, which consists of both foreign and Indian NGOs and institutions, has launched Mission-2007 to get it implemented effectively. VKC can improve the quality of life in the rural India. VKC in a village will disseminate relevant information relating to agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, health, education, rural enterprises and disaster management. VKC can provide public services like e-governance, commercial information, supply chain service and information relating to marine conditions, disease diagnostics and banking. However, it is essential to make the project financially viable and to make it to be participatory, demand-driven and revenue generating.
At present there are about 10,000 VKCs. 5,000 of them are managed by ITC in its e- Choupal initiative. Other active initiatives by government and non-governmental sectors are EID Parry’s Agri-line project, Kissan Kerala, Akshya in Kerala, Bhoomi in Karnataka, Drishti in Haryana, SEWA in Gujarat, E-Sewa in Andhra Pradesh, N-Logue of the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, Gyandoot in Madhya Pradesh, Maha-Agri in Maharashtra and Tarahaat in Delhi. There are many others too.
The national alliance very rightly wants the VKC programme to be made a part of the Bharat Nirman initiative for better monitoring and implementation. It will require an estimated investment of Rs 65,000 million for setting up a VKC in each of the 600,000 villages.
The village resource centre set up jointly by Tata Tsunami Relief Committee and MS Swaminathan Research Foundation at Akkaraipettai in Tamil Nadu, six village resource centres set up by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetam in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, and the RASI scheme of the Tamil Nadu government, implemented in Mellur Taluk, Madurai district are already setting benchmark for the benefits it can bring to rural areas.
“The optic fibre needs to be taken beyond the districts to remote villages. About 98% of unutilised infrastructure of BSNL and MTNL should be put to use.” EDUSAT services should be expanded to cover the NGOs in rural areas. Distance learning should also be linked to VKCs.
Interestingly, Dr MS Swaminathan is the chairman of the alliance. And he suggests using the renewable sources of energy for operation of VKCs, as already in use by e-Choupal, where there is no assured supply of conventional power.
I wrote an open letter to the editor ‘Economist’ who published a feature expressing its apprehension about the programme of knowledge centers in its March 12-18, 2005 issue. The younger generation will take over the task of closing the gap of the digital divide between the rural and urban India. The dream of PURA will get realized.
- Indra
Category: Rural development |
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