25 ICT for Rural Development

DR. Geeta R Thakur

 

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Module Structure:

 

24.0 Learning outcomes

24.1 Introduction

24.2 ICT for different aspect aspects of rural development

24.3 Importance of ICT on rural development

24.4 Telecommunication for rural development

24.5 Other ICT related projects for rural development in India

24.6 Let us sum up

 

 

24.0 LEARNING OUTCOMES

 

After going through this module you will be able to:

  • Explain how ICT is helpful for the development of various aspect of rural life.
  • Explain the importance of ICT on rural development.
  • Discuss the contribution of telecommunication for rural development.
  • Discuss the other ICT related project for rural development in India.

 

24.1 INTRODUCTION

 

Modern India and information technology go hand in hand. Almost every person does or wants to do something which is connected with ICT. Be it a student, a teacher, a banker an officer or even a politician. We should, however, keep in mind that the majority of Indian population resides in far off villages who are clueless about the use of ICT in their lives.

 

How can ICT solve burning issues in the rural areas such as diseases, drinking water problems, use of pesticides, healthy seeds, natural resources and their availability, government schemes, monsoon forecast and many more things? Rural India lacks essential infrastructure and services such as transportation, health, education and government services. This creates a politically and ethically unacceptable inequality of services and opportunities for rural. It prevents them from participating in socioeconomic and political life of the nation. Rural isolation and deprivation can negatively impact growth.

 

Governance involves interaction between the formal institution and those in civil society. Governance refers to a process whereby elements in society wield power and authority. They influence and enact policies and decision concerning public life and social upliftment.

 

The concept of good government implies accountability, transparency, participation and openness. ICT can strengthen the role of each governance pillar in rural development leading to their upliftment It can facilitate speedy, transparent, accountable, efficient and effective interaction between the public, citizens, business and other agencies. ICTs can overcome many infrastructural constraints which are needed to provide services in rural areas. Through ICTs people in rural areas can connect with the local, regional and national economy and access markets, banking/financial services and employment opportunities. ICTs also serves as an instrument to create awareness. Media plays a major role in telling stories and spreading information in the remotest areas. It can give rural people a voice in the nation’s social-political life.

 

24.2 ICT FOR DIFFERENT ASPECT ASPECTS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 

Agricultural development

 

Rural sector in India is an agricultural sector. It can help the farmers to procure a new machine by providing information about their availability and their prices. This will bring more efficiency in agricultural related activities and help in reducing the burden on farmers.

 

Not only machines, but ICT can also provide information about the markets from where a farmer can procure newly developed seeds for healthy crops, good farm animals, pesticides, fertilizers etc.

 

Online buying and selling of agricultural produce and related things can save a lot of time and energy of the farmer.

 

Tourism

 

People nowadays are more attracted towards the villages. They are interested in day to day life of the rural people like their food habits, culture, local handicrafts and many more things.

 

ICT can help to promote tourism in villages which will lead to economic development of that particular village. It will also create new job opportunities for the villagers.

 

Adult education

 

Literacy rate is at its lowest in the villages. Adults in the villages can get an opportunity to educate or at least literate themselves if ICT programmes are developed for them.

 

 Health services

 

ICT can be a great help and play a vital role in enhancing the quality of medical services available in the villages. Health care is of utmost importance as it is the right of every individual. ICT can help villages to get access to the information related to their ailments. Rural health care is one of the biggest challenges in India. It is necessary that new procedures and practices in the of medical science reaches the villages to ensure quality and timely health care.

 

ICT has a major role to play in this area. ICT can not only help to improve the quality of life, but also the longevity of life.

 

Social issues

 

Women’s status and responsibility in the villages can never be underestimated. However, there is a need to educate and inform them about the new trends in health care, farming, manufacturing of agro based products and handicrafts. ICT has a vital role here to provide this information to the women. ICT can help to uplift their status in the society and bring about women empowerment.

 

As the rural population gains knowledge they will slowly come out of their ignorance and look at the things and life from a perspective. ICT can thus help in improving the quality of thoughts and take our villages to higher standards by equipping them with all the necessary information.

 

ICT not only has a role to provide information and education to the villagers but its role is quite broad. It helps people to connect to each other via internet. A person in a village can connect with another person across the globe. This helps in the transfer and sharing of information regarding each others country, cultural heritage, weather conditions, staple food, music, art, occupations, infrastructure and most importantly new developments in the field of agriculture. This not only helps the villagers to enhance the knowledge but also broadens their horizons. ICT thus helps in curbing physical and mental distances and opens new avenues of opportunities to the rural people thereby leading to their socioeconomic development.

 

24.3 IMPORTANCE OF ICT FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 

Encourage social transformation:

 

A Gap in access to information is one of the main reasons for the inequitable distribution of economic gains between the haves and have-nots. ICT plays an important role in bridging this gap and bringing the urban and rural India under one umbrella.

 

Access to information is of fundamental importance to any development process. The recent development of ICT is greatly facilitating the flow of information and knowledge. It goes beyond the border of social and economic status. ICTs are now widely recognized as a critical tool to tackle development issues which ultimately lead to social transformation leading to economic development of the nation.E.g. Rural products like handicrafts and agro based products can be advertised via the internet to the global consumers.

 

Ensuring a better quality life:

 

It provides important commercial, social and educational benefits. By expanding the use of government servicesICT strengthens the livelihood opportunities for rural India. ICT helps to access to markets, health services and education. This gradually leads to betterment in the quality of life.

 

E.g. Doctors and paramedic staff from the villages can access information about health schemes and seek advice about ailments they cannot diagnose or treat from the experts across the globe.

 

 Strengthening the information base of rural communities:

 

ICT initiatives may be designed to provide access to the information about the rights of people in villages which they are not aware of. Information about the entitlements and the availability of various government schemes an extension service will result in quality life of the rural

 

Implementing rural development initiatives

 

The main hurdle in the mass application of ICT in rural India is that the information content is generally not relevant to the people for whom it is developed. These are developed by the people in cities. This may therefore be commercially not viable or have limited utility. ICT plays a crucial role through demand driven information communication services.

 

ICT addresses the information gaps and blockages by strengthening the decision making capacity of the rural poor as well as the research institutions of every rural community. The problem can be solved by developing content in the local language after taking into account the socio-economic atmosphere of the region.

 

Enhancing people’s participation in nation building process:

 

Communication technologies mobilizes people and seek their willing participation in the development process of a country. In a developing country like India –ICT is regarded as one of the key elements in modernizing agriculture, in producing healthy, literature and trained workers for industry and for bringing about effective participation in nation building activity.

 

24.4 TELECOMMUNICATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 

Information is essential to the social and economic activities that comprise the development process. Telecommunication helps to connect between people and acts as a link in the chain of the development. India has achieved substantial socioeconomic development since independence. Unfortunately, this development has not been shared equitably by all. Some sections of the society have been left out and some areas, like rural, tribal and remote areas, could not keep pace with urban areas in development. If vast sections of society and areas are left out, it breeds unrest and is not conducive to a sustainable development of the country.

 

Community radio (CR):

 

Community radio is another strong weapon to catalyze the process of socioeconomic development of the rural population. It helps to create awareness among beneficiaries about Government policy and programs. It facilitates them to understand the procedure to secure benefits of these programs and easy access to public services and seeking redressal of their grievances. Community radio covers a small geographical area and caters to the need of people in that particular area.

 

Community radio is constituted as a nonprofit organization and is a medium through which information is communicated. To rural communities, the objective of community radio is to serve the cause of the community in the service area. It involves the members of the community in the broadcast of their programmes. It aims at the development of the community. Community radio provides the mechanism for enabling individuals, groups and communities share their experiences.

 

Different parts of the world CR are also referred to as rural radio, cooperative radio, participatory radio, alternative radio, popular radio, educational radio, community FM, association radio and bush radio. The basic characteristic of CR is that community owns it to serve the needs of the community. Most significantly, it is participatory in nature as people actively take part in formulating the station’s policy, strategy and program content. CR presents opportunities to participants to share their personal experiences in relation to development policy and programs and attempts to facilitate efficient implementation of programs relating to health, nutrition, education, sanitation, women empowerment, agriculture etc. community radio reflects the need and interest of its audiences.

 

According to UNESCO [2002] CR is a type of radio service that caters to the interest of a certain area, broadcasting content that is popular to a local audience. It aims at improving socioeconomic conditions and quality of life of the community through well-conceived and designed programs for targeted community participants.

 

Some initiative of community radio in India

 

 

Gyan Vani community radio: The Human Resource Development Ministry and the Indira Gandhi National Open Univesity with the help of Prasar Bharati launched Gyan Vani CR in 2001. It covers a wide range of subjects like creating awareness about Panchayat Raj Institutions and their functionaries, women empowerment, consumer rights, human rights, health, education, science education, teacher education, vocational education, adult education education for the down trodden etc.

 

Uttarakhand CR [Kumaon Vani]:

 

It was launched by The Energy Resource Institute on March 11, 2010 in Mukhteswar with a radius of 10 km and covering 20 villages. It broadcasts programs on Environment, Agriculture, culture, weather, education.

 

Radio Active:

 

It was established on the campus of Mahaveer Jain college, Bangalore covers the entire city. It transmits three to four hour program every day. The focus is on Environment, Women Empowerment, Children in Need, Animal Welfare, Disabled persons, Human Rights Persons Welfare, besides committing to educate the children of migrant construction workers, and focus on the development and welfare of the laborers in general.

 

Rural telephony for rural development:

 

Rural connectivity holds key to rural development through strategies like

  • Distributing locally relevant information
  • Targeting disadvantaged and marginalized group
  • Promoting local entrepreneurship
  • Improving poor people’s health
  • Strengthening education
  • Promoting trade and e-commerce
  • Supporting good governance
  • Building capacity and capability
  • Enriching culture
  • Supporting agriculture
  • Creating employment opportunities
  • Reinforcing social mobilization

 

24.5 OTHER ICT RELATED PROJECTS FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

 

e-PANCHAYAT

 

Technically speaking, ePanchayat system is web-based and n-tiered; and functions like an Application Service Provider. It provides Panchayat level digital services for all stakeholders. The stakeholders are rural citizens, elected representatives, Gram Panchayat officials, the governments and the knowledge workers. But it should not be merely perceived as an ICT enabled system of governance that provides public services on demand. It promotes the virtues of good governance and helps to deepen democratic values in society. It creates an environment in which village people feel empowered. It establishes a system that ensures people can easily avail their fundamental rights to information. It broadens the scope of local government.

 

The process of e-governance has already been started. Government of India has decided to open one lakh common service centers across the country under NeGP in order to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality. It aims to ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man who lacks the worldly knowledge due to the digital divide.

 

Now the Government of India has initiated the process to equip all Gram Panchayats with computers, or provide access to computers with broadband connectivity. All Panchayats at all levels need to be equipped with computing hardware and connectivity over the next three years. The approach would be to first use the kiosks being set up under the NeGP’s Common Services Centres initiative. For the remaining Panchayats, it is proposed to engage independent service providers.

 

The service providers would be selected on the basis of a bidding process. It has also been planned to equip all Panchayats with necessary software and skills to handle e-Governance for ensuring better delivery of services to citizens. The other major component of ePanchayats would be that of capacity building of functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The infrastructure that is proposed to be created through e-PRI would be utilized for training of elected representatives about their responsibilities It will also give them functional knowledge of the schemes that are implemented through the Panchayats or their statutory committees.

 

DRISHTEE:

 

Drishtee has identified 3 significant pillars of sustainability: Livelihood, Services and Basic infrastructure. On these 3 pillars, rests the sustainability of any community Irrespective of their location. If one of these 3 pillars goes weak, it impacts the very foundation of the community. Drishtee has worked on the first phase of its growth on the services pillar. It has provided education, health, availability of household products and banking services for the last 13 years in over 5000 villages. Over the last 2 years, it has started focusing on the livelihood pillar which is expected to impact the maximum. It expects to partner with the Government and other larger stakeholders, to build the infrastructure pillar.

 

Self contained communities uphold themselves and are needed to build a strong world. Sustainability means a world which is more equitable, open and which regards and respects the human civilization and its cradle. By ensuring sustainability of marginalized communities, they wish to create models of success which can be emulated the world over. With a little bit of support these communities can become role models for the future world. In them Drishtee sees a bright future for the world as a whole.Drishtee is building a rural distribution network. During the last 5 out of 12 years of existence It has developed a homegrown, low cost, last mile distribution network. It mostly caters to the packaged product needs of small to medium villages. It is also planning to scale from existing 1000 odd villages to 100,000 villages with additional focus on supporting rural enterprises, village sourcing and multi modal logistic solution for delivery through the remote villages

 

E-MITRA:

 

E-Mitra is an initiative by Rajasthan state government. It started project in year 2002 to deploy the IT enabled benefits. Jan Mitra is an integrated element platform through which the citizens of Rajasthan can avail the benefit if getting the desired information regarding any Government Department. It helps the Government by reducing the burden of attending every cell. It has reduced the waiting time for the service and has led to provide comfort to citizens.

 

Lok Mitra is an urban electronic Governance Project which was launched in Jaipur city in year 2002, which helps the citizens to pay their bills online, to save the waiting time.Government of Rajsthan integrated both Lok Mitra and Jan Mitra under a new title E-Mitra. It started operating in the year 2005. It ensures transparent, accountable and responsive governance.

 

LAND RECORDS COMPUTERIZATION:

 

The project is a collaborative effort with Ministry of Rural Development providing funds to states for data collection and site preparation etc. the states of Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry are already in an advanced stage of computerization of land records. Various kinds of land records softwares operational in different states include Bhoomi(Karnakata), Tamil Nikam (Tamil Nadu), e-Dhani (Goa) Apna Khata(Rajasthan) e-Dhara (Gujrath), Bhumi (West Bengal) Himbhoomi (Himachal Pradesh) etc.

 

This projects mainly envisages computerization of land records, issuance of record of right to land owners and simplification and speeding up of mutation of land property. It helps in minimizing the land disputes.

 

LOKVANI:

 

Lokvani is another e-Governance effort initiated by District Administration of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh in Collaboration with NIC. Lokvani provides citizens an opportunity to interact with government without actually visiting the government office. The Lokvani network is spread across all the six tehsils and blocks of Sitaur. The services provided through the kiosks include information about various government schemes, forms, list of old-age pensioners, list of scholarship beneficiaries, allotment of food gains, allotment of funds to gram panchayat, land records etc.

 

24.6 LET US SUM UP

 

Villages are the heart of India. Fortunately ICT development in India is very fast as compare to other developing countries. The national informatics centres has taken IT to every district in the country. It facilitated the government level interaction and communication faster and effective.

 

We have the internet with us to educate our villages. It has a strong and definite role to play in rural education and upliftment. Care should be taken to develop the content as per the local requirments. This will help to initialize their interest in the IT and slowly develop trust in IT as it starts catering to their wants and solves their problems.

 

you can view video on ICT for Rural Development

REFERENCES

  • ITU 2000: New Technologies for Rural Applications. Final Report of ITU-D Focus Group 7
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshaya_project
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haryana_Land_Record_Information_System
  • http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/oct2009/upadhyay.htm
  • http://www.ifad.org/innovation/presentations/ict.pdf