Dear GKD Members,
As the owner of a small ICT business in India, I am very concerned with
helping find ways to use ICTs to alleviate poverty in my country. The
question that is often asked is whether ICT will be a panacea for
developing countries and whether it will help reduce poverty and
under-development in India's rural areas? I'd like to offer some views
on that topic, and describe some of the activities communities here in
India are undertaking, using ICT.
ICTs are increasingly considered to include a converging spectrum of
technologies that consist primarily of telecommunications, computing and
broadcasting. The internet is the latest in the range of ICTs available.
The collapsing boundaries between these different kinds of communication
technologies have made it possible no only to collect information that
went once largely unrecorded, but also to make it relatively easy to
store, analyse and retrieve in various ways.
The role of ICTs in poverty alleviation needs to be examined in the
context of extreme deprivation and poverty in which a majority of people
live, not only in India but in the entire developing world. The World
Bank in its annual report on 'Global Economic Prospects' has highlighted
that the population of the poor living on less than one dollar per day
has increased from 474.4 million in 1987 to 552 million in the year
2000. Needless to say a dollar a day is a measure of extreme poverty. It
may be worthwhile to note that the increase in the poverty in the
developing world is happening in the backdrop of increasing global
economic competition, fundamental transformation in the nature of the
national economies as well as that of global economy itself, and
falling agricultural and industrial returns coupled with downsized
agricultural, industrial and services work environments.
This fundamental economic transformation has had the greatest impact on
the poor. In the name of globalization and free trade, developing
countries are being increasingly pushed to a non-competitive situation.
The World Bank in its above cited annual report ridiculed the double
standards of industrialised countries, which keep exports of developing
countries down by charging tariffs as high as 550 per cent for the
developing countries.
The Bank points out that the QUAD countries (the US, the European Union,
Japan and Canada) trade among themselves at tariffs ranging from 4.3 per
cent in Japan to 8.3 per cent in Canada; and only 1.2 per cent of tariff
lines are subject to NTB (non-tariff barriers); however most of the NTBs
are found in the agriculture, textiles and clothing where developing
countries have a comparative advantage. Products with high tariffs in
QUAD countries include major agricultural staple food products, such as
meat, sugar, milk, dairy products and chocolate, for which tariff rates
frequently exceed 100 per cent; tobacco and some alcoholic beverages;
fruits and vegetables and textiles, clothing and footwear. In the US,
only 311 of 500 tariff lines are above 15 per cent. Yet 15 per cent of
exports from the least developed countries to the US face these tariffs.
There might be considerable potential for the least developed countries
to increase their exports if US tariffs were reduced. For example,
almost $26 billion of exports from developing countries in 1999 to the
world were products that would have faced tariffs above 50 per cent in
the QUAD countries. Only about $5 million of the $26 billion was
actually exported to the QUAD countries. On the other hand, the QUAD
countries imported about $50 billion of the same goods, most of it from
industrialized countries.
The knowledge economy does not offer permanent jobs nor permanent
specializations because related skills need to be constantly upgraded
and improved to be able to compete. Yet increasingly ICTs could help
bring the poor closer to opportunities for economic growth, even though
merely 0.25 per cent of Indians are net enabled.
The problem lies with the nature of the policies to promote ICT
development and use. The Indian Government's IT task force and the
National Working Group on "Taking IT to the Masses" have focused on how
the profitability of the Indian IT Industry can be increased-something
that hardly needs any significant focus considering India exported
software and services to 95 countries around the world during 1999-2000
amounting to over US$8 billion. But they have yet to visualize how ICTs
can fulfill the needs of the rural poor, nor have they examined creative
ways in which the communication technologies, perhaps sequenced with
some of the old ones, can help accelerate poverty eradication. Nor are
the policy-makers seriously examining ways to generate employment in the
IT industry, which could be done by integrating ICTs into local level
development planning and work.
Despite these lacunae at the policy level, there have been some
heartening developments at the local level, as well as few success
stories, which should be noted :
**The Gunawad success story : Nobody in Kal Singh's village of Gunawad
in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh could afford to buy his
Jersey cow. He took the problem to the local net kiosk where a
net-enabled software called Gram Haat (Village Market) he advertised his
cow. The intranet connected 32 villages and after some e-haggling, he
got a buyer from the village Dilwara for Rs.3,000 ($75) The Gram Haat is
one of the applications of Gyandoot, a rural e-governance project that
is panchayat-funded (funded at the level of the village) but privately
managed through kiosks in Madhya Pradesh.
** The Ujjas innovation : The National Foundation of India, a non-profit
foundation in India initially offered the village women from the Western
state of Gujarat's under-developed region called Kutch (same area that
has been devastated by the recent earthquake) to bring out their own
newsletter called Ujjas (which means the 'LIGHT') with the help of Kutch
Mahila Vikas Sangathan, a district level NGO. The newsletter was very
successful amongst the women to help fight social exploitation as well
as issues such as dowry, female infanticide, drunkenness amongst the men
folk, enabled them to trade and do business amongst themselves as well
as share knowledge amongst themselves. The success of Ujjas attracted
other funding agencies including the Ministry of Rural Development to
support a 105-episode community radio programme also called the UJJAS
that is broadcast by the All India Radio Bhuj station. The programme
allows the women to voice their concerns, learn from each other and
interact with the rest of the world. The impact of Ujjas in one of the
remotest corners of India is a testimony to the fundamental belief that
the innovative use of communication technologies can be a powerful tool
in the hands of the poor, particularly women and the children.
** The impact of e-governance in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh : When
brothers Kartar Singh and Naib Singh from Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, one
of the richest and most developed states from Northern India, decided to
apply for a loan of Rs. 50,000 (approx. US$1200) to buy new farm
equipment, they knew it would take at least a week of legwork to get a
mortgage deed registered. Amazingly, the revenue official at the
district HQ told them to deposit Rs. 10 (approx. US 25 cents) and
instantly gave them a copy of the record of the rights. It then took
less than 10 minutes for the District Revenue office to verify the
brother's ownership, put the fraud-proof computer generated photographs
of them and the two witnesses on the revenue stamp paper and hand over
the signed deed. Old style governance would have typically taken the
Singh brothers a few days of pleading and bribing to get the record of
rights out of the Disrict Revenue Office. If a property had to be
registered the owner could forget about the documents once he handed
them over to the registration office. For example, in India's one of
the most under-developed states Bihar, the backlog of property
registration goes back to as much as 30 years; however it is
non-existent in Fatehgarh.
In Mafipura, a tiny village of 39 families in Dhar district of the
central Indian state Madhya Pradesh, e-governance covers very basic
needs. A broken hand pump meant the village lost its only source of
water and with the block development officer (BDO is the official
appointed by the state government responsible for a cluster of villages)
absent as usual, there was no one to complaint to. Tentative residents
went to the village cyberdhaba (internet kiosk) to email their complaint
to the collector at the district HQ. Two days later an engineer turned
up, email printed in hand!!
Mafipura is part of an intranet called Gyandoot, a rural development
project that won the State Government Madhya Pradesh an award last year.
The intranet is administered through 32 kiosks and it has nullified the
role of the lower rungs of the bureaucracy. The District Health Centers
are now proposed to be linked to the district hospital something which
will hopefully make an impact in the lives of the villagers.
One story making rounds in Dhar district is of Mohan Patidar, a 40-year
old soyabean farmer from Tirla in Dhar, who sold his last crop at the
district mandi directly for Rs.700/-Rs.600/-per quintal (US$16-$15 for
100 kgs.) after checking the rates in different markets on the Internet
at his village cyber kiosk; paying less than 4.5 cents for the service.
However, earlier things were extremely difficult for him; as he would
have spent Rs. 10/-(35 cents) on bus fare and endure a 30-minute
back-breaking journey to Dhar just to find out the crop prices in the
wholesale market. Then the middle-man who picked up his crop would pay
at least Rs. 50 (US$ 1.20) less per quintal. Now Patedar wants to rent
a truck and ferry his crop to Baroda mandi (market), more than 300 km.
away, because he has accessed the highest price-a cool Rs. 900/-(US$21)
per quintal-from his village kiosk.
Incidentally, Dhar project in Madhya Pradesh; which is possibly the best
digital empowerment project in India currently; was awarded the
prestigious Stockholm Challenge Award. In the same district 18
"headstart" schools impart computer education in dirt-poor villages
where more than 70 per cent people are illiterate and 74 per cent people
live below the poverty line. Needless to say the children are very
excited about the interactive learning and many walk bare-foot up to 15
km. for their share of interactive learning. People are paying for their
children's interactive learning gradually - an affordable 40 cents every
month.
**ICT's role in the elimination of corruption: Wherever the zealous
converts to e-governance have made determined efforts towards
e-governance they have been successful. The Western State of Gujarat
implemented the computerized checkpost project at the 10 octroi (an
entry tax every trucker is supposed to pay to the Government depending
on the material it is ferrying) posts on Gujarat borders. The moment a
truck enters Gujarat, its weight gets recorded on a computer and the
vehicle, number plate are video-graphed. The audio-visual information is
instantly accessible at the central control room in the state's capital
Ahmedabad. No longer it is possible for local officials to cut their own
deals and record a lower weight against a bribe. While octroi receipts
have quadrupled over the past year, the down-side has been that the
number of trucks entering Gujarat has reduced by 25 per cent.
However the project helped reduce the corruption to zero-level; as well
as enhanced the revenue earnings from US$13.95 MILLION in 1998-99 to
US$58.13 MILLION in the year 2000. This is not bad considering a project
that required under US$4.10 million to implement.
**ICT for identifying water-resources : In India's drought-prone state
Rajasthan, an innovative software called "Jal Chitra" (The Water
Picture) is being used by the villagers to identify water-resources in
the desert.
**Craftswomen use ICT to sell handicrafts : Another success story exists
in the Northern state Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi where women have been
relying extensively on the internet to generate business enquiries from
interested customers based world-wide in their handicrafts. They are
able to use the Net to negotiate a fair pricing for their products
without an intermediary; and also get repeat business from the buyers.
Earlier these craftswomen were exploited by the middle-men who used to
retain bulk of the sale proceeds from the crafts; giving the women a
small share. Now they have started using the Internet for sourcing a new
variety of crafts that they are unable to make and in which their buyers
are interested. There has been an improvement in their living standards
and life-style for the last over two years now.
Another success story of women's involvement in ICTs exists in
Pondicherry's Embalam village in East Coast India where 50 per cent of
volunteers are women.
** ICT empowering blind boy: When the authorities in Dhar District of
Madhya Pradesh announced a contest for any school-going boy or girl who
managed to woo 10 villagers to a cyber kiosk and get them interested in
the internet; would be entitled to appear for a general knowledge exam
that would fetch the topper a Rs. 1,000 (US$ 23.25) a month-scholarship
for the next five year; an 18-year old blind student Arpit Jain did not
waste a minute. He coaxed 11 villagers to cyber kiosks and took the test
in Braille with 175 kids. He topped scoring 72 out of 75 marks and is
now learning computers on a very fast track.
I'd like to thank other GKD members for their interesting and helpful
messages, and hope others will find this useful.
Best regards,
Chetan Sharma
President and Founder
Datamation
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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