ICT's EMPOWERING MOTHER'S & KIDS IN DELHI'S SLUMS
Mahatama Gandhi called them "harijans"-"children of god" a decent name
given by the Father of the Nation for the "untouchables" . They had faced
centuries of stigma, discrimination, and apartheid. Indeed they
belonged to the lowest stratum of the Indian society; in most areas they
had different wells to draw their drinking water from; and the upper
caste people even dreaded their "shadows" falling on them as it meant
their losing their "purity". Many of them were scavengers-most lifting
human waste, excreta-either on their heads or on hand driven carts for
disposal; and lived a life of utter misery. The Government abolished
the system of lifting human waste many years ago; and needless to say
the Mahatama (literal translation means "the noble man) waged a war
against untouchability. He used to live occasionally in the scavengers
colony; and used to undertake hunger strikes for drawing nation's
attention to the plight of the untouchables. This helped change their
living conditions to a great extent; as well as helped improve society's
perception about them. Their condition further improved after the Govt.
started reserving jobs for them both in admissions to the universities
as well as to the colleges; and in certain positions of the Govt.
The Delhi Government has also implemented several steps to improve their
conditions; and one such thing was to set up certain exclusive living
areas for the untouchables. They conducted one project in an area called
"Ambedkar Nagar" named after Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (Bar-at-law), who was
himself an untouchable and architect of the Indian Constitution. In
these huge ghettos, live hundreds of thousands of untouchables even now
in abject penury; working on menial jobs such as cleaning of roads,
offices, working in private homes (usually for cleaning the toilets),
setting up little hand-carts selling odd fruits or vegetables. The
average income in Ambedkar Nagar does not exceed US$80-90 per month.
Additionally the families are large-there is no concept of family
planning here due to lack of literacy-average number of children per
family being 4.
To help improve the conditions of these slums as well as to spread
computer awareness; the Govt. of Delhi initiated a path-breaking
"slum-computer kiosk" project. Within a short span of time in November,
2000; the internet kiosks in a multi-user environment was set up as part
of a contract Delhi Administration gave to a leading Indian InfoTech
company. And with this commenced Ambedkar Nagar's kids and youths
cyber-journey; and that too all for free!!
In pitiable hygienic conditions-with hundreds of flies all over the
place, open drains & sewers so much so it may be difficult for people
not used to such conditions even to enter this neighborhood-the kiosk
has been pulling record crowds of kids. They want to spend hours and
hours simply surfing sites in English, which they understand very
little, and sites in Hindi-the local language they know to a great
extent. Quizzes, interactive puzzles excite them. They go over the
puzzles again and again; surf the sites they like for long hours. An
attendant who is himself a computer-literate; keeps a careful eye on the
kids. Sometimes the jostling of the kids, wild cries and rejoicing as
well as fighting becomes too much even for the attendant to handle;
however he always has the residents of Ambedkar Nagar around him; so
they are happy to spring to his assistance. Together they discipline the
kids; even threaten them at times that they would take away the machines
and close down the kiosk. This has an immediate sobering effect. And
they go back to their positions in the queue, waiting for their turns or
the kids simply bunch up with other kids and learn together. They feel
sad whenever the Internet is down; or the machines malfunction. In sheer
frustration & anger, choicest abuses are reserved for the authorities as
to why they cannot have uninterrupted Internet access; and why the UPS
does not support power-backup for longer hours.
The residents of Ambedkar Nagar are very happy; and indeed the kiosk
for mothers and for the kids is the most important place in the slum.
The mothers willingly send the kids away to the kiosk for self-learning
and for self-training. They feel overwhelmed after their kids started
going to the kiosk; their grades have improved in Math as well as in
Sciences. After December, the schoolteachers of the kids are happy with
their increasing concentration and discipline. Besides they are managing
to learn English all by themselves!!
However young girls and their mothers are unhappy since they are
inhibited to send their daughters to the kiosk amongst an unruly &
boisterous crowd of boys. Some bold girls manage to defy their mothers;
and queue up; yet it is by and large a boys-dominated place. Mothers are
demanding separate hours for their daughters and have already written to
the authorities requesting for separate time slots for the girls. It is
a request the Delhi Administration will happily accord, since an
IT-savvy woman, Chief Minister Ms. Sheila Dikshit, is at the helm of
affairs in Delhi; least the bureaucrat's want is a gender bias and the
girls to be left behind.
The mothers are pressing the authorities for more and more content on
the Net as well as more and more of multi-media based self-paced
educational material.
Says an emotional Girija Devi, 32 and a mother of 4 already at this age;
" our forefathers working as scavengers and carrying human waste; never
used to write even a single word; for us every day was worse than the
previous one; however we feel confident at least our children will never
see those days." Further she says she wants her son to be a software
engineer and across seven seas to work in 'Amreeka' (as US is commonly
called in North India) !! Not bad coming from unlettered woman-thanks
to the cyber empowerment!
Best regards,
Chetan Sharma-Executive Director & Founder
Datamation Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
361 Patparganj Industrial Area
Delhi-110 092 (India)
Ph# 91-11-2167230/2167973/2168017/2169162
Mobile# 91-9811039482 Fax# 91-11-2166602/2243087
URL : www.datamationindia.com
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