Over the last decade, telecentres have emerged as one of the most important vehicles for providing public access to computers, the Internet and other digital technologies to the poor, especially those located in remote rural communities. Besides allowing community members to share and exchange information and knowledge, telecentres are helping communities acquire skills, create local content, deliver e-health, e-governance, micro-credit and insurance services, to name a few.

Over the past few years, Development Alternatives (DA), using its network of TARAhaat telecentres, has come up with two innovative ideas to reach out to the marginalised communities of rural India, especially farmers. The two initiatives are known as Village Resource Centre (VRC) and Soochna Se Samadhaan Sewa - using the power of satellites and mobiles - to reach out to rural communities in an endeavour to share and exchange information and knowledge for a better way of life.

The VRC initiative is commonly known as DA-ISRO-VRC programme. The VRC programme is meant to reach the benefits of the space technology directly to the communities at the grassroots level.

The ISRO-DA-VRC Project is a partnership made to uplift the life and livelihood of rural areas. It aims to promote a single window delivery of need-based services in the areas of education, health, nutrition, weather, environment, agriculture and alternate livelihoods to the rural population. VRC will handle both dynamic and generic information to empower rural communities through spatial information infrastructure. It will help launch a knowledge revolution in rural India, designed to enhance ecological and livelihood security and accelerate human development and quality of life by taking the benefits of the space age to improving the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture and for generating value-added on farm and off-farm employment.

In order to fulfil the above needs, DA started disseminating various types of programme through its VRCs. In the past three years, more than 600 programmes have been transmitted through this network to empower marginalised communities. A wide variety of programmes on agriculture (every Friday), health (every Thursday), IT education (every Monday), advocacy (every Wednesday), women empowerment, games, quiz and general awareness (every Saturday) have been delivered.

The reaction from participants has always been very encouraging. Many participants never miss a single programme. The ISRO-VRC network has started showing its impact among the participants.

Shilam, a regular participant at the Niwari centre feels that participating in the different programmes has influenced her life. She now has access to a great deal of information outside of her town as also some very useful information of her town. This has helped in improving her knowledge base.

Deepti, a regular participant at the Niwari centre says that initially she was very hesitant in talking in front of strangers, but the ISRO-VRC network has helped in grooming her confidence and now she can talk on any topic and that too in front of anyone.

Mohan, a participant at Tarichar centre feels that the programmes transmitted through the ISRO-VRC network are so informative and useful that he has incorporated many suggestions in his life. He adds that hailing from a farmer’s family, he was always in the search of new farming technologies. ISRO-VRC programmes have provided this platform also and he feels that programmes on agriculture should be a regular feature.

Narendra Rai of Ashok Sansthan, despite being a centre owner, is so enthusiastic that he never misses any episode and adds value to them by participating in almost every programme.

The students of Shiksha Vikas Sabha became so involved in the mathematics classes that they used to come walking - approximately 5 km everyday - to attend the programme. At the time of completion of the programme, these students became very emotional and requested that such programmes should be continued on a regular basis.

Ratan from Hisua feels that missing any episode is just like missing a daily soap on television. He says, ‘I am grateful to ISRO and DA for making such useful information available to us at our doorsteps. I want to promote these programmes in nearby villages also.’

The other initiative, titled Soochna Se Samadhaan Sewa, is a primarily voice-based information to rural communities via a phone and voice mail-based Q & A service available from both landline and mobile phones. Specifically, it provides farmers with access to a network of agricultural experts and database of knowledge that has both an understanding of the local context and the global expertise necessary to enable farmers to resolve their issues, boost productivity and develop their businesses.

These two ICT initiatives have started showing the desired results of improving rural marginalised communities’ lives through information and knowledge about the activities that are being carried out. These two tools of information dissemination have bettered the life of rural communities and promise to deliver more such efforts and fulfil the mandate of making marginalised communities’ lives better and healthier. q