Health communication, HIV/AIDS, social mobilisation, learning evaluation, capacity building

Dr Subbiah Arunachalam (Arun) of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation argues that the current lack of access to the internet for scientists in the developing world is creating a new form of poverty - information poverty.

The widespread availability and convergence of information and communication technologies - computers, digital networks, telecommunication, television, etc. - have led to unprecedented capacity for dissemination of knowledge and information according to Dr Subbiah Arunachalam (Arun) of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. Dr Arun is an information consultant based in Madras (now renamed Chennai) in South India. He has been associated with the Indian academic and scholarly communities for over three decades.

Information poverty and the digital divide

One of the promises of the information revolution was that it would increase the opportunities for all people to share knowledge. But what if you don't happen to live in a developed country? Dr Arun argues that the current lack of access to the internet for scientists in the developing world is creating a new form of poverty - information poverty - which makes it harder for them to stay abreast, let alone catch up with their colleagues in the developed world.

During the discussion on how ICTs could be used to empower the rural poor in the developing world through enhanced access to relevant information organised by Exchange in early September 2002, Dr Arun said that the impact of the fourth information revolution is felt in education, research, medicine, government, business and entertainment in many parts of the world.

He based his argument on Anton Mangstl who points out that the benefits have reached only about 5 per cent of the world's population. Dr Arun told participants that the new ICTs had in fact led to a digital divide not only between rich and poor nations but also within nations.

“Even in affluent United States of America, as Rev. Jesse Jackson has pointed out ICTs have not only widened the digital divide but also deepened the racial ravine, and the relative disadvantage suffered by inner city populations (mostly Blacks and Hispanics) is continually on the rise”, he added.

He looked at the history of technology, which he said was by itself a great divider that exacerbates the inequalities in society. “Is there no way for the poor and the downtrodden to benefit from ICTs?” he asked.

Knowledge centres and integrated communication

A project on reaching the unreached aimed at eradication of poverty was an experiment in electronic knowledge delivery to the poor. Knowledge centres in ten villages near Pondicherry in southern India were set up and are now connected by a hybrid wired and wireless network - consisting of PCs, telephones, VHF duplex radio devices, spread spectrum and email connectivity through dial-up telephone lines - that facilitates both voice and data transfer, and have enabled the villagers to get information they need and can use to improve their lot.

Dr Arun said that all the knowledge centres are open to all, irrespective of age, sex, religion, caste, and level of literacy and education. He said the entire project draws its sustenance from the holistic philosophy of Swaminathan, which emphasizes integrated pro-poor, pro-women, pro-Nature orientation to development and community ownership of technological tools against personal or family ownership, and encourages collective action for spread of information and technology.

The bottom up exercise involves local volunteers to gather information, feed it into an intranet-type network and provide access through nodes in different villages. The ten villages are connected in a hub and spokes model, with Villianur, a small town 13 km west of Pondicherry, serving as the hub and value addition centre. Value addition to the raw information, use of the local language (Tamil) and multimedia (to facilitate illiterate users), and participation by local people right from the beginning is the noteworthy features of the project.

He disclosed that most of the operators and volunteers providing primary information are women, thus giving them status and influence. “All centres came up because of demands made by the community,” he added. Apart from these villages, the project had established knowledge centres in three more villages but had withdrawn because either these centres did not share information with all people in the village, or did not maintain regular hours and did not maintain the equipment well.

He said that the Foundation provides the equipment and training and each centre has at least three computers, a modem and a telephone line and that the local language is the one used for all information exchange. Participants were told that information is read out using loudspeakers and that these centres opened new economic opportunity for some users.

Dr Arun noted that in the villages where the project operates, have shown that access to timely and relevant information does make a difference to the life of the rural poor. We have also shown that new ICTs can play a role in this effort.

On the lessons learnt from their own project and the experience of others in the past few years, Dr Arun looked at the sustainability of the model. “To someone who has had the privilege of watching every step from close quarters, it is clear that technology by itself may not mean much and one needs to take care of the context, content and language.”

On the factors that led to the project’s success, he mentioned the visionary leader, his able technocrat implementer and his small team of half a dozen dedicated staff understood the people and their context and got accepted by them. Also the local communities had trust in them and readily offered space to set up the knowledge centres - in Panchayat (local level government) offices, in temples, in government-owned buildings, and in one village in a private individual's home! In two villages the people collected money to construct new buildings to house the knowledge centre. In some villages the communities pay the telephone bills and Internet charges.

Secondly, the relationship with the local community is not of the "donor-recipient" type but one of "partnership in progress". Right from the beginning the people of the villages were involved at every stage. Every month village volunteers and the Foundation's staff meet and review what has been accomplished and discuss new initiatives. “The learning process takes time”, he noted.

Dr Arun said mere provision of information could not lead people out of the poverty trap and that access to relevant information was only part of the story. He said people needed to build skills and capacities they could convert into additional income. “We take an integrated view of development and are working closely with the biovillage and ecotechnology groups of our Foundation”

Out of the 19 people who attended the discussion, 9 filled in and returned their evaluation forms. Most people said the presentation was very good because of its focus on the grass root people. Several of them were happy with the way the presenter gave detailed, practical and frank answers to questions.

How can we use ICTs to empower the rural poor in the developing world through better access to relevant information?