Project Title:
IT mediated rural women education and dissemination of health information - A pilot

Recipient Institution:
University of Western Australia
Graduate School of Management

Project Leader:
Dr. V. S. Venkatesan
vvenkate@ecel.uwa.edu.au

URL:
http://www.gsm.uwa.edu.au

Amount and Duration: US $ 10,250 / 12 months

1. Project Background and Justification

Women Welfare is a worldwide problem, persisting from the medieval times. In developed countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan, the USA and parts of Europe where universal health care and social security are available, women welfare takes a different form and gender bias is still a social issue in these countries. Despite rhetoric, women in these socially advanced countries also fight for equal rights, equal job opportunities etc, albeit in a different plane.

In contrast, in India and other developing or underdeveloped countries, this problem is acute and is exacerbated by socioeconomic, religious and political factors. Poverty, lack of education, inherent social bias against women and religious taboos in these countries often lead to the exploitation of women. Compared to large Indian cities, where women have better opportunities towards education and more access to social and health information, rural women in India have very limited educational opportunities and have practically no access to external health and welfare information. Because of the social taboos many rural young women become child bearing at a very early age little aware of the health and social consequences. The same lack of education and the general reluctance to discuss personal health issues leads them to suffer in silence even when they have major health issues, AIDS being one of the major ones. More fundamentally, rural women are blissfully unaware that such health issues even exist, the result being that, unwittingly, they become carriers of these diseases and, without being aware, pass it on to the next generation. AIDS assuming an epidemic proportion in Africa is a case in point. Young children are being born, infected with AIDS virus, and such a disaster appears to be waiting on the wings in many other underdeveloped countries. Thus, educating rural women and raising their health awareness are key elements in any national or global strategy. Further, given that over 2/3 of world population is concentrated in developing or underdeveloped countries of Asia and Africa, women welfare and their health awareness is emerging as a global issue and is high on the agenda of the United Nations and other international agencies.

The inherent social bias against women in rural areas manifests in different forms. Early school dropout is one major problem young female students face in rural areas. Rural women education efforts will be significantly enhanced if the female student dropout in secondary / high schools in rural areas could be reduced. The important thing to note is that, these young female students already have the basic education at the primary level, have the ability to read, write and communicate with others and are in a situation where higher education would significantly enhance their knowledge horizons. Losing a female student through dropout is similar to losing an existing and valuable customer and any business literature would attest to
the need to retain such customers. Thus retaining female students in rural schools becomes paramount.

It is well recognized that there are socioeconomic and family reasons which result in female student dropout in rural schools and IT, as a tool, cannot address these issues. Our strategy is to use IT as a information tool and IT training and its attendant job potential as a socioeconomic incentive to retain students in schools. It is worth noting that this model would be equally applicable to socially disadvantaged female students studying in poorly funded schools in large cities.

Despite good intentions and national strategies to combat this problem, many governments in highly populated countries such as India are unable to meet this challenge because of the exploding population, limited resources and competing demands from other sectors. The economic and social disparities between cities and rural areas also result in quality educational and social infrastructure being located in metropolitan cities, making it inaccessible to people located in smaller towns and villages as well as to those in the lower socioeconomic strata. Usually, the inhabitants of remote villages and other rural areas are
forced to travel great distances to access such facilities. This is an issue in many parts of the world, particularly where the population is spread out over large areas and the infrastructure is unevenly distributed. In India however, with over one billion people, the problem tends to be much more visible when compared to other countries.

Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College for women is a charitable, non profit educational institution and its educational programs have national accreditation from NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). NAAC is the apex body in India that certifies educational programs. The college is also recognized by the Ford Foundation. Located in one of the smaller cities of Tamil Nadu, this long standing educational institution has substantial track record in socially oriented programs in rural areas surrounding Tiruchirapalli. Founded for the very purpose of the uplift of women in post independence India, this institution has maintained the service ethos to the present day and has won many laurels in the community. The existing infrastructure, the service ethos and current outreach programs that target rural women ensure that the proposed project will have long term sustainability.

The primary motivation for choosing SRC as a partner institution to implement the project is that it is a charitable, non-profit organization and is in the non-metropolitan region. One of the main objectives of SRC has been to ensure quality education to the economically weaker sections of society. Any project development that takes place in the developing world should be cognizant of the prevailing socioeconomic conditions. A model that works well in a charitable institution with minimal resources could be implemented with ease in any other situation.

The proposing institution, The Graduate School of Management, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia has considerable experience and expertise in the social application of IT solutions and in project management that can take this project from the realm of one-off IT development (or a web page evelopment) and turn it into a turnkey project tool that can be applied in different countries. Through its international teaching programs, GSM, UWA is well connected to various Asian countries and has the expertise to rigorously monitor the project and ensure quality output. GSM also has a Centre of Excellence for Women and Business which can provide support to SRC where necessary.

The two institutions, The Graduate School of Management and Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College will combine their individual expertise to bring the project to fruition and ensure long term viability of the projects. This is in line with the many high quality academic and practitioner research projects that GSM has been involved with over the years. Considered to be a top ranking institution in Australia, to date, GSM researchers have won 15 awards in national and international competitions. Several members of staff are also on editorial boards of international journals. With its many offshore contacts and resources, GSM is in an enviable position in terms of infrastructure and capabilities to make the services accessible to those who need it most.

The principal researcher / applicant, Dr. V. S. Venkatesan has developed several technological products in India. He has won the prestigious President of India  NRDC Invention Award and some of his inventions are in commercial production in India. He is currently involved in the development of an Intelligent System to support small business community in Australia. Having done several projects in India as well as Australia and with a personal commitment to developing solutions that will benefit India and other such countries,
the principal researcher is ideally placed to lead the project. A personal commitment from both sides provides the necessary impetus for the project.

Further, both UWA and the SRC are public institutions that are subject to rigorous audit and accountability processes and any funds allocated to this project would be subject to strict scrutiny by the auditors. Questionable practices are not possible in these institutions. The process of R&D is also peer reviewed to ensure quality outcomes. As a result, the funding agency can be assured of delivery of products, with high ethical and financial accounting standards.

On the surface, it might appear that the project has more to do with social service and less with IT. It should be emphasized that, in the proposed project, IT is being used as an information dissemination tool with the emphasis being more on the process rather than on the technology. Our belief is that IT should be integrated with social and business processes to become an effective tool rather than technology alone driving a change.

2. Project objectives

The objectives of the project are:

2.1 General Objective
The broad aim of this proposal is to design, test and implement an information technology (IT) based Women education / health information dissemination pilot targeting rural women in the Tiruchirapalli district of Tamil Nadu, India and to use the existing education infrastructure to demonstrate the economic viability and the social benefits of such a program in a developing country with complex social and religious interrelationships. A charitable educational institution (Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College for Women, Tiruchirapalli) will be at the heart of this pilot and will be used to educate / disseminate information to rural women with special focus on younger women who are more vulnerable. Early school drop out of girls in rural areas is a major problem in rural India and has significant social welfare and health consequences in that uneducated young mothers often unwittingly start another generational cycle of poverty and further propagate health problems such as AIDS.

Underlying this project is the UN charter for the uplift of women in developing countries and improving their health and social welfare through education. Empowerment of women is considered crucial to bring about a social transformation in these countries. Using IT and student network as basic tools, information dissemination will be through educating female students and their parents in a select group of regional / rural schools and using this nucleus to expand the coverage at a later date. The aim is to bring about a sustainable, micro social transformation and evaluate it. The project has a wider scope in that the tools and models developed will be available for adoption elsewhere thus making the project portable.

2.2.Specific Objective

The focus of this project is not on developing new technology but to use existing IT based technological tools to bring about social transformation. Thus, the emphasis is on human processes and effective use of IT tools.

3. Project beneficiaries

3.1. Rural women of Tamil Nadu, India

3.2. Ten rural schools and ten schools and government schools run by the Tiruchirapalli Corporation.

4. Project methodology

4.1 Target population
Rural schools and government schools run by the Tiruchirapalli Corporation will be targeted by this project. Ten rural schools and 10 schools run by the corporation will be identified. In addition, the project will also identify two other colleges (apart from SRC) and two social service groups in the town of Tiruchirapalli to impart this knowledge. Female students in higher classes in these schools and volunteer college students who can commit their time and human effort will be identified and targeted.

The project will have several distinct parts with well defined outcomes for each.

4.1.1. Brief research into problem identification
The aims of this research phase are:

A significant amount of general, anecdotal evidence exists in these areas. However, some focused primary research is considered essential to understand the local situation and evolve suitable IT strategies. This phase is also expected to be useful in establishing direct rapport with the target population, their institutions and their respective administrations. This phase will necessarily be short not lasting more than 6 weeks.

4.1.2. Design and implementation of a simple IT based information dissemination system
Using local IT skills and resources, a web site and training module will be developed. This training module and web site will provide health information in a format that is easy to understand with significant local language and graphical content. Parallel to the web site development, the same information will be available to schools in CD ROM and other formats.

4.1 3. Establishing a network of trained and motivated students from the target population
Long term sustainability and expansion of the project will depend on non governmental organizations (NGOS) and a steady stream of volunteers to assist SRC in their ongoing activities. Thus, establishing and training a network of volunteers and committed social organisations, who are aware of the issues and the proposed solutions, becomes paramount. Through a series of IT and non IT based training sessions, the volunteers from rural and local areas will be trained and provided with basic infrastructure support to disseminate information to rural schools. This approach will provide more coverage than that achievable by a single institution.

4.14. Ongoing service
During this period, the proponents of the project will also examine the possibility of extending this service to wider areas of Tamil Nadu with the support of State and Central Governments or other agencies. It is well recognised that the project can only provide the basic tool or seeding grant to prove the viability of the concept and cannot provide funding for large scale implementation, which falls under the realm of the respective governments.

4 .1.5. Evaluation
The project will be evaluated using several criteria:

5. Project outputs

6. Project time-line

Preliminary planning of project will be done between the time the project is approved and the funds are received. (approximate time 1 month prior to formal start of the project).

Currently there is no reported use of Short Messaging System for disease surveillance. The early detection of disease, which covers this study, is an emerging field in public health informatics.