Background

The Government of Rajasthan has enacted the ‘Right to Information Act, 2000’. UNDP and  GoI (DOPT) have launched ‘Improving Citizen’s Access to Information’ projects in six different parts of India. These projects were launched in 2001 in Mandya (Karnataka), Bhuj and Kutch (Gujarat), Kalahandi (Orissa), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Jhalawar (Rajasthan). The one in Jhalwar, called Janmitra, is aimed at building the capacity of the public authorities for improving citizens’ access to information to achieve transparency and accountability in governance at all levels.

Objectives and Goals

• To establish one-stop shop contact points for citizens to access various government services and information.
• To establish a self-sustainable transaction based financing model by proactively involving citizens, private entrepreneurs and government in this task.
• To establish an IT driven MIS at the District Collectorate towards efficient and effective administration.

Planning

The project was sanctioned in January 2002 and launched in March 2002 in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan. A needs assessment of the citizens was carried out and after discussions with concerned departments, the services for the project were finalized. A society named ‘Janmitra Society’ was formed for the implementation and monitoring of the project. RajComp, a Government of Rajasthan undertaking, was given the responsibility to prepare software for the project. Two officers were selected from each department for the project. Applications were invited to establish Janmitra kiosks at 17 major towns and villages of the district. A total of 137 applications were received. Villages for the kiosks were selected based on OFC connectivity, population, rural market place, link with major roads and community response and community participation. Out of 137 applications, based on hardware availability, location of the kiosk building, telephone connectivity, and enterprise skills of the applicant, local residence of the applicant and their educational background and knowledge of computers, 21 applicants were selected. These kiosk owners then signed an agreement with Janmitra Society for a period of one year (annual license fee of Rs 6,000 was planned but was not deposited). All the hardware and equipment were bought or owned by the kiosk operators and they manage the kiosks on a franchisee basis from the earning from user charges. Nine new kiosks were also launched in August 2003.

Services Provided

Various e-governance services are provided on the network. Land records (Jamabandhi) are issued at a cost of Rs 20 (Rs 10 for the Government and Rs 10 for the kiosk owner). In 1999 data were updated and records of all land, including urban land and non-agricultural land, are provided from the kiosk. Anyone can ask for the record of any survey number without filing a written application. Patwaris (or village revenue official) visit the kiosk in their jurisdiction on Mondays and Thursdays and sign the records. They are then delivered to the user by the kiosk owner either by hand or by a courier. All other land related records (like girdabri and maps) are manually provided by the patwaris.

Redressal of complaints related to 14 different departments can be sought from these kiosks at Rs 10. The complainant is given a receipt on filing an application and redressal takes seven to 15 days. The complaint is sent physically to the concerned department through a courier along with the online transmission. The District Collector monitors them every Monday. The redressal or the action taken on the complaint is made available online.

Rs 20 is charged for the online submission of applications (old age pension, caste certificates, domicile certificates, arms license, social security schemes, etc.). The application is also sent physically through courier. The project also provides e-mail facilities, online mandi rates of agriculture/horticulture produce, online rural market place (gramhaat), matrimonial alliances (vaivahiki). Public awareness services about health, education, animal husbandry and agriculture are also available. One hundred and fifty application forms (pertaining to government departments), Below Poverty Line list, list of development works, citizen charter, electric connection priority list, village wise immovable property rates and village wise drinking water resources are also available to the users. The kiosks open from 9 am to 7 pm, but only provide e-governance services on working days from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm. Numerous offline services like games, DTP, job work, computer training, etc., are also available at these kiosks. Eighteen of 30 kiosks have Internet connectivity and they provide Internet browsing. Ten kiosks have STD-PCO kiosks. All 30 kiosk owners have been bestowed with powers of stamp vending, petition writing and deed writing as well. All the services are provided at user charges.

Target Group and Intended Beneficiaries

The target groups are citizens residing in 17 towns and villages (and nearby villages) in the district, and various government departments.

Institutional Arrangements

UNDP and DOPT (GoI) are the funding agencies. The District Administration is the overall owner of the project, RajComp and Department of IT (Government of Gujarat) have developed software and provide technical support. The Janmitra Society has been registered at the district level under the Societies Act. The Society has a District Collector as Chairman,  There is a Technical Committee, a General Advisory Committee (headed by the Collector) and a Financial Committee. Two qualified technical persons have been kept on contract by the Janmitra Society.

Technologies

The project is based on a rural intranet network with a P III (800 MHz, 256 RAM 20 GB HDD) RAS linked through two modems connected to two dedicated BSNL lines. There is another Redundant Server in the Server Room. The server uses Windows 2000 Server as the Operating System and SQL Server as the database backend. The front end of the software is in Visual Basic 6.0 and ASP. Intranet connectivity is available at 128 Kbps, and  21 departments can connect to the server through dial-up connectivity while 13 departmental offices are on LAN with the server. The data files are transferred as XML files and uses Batch Mode Technique. That is, data is transferred in batches rather than as individual files, so the kiosk operator connects only once or twice in a day.

Primary Access Points

Primary Access Points are 30 Janmitra centres established by the time of the study. The services are not available on the World Wide Web.

Capacity Building

The initially selected 21 kiosk owners were given 18 days of intense training on hardware, software, network, services, entrepreneurship development, etc. All the district level officials were given four-day training. Two persons from each department have been identified as nodal officials and they have been given training as well. New inputs are provided to kiosk owners and officials in monthly meetings.

Constraints and Implementation Challenges

The mindset of government departments and their officials was seen as a major constraint at the time of the launch of the project. All the officials and concerned personnel of  related departments have been trained and the mindset has been largely changed through capacity building modules. These departments have been provided with computers and have either LAN or dial-up connectivity with the server. The project area has a low rate of literacy (only 60 percent and the female literacy rate is as low as 40 percent). There is a lack of IT awareness among the general population. The publicity and awareness campaigns regarding the project have had a very limited success. The large geographical project area and social problems between various communities have always resulted in implementation challenges. The databases in different departments are built on different platforms and have different data structures. The integration of these databases is very challenging. The online processing of complaints and applications is still not taking place. Most departments are manually and physically handling these applications and complaints after online submission and offline delivery of original documents. Manual land records are still issued by the village revenue functionary, which has resulted in two parallel systems. Data updating, especially of land records, has numerous problems. Mutations are taking place manually and are not being registered on the database regularly. There is a dearth of technical manpower in the district. The ratio of technical manpower and onsite requirement for support is not proportional. Rural areas in Rajasthan are facing power cuts for as long as 12-14 hours a day. The UPS provides some kind of back-up, but the power shortage is so acute that it has become an important implementation challenge for the project. Similarly, at the initial phase of the project, telephone connectivity was a major cause of concern. However, there has been a lot of improvement in the connectivity.

Project Outcomes

The project has been under implementation since March 2002. In the three months (May-July 2003), 810 users obtained land records from the kiosks, 355 users filed complaints and 214 users used online applications. Considering the situation of the project area, the response towards these three e-governance services can be termed as satisfactory. All the kiosk owners are also successfully acting as stamp vendors, petition writers, computer education providers and desktop publishing providers. The project has resulted in transparency and accountability through a single point contact with the government. The project has provided a healthy revenue stream to the majority of kiosks.

Key Lessons Learnt

The Internet has miniscule content in the local language and there is an absence of any context with local needs. In rural areas, Internet connectivity is also not available in remote places. The project has successfully confirmed that community networks in rural areas need not necessarily be on the Internet; and  that the success of an ICT project in a rural area depends on the need assessment at the initiation of the project and on proper selection of villages and entrepreneurs. The integration of various e-services and offline activities (along with other related services) can generate enough revenue at information kiosks. In the project, most kiosks are earning Rs 2,500-4,000 per month of net income. Some kiosks are earning as much as Rs 4,000-7,500 per month. Another lesson from the Janmitra project is that the franchisee model (based on enterprises with user charge sharing) is better than telecentres manned by employed staff. e-Governance services are possible only when government departments streamline, reprocess and e-enable their functioning. Government has to be a major partner in any successful e-governance networks. A crucial lesson learnt from the Janmitra project has been that a close partnership with government is essential in a successful e-governance project.

Sustainability

The project’s sustainability depends upon its level of institutionalization. It still remains person driven, with the present District Collector providing the leadership. What will happen to the project after his transfer is yet to be seen. The Janmitra project has been a financially sustainable one, but its sustainability on administrative grounds is not confirmed yet. Most successful projects in India have failed after the transfer of the project champion from the project area.

Replication and Scaling Up

Janmitra has been replicated in Dehradun district of Uttaranchal. The Government of Rajasthan has decided to replicate the project in eight districts of Rajasthan. The project was to be scaled up to 40 centres over the three months following the study. Electricity, water and telephone bills payments from these centres are planned to be added to the services. Online court cases and online education are envisaged to be added to the system shortly. The project was planning to use WiLL technology from CorDECT in Khanpur and Bhawanimandi blocks, which will provide connectivity to all the 400 villages in these blocks.

Recommendations

There is a need to implement a publicity campaign to popularize the e-services offered by the network as these have not become popular in the rural areas. The project has not yet realized the full cooperation of the Gram Panchayats. Local and traditional bodies in rural areas should be involved in the campaign. It is recommended that land record mutations should be initaited online and security features built up to safeguard unauthorized updating or manipulation of land record databases. It is also recommended departments be streamlined so that online processing and disposal of complaints and applications become possible. This would require a significant amount of back-end processing. The project should start e-payment services at the earliest, as it is a felt-need of the villagers and the community. In-house capacity building should be taken up, as the project is technically dependent on two technicians hired for server room management by the Janmitra Society. These two technicians were expected to leave the project when the project funding stopped in December 2003. The network should try to use 2 Mbps leased lines provided under RajSwift. Presently, the bandwidth is idle. e-Health and e-education services on the network are absent on the network. The project should strive to include these vital services in the network. The project should shift away from a ‘e-governance’ focus to a ‘community network’ focus.

Human Interest Stories

Financially Healthy Telecentre

The Janmitra kiosk at Bhawanimandi is owned by Pradeep Soni, a 30-year-old post graduate and a diploma holder in computer applications. Besides a Pentium III computer with a printer and a UPS, his kiosk has a scanner, a Xerox machine, STD-PCO and a TV repairing unit. His services include stamp vending and petition work along with computer education, DTP, job work, etc. He has Internet connectivity and earns Rs 1000 per month from Internet access. His monthly earnings from the STD booth is Rs 3,000, photo copy work is Rs 2,500, online services Rs 2,500, offline services (including computer education) is Rs 2,500 and from the TV repairing unit Rs 1,500. His monthly expenses are around Rs 4,000, and he earns Rs 8,500 per month as net income. He thinks that this has become possible because he has developed his kiosk as a ‘Composite Information Centre’. He feels that his shop caters to every information need of the village.

Online Tracking of Complaints

Twenty-eight year old Mahesh Kumar Jain comes to the Pachpad kiosk every week. He is keeping track of the complaint he filed a month ago from the kiosk. His father, a Gramsewak (village development functionary), died last year while in government service. Mahesh had applied for his own appointment as a Gramsewak on compassionate ground in Jhalawad. He used to travel 135 km to reach there and wasted many days and thousands of rupees in travelling. When he heard about the Janmitra centre, he filed his complaint electronically. He came to know from the district administration that he was not eligible for the job as he was not a graduate (a pre-requisite for the job). He has re-applied for the job of a clerk. He is satisfied now with the progress of his application. He knows that his appointment as a clerk is just around the corner. Now, he is thinking of settling down and getting married.

Contact Information

Praveen Gupta
Collector and District Magistrate

Garh Palace, Jhalawad, Rajasthan
Tel: +91 141 238 1394, 238 4681, 510 3902, +91 74 3223 3616
Fax: +91 74 3223 0404
E-mail: janmitra_society@rediffmail.com

Website

http://www.raj.gov.in/janmitra