VISP, Thiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu
Page Tools
Background
Activists for Social Alternatives (ASA) is a registered public trust working for more than 17 years as Grameen microfinance replicaters in South India. Its focus is on the empowerment of the rural poor and socially disadvantaged through microcredit and education programmes. It has been functioning in this field since 1993 in five districts of Tamil Nadu. It has 2,000 sanghas (women credit and thrift groups) and 60,000 women members. The organization provides loans ranging from Rs 2,000 to 6,000 at 12 percent interest rate for income generating activities and also for consumption activities. It has loaned Rs 480 million to around 39,000 members. The repayment rate of loans has been 98.4 percent. ASA decided to use the women sanghas to help bridge the digital divide. In May 2003, Vidyal Information Service Provider (VISP) was launched in six villages in phase I.
Objectives and Goals
- To empower the weaker sections of the rural community through the use of ICT.
- To ensure equal digital opportunities to the have-nots in the villages.
- To build a vibrant rural economy by becoming a rural ITES provider.
- To build a sustainable, replicable and scalable business model.
- To create rural techno entrepreneurs by leveraging the existing micro-finance network of ASA.
Planning
The credit and thrift activities of ASA were adapted from the Gameen Bank of Bangladesh. The Grameen Technology Centre (USA) provided financial and technological support to ASA for the implementation of VISP. The Drishtee Foundation was engaged to provide technical inputs and software/networking to the project. This foundation is a major IT-enabled service provider of a platform to deliver information and services to rural India and has the experience of managing 200 kiosks across five states. It was envisaged to start the VISP project in six villages (Somerasampettai, Kallukudi, Ramachandra Nagar, Thuvarankuruchi, Vaiyampatti and Manapparai) in phase I after carrying out a needs assessment of the villages. The location of the kiosks, or Community Technology Centres (CTCs), was chosen by the villagers and the entrepreneur was selected by the sangha members. The cost of the kiosk has been kept at the lowest at Rs 48,000. Each kiosk has one Celeron computer, a printer, a scanner, a copier, and a UPS, along with furniture, telephone line and ISP connection. Fifty percent of the project cost has been sanctioned as a long-term loan by ASA (12 percent interest; nine-months’ grace and five-year long repayment schedule).
Services Provided
The services provided at VISP centres include the provision of prices of agricultural commodities, information on horoscopes and rural market places, matrimonial services, educational services, healthcare services, grievance redressals, provision of government forms, etc. Users are also provided discount coupons to three private hospitals of Thiruchirapalli. They can get a 10-20 percent discount when submitting them to the hospitals. Other services include web browsing, desktop publishing, data entry job work, net-to-phone and basic computer education. Most of the services at the time of field visit were not made operational.
Target Group and Intended Beneficiaries
The target population is the residents of villages (and nearby villages). The emphasis has been on empowerment of the women members of sanghas.
Institutional Arrangements
There is a Programme Coordinator from ASA, a Consultant from GTC and a Technical Resource Person from Drishtee. Besides, a Technical Assistant, a Marketing Manager, and a Service Coordinator are provided by the implementation agency, ASA.
Technologies
The client end uses Windows 98/XP as Operating System and Internet Explorer. The software is in Tamil. The server is maintained in the field office of Drishtee at Thiruchirapalli. The server is in Windows 2000. The web server is IIS, database server is SQL 2000 and is on ASP 2.0 platform. All the online services are planned to be provided through the Internet website, to be maintained by Drishtee.
Primary Access Points
The primary access points are the six VISP centres opened in six villages.
Capacity Building
The VISP centre entrepreneurs have been given two weeks of training on the use of software, financial management and entrepreneurship development at Thiruchirapalli.
Constraints and Implementation Challenges
Currently, the VISP centres are only providing limited off-line activities. The connectivity of the kiosks created so far has not been stabilized and that hinders the proper functioning of the network. The locations identified for the kiosk are also not the most prominent ones in the project area. Most of the kiosk-owners have other means of livelihood. Because of this, they do not pay the expected attention to the kiosk operations. The project has made an attempt to use Dhristee software, which has been used across many Indian states. The software does not meet the requirements of the villagers. To a certain extent, the software does not match the objectives and goals of the project organization as well.
Project Outcomes
The cost to set up a kiosk is minimized in this project. This makes the management of the kiosk more profitable compared to the investment made. The project has generated enthusiasm amongst the villagers in using IT to alleviate poverty. The use of standardized software without creating local content has become a crucial challenge in managing the project. Poor connectivity through dial-up modems slows down the growth of project. Most of the services, especially those related to e-governance, are not provided optimally by the district administration. This has created a major hindrance in its usage by the villagers.
Key Lessons Learnt
One of the key lessons learnt is that it is possible to reduce the initial investment cost of the kiosk. This, in turn, increases the financial feasibility of the kiosk. ASA has ensured that the capital investment in the kiosk was kept as low as Rs 48,000 (Celeron computer for Rs 23,000, scanner and printer for Rs 8,000, UPS for Rs 2,500, furniture for Rs 3,500, telephone line and ISP connection for Rs 3,000 and working capital of Rs 8,000). ASA has been working with women over the last decade and has been trying to piggyback the ICT network on the positive synergistic energies built in sanghas (as done by Grameen Trust in Bangladesh to implement Grameen Phone). Another important lesson learnt from the project is that the CTCs should be established initially in only those villages where there is demand. The project has also largely avoided ‘re-inventing the wheel’ by involving Drishtee Foundation in the development of software and establishment of network.
Sustainability
The project had been operational for only a short period by the time of the study. The restriction on the initial capital cost of the VISP centre increases the chances of future viability.
Replication and Scaling Up
The project has not been replicated anywhere else. Until the project outcomes are substantial and its financial viability is proven, there is little chance of it being replicated. Even then, it could be replicable (with some modifications) in places where microcredit operations have been established. ASA is keen to scale up the project to 30 villages in six months following the successful outcome of phase I, and to continue opening increasing numbers after that. The project also plans to scale up services by including electricity billing, telephone billing, and railway reservation, stamp vending licenses, bus reservation, and video-conferencing.
Recommendations
Training provided from VISP centres should be standardized. Internet connectivity is poor, and that has reduced the demand for Internet browsing. There is an urgent need to establish reliable online connectivity, as all online services are to be provided from an Internet website. The Drishtee Foundation has been working in five Indian states in the field of community networking. It has developed user-friendly software for Indian villages and is using the same software (with Tamil fonts) without any customization. It is important that the software used in the project should cater to the local needs. The rural bazaar and matrimonial services have no local database. Mechanisms to build and update such databases should be explored. The local Village Council (Gram Panchayat) has not been involved in planning, implementation or monitoring of VISP centres in the village. Similarly, the project seems to be functioning without much support or involvement of various government departments. The e-government services promised by the VISP centres are still far away from implementation. e-Governance would be possible through VISP centres only after the involvement of various state government departments and all the three tiers of panchayat institutions. The project should try to impart e-education and e-health services through these centres, as these services could be engaged much more easily. Even offline activities, like horoscopes, a telephone directory, government information, government forms, etc., have not been provided. There is little use providing static information online.
Websites
Last modified 2006-10-17 12:45 PM
