Grameen Gyan Abhiyan

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of what Jawaharlal Nehru referred as “India’s Tryst with destiny”, the country continues to be a land of ecstasy and agony. On the one hand, there are many bright spots in the economy, with GDP growth rate exceeding 9 per cent. At the same time, there are many dark spots particularly in rural areas where farm families are facing acute economic and ecological distress. In 1947, India’s population was about 350 million. Over 70 % of the population was then engaged in agriculture including crop and animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry and agro-processing. The population of India in 2007 is over 1.1 billion, of whom nearly 65% still depend upon agriculture as the source of their work and income security. Agriculture thus continues to be the backbone of India’s livelihood and ecological security systems. The Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012) document refers to the prevailing technology and extension fatigue and knowledge deficit in the farm sector. The task of bridging the gap between scientific know-how and field level do-how in rural India is urgent. This is the rationale for the Village Knowledge Centre movement.

The seed was sown in 1997 when the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) embarked upon a programme to use access to information as the key to holistic rural development. A few months later, in early 1998, the Information Village Research Project was established with financial support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. Initially, MSSRF set up information centers, later to be rechristened as Knowledge Centres, in three villages near Pondicherry. As there was no prior experience (nor any model to follow), the progress was slow and faltering. Indeed, a few of the early centres housed in individuals’ homes had to be closed down, as the benefits were not reaching all members of the community, especially people belonging to the Dalit community. Social inclusion, reaching the unreached and voicing the voiceless are articles of faith in the MSSRF-IDRC ICT programme. Both the MSSRF staff and the volunteers from the local communities learnt from such experience and helped expand the network to 12 villages in the next few years. This pioneering project was followed by several other ICT-enabled information delivery projects (often referred to as ‘info-kiosk’ projects) in different parts of India.

Now as India prepares to celebrate her 60th independence day on August 15, 2007, the stage is set for ushering in a knowledge revolution in rural India. The Green Revolution helped to improve the production of wheat, rice and other crops, but a Knowledge Revolution can lead to the enhancement of human productivity and creativity in every area of human endeavor. While equipment like computers and innovations like the Internet are important for facilitating the rural knowledge revolution, only rural women and men can help to shape the direction and relevance of this revolution. Locally appropriate and relevant content for rural economy through the active involvement of Gram Sabhas, Local Self-Help groups and NGOs needs to be developed.

The second Mission 2007 relates to the knowledge and skill empowerment of rural families with the help of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre stimulated the following developments.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched a Village Resource Centre programme at the Block level involving satellite connectivity and teleconferencing facilities.
The Department of Information Technology, Government of India, launched a Common Service Centre (CSC) programme designed to cover 100,000 villages.

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, decided to provide to each Panchayat the necessary ICT infrastructure to enable them to participate in the e-Governance programme.
ITC Ltd decided to expand its e-chaupal programme in order to cover 50,000 villages
The development of software in major Indian languages by the Azim Premji Foundation and Tata Consultancy Services.

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has organized so far 80 VKCs and 15 VRCs.
Many State Governments, Academic Institutions and NGOs have organized VKCs in different parts of the country.

Thus, Mission 2007 has triggered a national movement for bridging the urban-rural digital divide and for ensuring knowledge connectivity in areas relevant to the day to day life and livelihood of rural families. The Government of India has included knowledge connectivity as an important component of Bharat Nirman or a New Deal for Rural India.

MSSRF hosts the Secretariat for the National Alliance for Mission 2007 – a broad based coalition of government, non-government, academic and business sectors committed to the cause of taking ICT to all the 600,000 villages of India as soon as possible. In addition, with the generous assistance of Tata Trusts, MSSRF has established a Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity (NVA) and a Jamsetji Tata Training School. The NVA has currently 985 Fellows from India and 25 Foreign Fellows drawn from the Afghanistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Nepal and Nigeria.

These grassroot Academicians are the torch bearers of the rural knowledge revolution. The Jamsetji Tata Training School aims to provide opportunities for life long professional growth to NVA Fellows, as well as help in identifying suitable staff for VKCs and VRCs as well as CSC and other programmes sponsored by Government and Industry.

From August 15, 2007, Mission 2007 programme will grow into a Grameen Gyan Abhiyan, a national movement for knowledge empowerment of rural families. It is hoped that by 2010, the Grameen Gyan Abhiyan will cover every village and home or hut in the country. The last mile and last person connectivity will be achieved through an integrated internet-community radio or internet-cell phone synergy. Already artisanal fishermen are being trained in the use of cell phones for identifying the location of fish shoals and for learning about wave heights at different distances from the shoreline. Thus, appropriate frontier technologies provide uncommon opportunities for increasing the productivity, profitability, sustainability of both small scale fisheries and small scale farming.

Significance of Grameen Gyan Abhiyan (GGA)

The Green Revolution helped to increase the productivity of crops like wheat and rice. The Knowledge Revolution, on the other hand, helps to enhance human productivity and creativity in several dimensions. Grameen Gyan Abhiyan will be based on the following organizational structure.

Every Block will have a Village Resource Centre with the help of ISRO
Every Panchayat will have a Gyan Chaupal or Village Knowledge Centre with the help of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Civil Society Organisations, multilateral donors, the academic and private sectors and bilateral and multilateral donors.
The last mile and last person connectivity will be achieved through combinations of internet and community radio, and internet and the cell phone.

While connectivity can be achieved, content creation and capacity building will be the greatest challenges. The content has to be dynamic, demand driven, locale specific and in local languages. The Jamsetji Tata NVA and the Jamsetji Tata Training School of MSSRF will help in capacity building and content creation with support from Tata Trusts, Microsoft, IDRC, SDC and other national and bilateral development agencies.

A major role of the Grameen Gyan Abhiyan movement will be the establishment of linkages between scientific know-how and field level do-how. For this purpose, VRCs and VKCs will have to be intimately linked with appropriate programmes such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan for literacy, Yuva and Mahila Sakthi Abhiyans of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, National Rural Health Mission, National Horticulture Mission, National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, etc.

In order to accelerate progress in reaching the unreached in terms of relevant information and services in retail trade in fruits, vegetables and grains as well as on methods of safe handling, packaging and marketing, a Quality Literacy Movement based on Codex Alimentarius standards of food safety will be launched in association with the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore. GGA will launch a Knowledge on the Wheels Programme for accelerating progress in the dissemination of information and the provision of relevant services.

The range of services will be gradually increased under the auspices of the Grameen Gyan Abhiyan, which will be managed by the National Alliance for Mission 2007. The Jamsetji Tata NVA will host the Secretariat for GGA. As a single step, the Rural Knowledge Revolution is likely to have the largest beneficial impact on the physical, economic and social well being of the over 700 million people living in villages.