North:ISRO to teach tribals spoken English through VSAT technology

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has joined hands with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) to implement spoken English programme for the tribals in the rural areas of Narmada, Surendranagar, Bharuch, Surat and Junagadh through VSAT connectivity.

Through its Space Application Centre, which has been doing research on VSAT technology, ISRO wants to uplift the life and livelihood of the people in the rural areas through services such as Tele-education and Tele-healthcare. Spoken English will be part of these courses, and AKRSP will be the implementing agencies for five centres.

Kumar Ujjwal, the coordinator of the project said: "The idea is to provide education to the tribal youths, especially education in English, which is lacking. As a community centric learning centre, the Village Resource Centre's (VRC's) aim is to bring access of knowledge to the villagers' doorstep." VRC is a national project being run with ISRO technology.

ISRO will provide VSAT connectivity to the five selected VRC locations. Apart from education, the objective is also to reach out to farmers and provide them with information related to agriculture, land and water management.

The VRCs will avail agriculture and horticulture related advisories from the expert centres at Anand Agricultural University, K-Link centre at Bhuj, and the tele-health related services from the telemedicine hospital and the Apollo Hospital at Ahmedabad.

An ISRO official said: "The most striking feature of tele-education is skill development. The other centres have done very well through this project. In Kutch, around 11 of the 15 students have secured jobs, while others have been able to get a hike in salary after undergoing the programme."

AKRSP will promote VRC project among five districts of Gujarat to mobilise and establish VRCs through community based technology-learning centres (CTLCs), and provide the technical and management support for them to become viable and sustainable.

"The moment we get all the hardware and software, we will start the project. We have identified the centres in all the five places," said Ujjwal.

These VRCs will work as part of the existing VRC network of Gujarat in association with NGOs SEWA and ABHIYAN.

OTHER OBJECTIVES* Advisories on agriculture, land and water management* Providing enhanced livelihood opportunities to tribal youths* Providing information to farmers on price, market, pests, diseases, livestock, government schemes, job opportunities, and e-governance related information, among others