VILLAGE RESOURCE CENTRE: A step closer to the grassroots

Man's future in Space will be determined more by Socio-Cultural imperatives rather than Science and Technology alone. Individual Liberty & Democracy along with deep and active concern for all living beings on Earth are essential features of a civilized society – Space programmes will have to pay attention to this.

The ultimate goal of any science is development of the community. With a firm belief in this principle, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) envisages to extend its expertise and achievements in the spheres of Space science and Information technology to rural development. With this prime objective ISRO has initiated the VRC concept i.e., setting up of the Village Resource Centres (VRCs) with a view to integrate its capabilities in satellite communications and satellite based earth observations to disseminate a variety of services emanating from the space systems and other IT tools to address the changing and critical needs of rural communities. The VRC is a totally interactive VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) based network. These nodes can be further extended using other technologies like Wi-Fi, Wireless and Optical Fibre. These extensions may serve as local clusters around the areas where the VRC is located.

• Millennium Development Goals

The United Nations declaration in September 2000 stated thus – “ We will spare no efforts to free our fellow men, women & children from the object and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty to which a more than a billion of them are currently subjected”. This millennium goal statement was the natural products of world summit for social development 1995, in which a consensus was reached “on the need to put people at the centre of development:

The Millennium Declaration was adopted by 189 world leaders who committed to – “free all men, women and children from object and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty by the year 2015. For the purpose the major goals set were promotion and achieving universal primary education, improve maternal health care, eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, combact HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development. These goals have given a direction for development among the countries, particularly the developing nations. Our country being a signatory for these Millennium development goals has a committed responsibility to achieve this task.

• Millennium Development Goals & VRC Concept

Technology plays a prominent role in development initiatives particularly more so in recent decades. Space technology and Information communication technology are state of art technologies of modern civilization. But unfortunately the benefit of these technologies never or rarely reach the poor. The benefits that technology brings normally reaches or pocketed by the few affordable rich, further widening the poverty gap and also limiting accessibility capabilities within the community. Information and Communication technology with space technology component can play a tremendous role in the development perspective. It can be a tool to disseminate the knowledge flow of any kind to the rural masses; acting as a catalysts to the growth process. ‘Knowledge is power’, ‘We will be free only where we know’. ISRO, has envisaged the VRC concept to enhance the knowledge of rural community of the country and thus to empower them.

The vision is also to breath an air of freedom into their life, which are generated through enriched knowledge.

The VRCs can help on:-·

Spontaneous flow of information on health, education, etc., to the grass-root-level.·

It will empower the poor and needy as they will also have an access to these.·

Spread education, issues of equality and rural livelihood.·

Promotion campaigns – particularly health and sanitation related.·

Inter linking of development process.·

Above all empowerment of the people through awareness and dissemination of knowledge as ‘Knowledge is power’. The remote sensing technologies and satellite support systems that are going to be used in the VRC are part of information and communication technologies. They can play specific roles in fulfilling each of the Millennium Development Goals in their own way. The objective set or perceived for the VRC, project is much akin to these millennium goals. The VRC project can be envisaged as tool to achieve there millennium goals in which the space technology plays a deciding role.

Thus the vision referred at the beginning, for the Indian Space Research Organization is being visualized through VRC project.

• 1) The VRC’s are expected to provide wide ranging information like land records, natural resources, suitable sites for drinking water as well as sites for recharging to replenish ground water, water harvesting, wastelands that can be reclaimed, rural employment creation, watershed, environment, infrastructure, alternate cropping pattern, and so on. By suitably blending the information derived from earth observation satellites with ground based and weather related information, locale-specific community advisory services can be provided. Community based vulnerability and risk related information, provision of early warning and dissemination of severe weather related information could lead to reliable disaster management support at the village level.

• 2) VRCs will also provide a variety of services like tele-education, telemedicine, online decision support, interactive farmers' advisory services, tele-fishery, e-governance services, weather services and water management. By providing tele-education services, the VRCs act as virtual community centric learning centres. At the same time, VRCs will provide connectivity to speciality hospitals thus bringing the services of expert doctors closer to the villages. This project strives to promote a need based single window delivery system for providing services in the areas of education, health, nutrition, weather, environment, agriculture and livelihoods to the rural population to empower them to face challenges.

• 3) The VRCs will also address social issues through awareness and information dissemination. Information with respect to health, education, nutrition, gender issues, legal services and women empowerment. It also aims at creating a demand for services available through government agencies. The VRCs can also provide for community assistance through help line which can be used for social issues. It can cater to livelihood accessibilities gender issues as information related to this aspects also can be disseminated. The demand available in the service sector can be depicted through the VRCs enabling a greater employment opportunities. This can also disseminate the required service in the Govt. sector and also the various development initiative projects that are initiated by the Govt. It is planned to involve Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), trusts, private entrepreneurs, Industries, State Government departments and the state remote sensing centers for the VRCs. The overall implementation of the project will be the joint responsibility of ISRO / NGO / Partner Agency / Community. The NGO / Associating agency at VRC level is expected to setup the VRC with the necessary infrastructure and ISRO will provide the equipments, hardware and software as per the required specifications. The NGO / partner agency is also expected to collect the necessary information by conducting Participatory Rural Appraisal, Rapid Rural Appraisal, Focused Group Discussions and from other sources (Recent Census) to arrive at suitable agriculture / land / water resources issues and also to identify health / education needs.

• 2.0 Scope and Objectives

The VRC project aims at transferring the benefits of the space and IT directly to the communities at the grass root level to uplift the life and livelihood of rural areas. The project as envisaged is meant to serve as a resource centre to address various primary need based requirements of the local communities such as education, health, weather, agriculture and livelihoods opportunities. One of the main aims of the VRCs is to use developments in the field of IT and space technologies to empower rural communities by enabling greater capacity building and awareness. The project aims at increased productivity and sustainability of natural resources, human development and economic sustainability. Major objectives of the project are:

• To generate advisories on agriculture, land and water management to better utilize the available resources and to mitigate the negative impacts. This aims mainly on maximizing the economic output from the available resources. Existing land use and land cover pattern and planning for better and optimum land use pattern can be planned with these informations enabling better productivity results.

• Ensure greater access to information on land, water, soil etc so as to educate and empower the local communities for greater conservation and sustainable utilization of these resources. The accessibility of information also will improve the capability of the rural communities for better development planning and ensure equitable bargaining power in a skewed social system.

• Capacity building of the community to ensure greater awareness with respect to the basic human development indicators like health, education, child care, female literacy, adult education, etc.. This health related and social aspects will improve the standard of living and overall development.

• Providing enhanced livelihood opportunities with wider dissemination of information for greater economic growth. This will create greater opportunities among the rural masses both at the entrepreneurial level creating greater employment opportunities and opportunity for self employment

• Providing information on price, market, pests, diseases, livestock, govt. schemes, job opportunities, e-governance related information etc. The market services can result in better economic gains to the grass-root producer who is hitherto deprived of these opportunity costs. The job opportunities and e-governance related information will widen the life scope of the rural youth.

• To provide Tele education and tele healthcare services. Tele-educaiton and health care has a very wide scope to create a revolutionary change in the rural sector. One of the reason for educatiion and health care is the non-accessibility of our rural interiors. This has always bogged down our development initiative and efforts. The tele-network in this lines through VRCs can be a remedy in these lines.

• Overall empowerment of the rural community by catering to Rural Human development through health, sanitation, child care, female literacy adult education informal education etc

• To ensure and provide linkages with various development initiatives. To act as a catalyst for ensuring transparency in all sectors of rural development. The information and communication capabilities will breath a new life in the level of transparency in the public sector.

• 3.0 The Approach

• 3.1 Participatory Approach

Role of community participation in any development initiative needs no stress. Any programme or project aimed at rural development succeeds and sustains depending on the level of peoples participation. The project is mainly aimed at the community and hence its involvement is very much essential for the success of the project. The involvement of the community requires greater awareness about the project and its utility. This calls for greater involvement with the community and its capacity building.The participatory approach requires involvement of the community at different levels of the project implementation like formulation, planning, implementation and also post project management and monitoring. The sustainability of any developmental initiative depends on collaborative management by the community with proper facilitation by external agency. The process of participatory implementation ensuring social sustainability requires sufficient capacitation of the user community. A successful development project should ensure a sound trade off between social acceptability with due concern for equity along with environmental sustainability. Only a reasonable participatory involvement in the project can ensure the expected results.

• 3.2 NGOs Partnership Approach

The strength of NGOs in social mobilisation is strongly proved over the years. The VRC project has chosen to depend on this proven capability of the NGOs and other similar grass root agencies.Rapid Rural Appraisals (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisals are required for greater dissemination of information about the project, its components and its utility to the rural community. All this calls for greater involvement at the grass root level, in which the NGOs have exposure and capacity. Thus, NGOs are mainly involved in the project to further the scope of the project to create greater awareness in the community with enhanced capacity to use IT enabled services for its benefit. The identification of the partner NGOs for project implementation is based on the ground presence of the NGO in the proposed area of VRC establishment.

• 4.0 Components and Potential of VRCs

Village Resource Centres will become single window delivery mechanism for tele medicine, tele education, natural resources data, agriculture advisories, land & water resources advisories; interactive farmers’ advisories; e-governance services and weather advisories. It will also be involved in capacity building of the community to enhance its awareness and knowledge levels. The VRCs will provide information on health, education, nutrition, gender issues, legal services and women empowerment.

• Tele education:
  

Focusing on building indigenous skill and imparting training and capacity building, including formal, non-formal and adult education. As a community centric learning centre, VRCs aim to bring access to knowledge at the villager’s doorstep.

• Telemedicine:
  

Telemedicine system consists of customized medical software integrated with computer hardware, along with medical diagnostic instruments connected to the commercial VSAT at each location. Generally the medical record/history of the patients is sent to the specialist doctors, who will in turn study and provide diagnosis and treatment during videoconference with the patients end. Telemedicine helps patients in rural areas to avail timely consultations of specialist doctors without going through the ordeal of travelling long distances. The VRCs through their telemedicine network bring the services of specialty hospitals and expert doctors closer. Any VRC can be connected to any of the 75 hospitals of the ISRO Telemedicine network, of which 19 are super-specialty hospitals. VRCs will also be connected to the nearest district / specialty hospitals. The telemedicine network will be provided at two levels.

1) Specialty Consultation – Consultation with experts and specialists from various fields of medicine like Neurology, Nephrology, Cardiology, Gynecology, Pediatrics, etc., to ensure greater and better access to health care facilities.

2) Basic Consultation – This would involve consultation for treating common and minor ailments at the village level probably at the primary health centers through paramedics in the absence of regular doctors. The main causes for infant mortality in the rural areas are diarrhea, maternal mortality, infections, etc.. Though these are minor ailments, the absence of timely help and advice make them fatal, especially to the infants. The VRCs through its tele-medicine and tele-education components would address these issues through awareness, sensitization and capacitation of the community on personal health and hygiene, especially during pre and post natal periods.

• Land & Water Resources Advisories:
  

With the comprehensive databases on detailed scales extracted from high resolution satellite images, VRC will not only bring access to spatial information on various themes such as land use/land cover, soil, ground water prospects but also enable the farmers to get query based decision support. GIS databases comprising all thematic layers, cadastral boundaries, road network and drainage network will be created. A simple software package will be installed for accessing and querying the natural resource information and related advisories, which will enable farmers to get online decision support at cadastral levels.

• Interactive Farmers’ Advisory Services/Tele agriculture:
  

VRC will enable online interactions between the local farmers and agriculture scientists working at Scientific Institutions. The advisory will cover a wide range of subjects starting from alternate cropping systems, optimization of agricultural inputs – seeds, water, fertilizer, insecticides, pesticides and producer oriented marketing opportunities. Community centred advisories on soil and water conservation, on adopting water efficient cropping patterns, on practices related to rainwater harvesting/ground water recharge, on participatory watershed management, information on market/price, pests & diseases etc will also be made available. Farmers/villagers of one VRC can interact with farmers/villagers of other VRCs on crops, pesticides, water harvesting etc.VRCs would not only, thus ensure expert inputs for sustainable development but also provides for learning between communities through inter-community knowledge flow. The existence of such networks would allow for greater dissemination, adoption and replication of practices, with modifications if any. This flow of information would also bring in greater transparency and acceptance as the flow as will be established would be between the user communities.

• E-governance services:
  

Services such as governmental schemes on agriculture, poverty alleviation, rural employment, social safety nets – food for work programme and other basic entitlements, animal husbandry and livestock related services, services related to Self Help Group (SHGs) etc, will also be made available at VRCs. The failure or negligible use of various programmes is more so because of lack of awareness rather than non-implementation. Creating greater awareness on the available opportunities and rights of the community would bolster the demand thus ensuring greater efficiency of the ‘supply’ i.e., implementation of the programmes. This would also help bring in greater transparency and accountability to both the programmes implemented and the implementing agency.

• Weather Advisories:

Short, medium and long-term weather forecasts will be converted into location and farming system specific advisories and will be made available to the community as relevant information for local consumption. Weather advisories, like those envisaged under the VRCs, are very much in requirement to ensure agricultural success, especially in agrarian economies like ours, as the success is greatly dependent on rainfall.

• Social Messaging and Rural Empowerment

Social Information related to gender, sanitation, mortality, morbidity, legal support systems, livelihood accessibility informations, etc., will be provided by the VRCs. The proper information flow and time bound updation has to be ensured so as to ensure better results. The utilization of these informations can be at the local level or national to international level.

• Project support Systems

Any developmental project initiated in the region can use this VRC to spread messages. Awareness and sensitization programmes through the VRCs about the projects can provide a faster track for these programmes to initiate upon.

• Community Based Organisation (CBO) support system

CBOs are more and more being identified as catalyst tools in the process of development. They are seen as centres of community participation. The VRCs can cater to the needs of specific organizations like Self Help groups (SHG), User groups, youth services, etc., and can ensure both institutional building and successful participation in development process.

• Panchayat Raj Institutions and VRCs

With greater thrust on the democratic decentralization, the panchayat raj institutions are going to play a greater role in the national development agenda. Particularly in Karnataka, the PRIs are proposed to play a decisive role in the rural development programmes. The VRCs can be an effective and useful tool for the capacity building of these PRIs. Even Gram panchayats (GPs) can be thought as a centre for VRCs. The scope in this respect seems to be very vast and discussions with the state governments can yield very fruitful results in extending the VRCs.

• 5.0 Responsibilities of Partners

• 5.1 Role of ISRO
• 5.1.1 Technical Assistance

Major responsibilities of ISRO/DOS are to provide the satellite (VSAT) based communication back bone/connectivity, creation of natural resources database/advisories, providing telemedicine & tele education facilities, software for accessing, displaying, querying natural resource database/advisories. The proposed network will be capable of catering to three types of requirements.

• The first one is the connectivity for telemedicine services wherein any VRC node can establish the connection with selected Hospitals in the ISRO Telemedicine network and with district hospitals/nearby specialty hospitals.
• The second type of the connectivity is for information and data services for the community where all the services will be provided from a central location.
• The third type of connectivity is for the services, which are exchanged among the VRCs, and interaction between VRCs and few expert centres.

However the exact communication configuration will be as per the recommendations of Communication Configuration Committee of ISRO. At present the telemedicine network is operating with a HUB at ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC),
Bangalore in Extended C band with Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) System. The proposed ISRO-NGO network will be on the existing ISRO NET, which is on SCPC DAMA technology.

For delivering the planned services, the technology options available are audio Tele conference; Videoconference and web based browsing. The beneficiaries of VRC could access the services through broadcasting, point-to-point connectivity and intranet on a time shared basis.The communication system has three major components namely satellite, central hub and remote terminals. The remote terminal is a 2 way VSAT operating in Extended C band with 3.8m-antenna and 2W/5W RF power amplifier. The selection of the power amplifier will be decided by the location of the VSAT with respect to satellite coverage.

The central hub consists of a 6.3m antenna and 40 W power amplifier operating in Extended C band. The base band system provides SCPC DAMA connectivity between various nodes. The hub function includes assigning channel frequencies, bandwidth, uplink power etc. The network is flexible in terms of providing Star or Mesh as well as Demand or Pre-assigned connectivity. The immediate requirement of the Network is 12 VSATs operating at various locations. The required bandwidth for the proposed network could be on INSAT-3A at 93.5 deg East longitude that carries the Telemedicine traffic. The hardware at each node will include multimedia PC with a web cam and simple microphone for video conferencing. To include the telemedicine function, database server, application server with appropriate software, X-ray scanner, 12 lead ECG and telemedicine software are to be in place. For training and data access functions appropriate software will be incorporated. Towards telemedicine / tele education, ISRO will provide the required equipment/facilities. The VRC nodes will get connected to any of the selected hospitals of the ISRO Telemedicine network.Natural resource database will be generated on 1:12,500 scale. Individual layers will be prepared on Land use/Land cover, Geology, Geomorphology, Soil, Transport Network, Drainage & Water bodies, Slope, Settlement, Watershed boundaries, Village/Taluk boundaries etc. Map showing ground water prospects/recharge, suggestive measures for agriculture and water resources (arrived at by integrating peoples aspirations understood through Participatory Rural Appraisal – PRA) will also be provided. The above said thematic maps will be generated using IRS LISS III/ LISS IV and PAN data. Cadastral data will be georeferenced and it will be superimposed with the above layers to enable survey number wise queries.

ISRO will procure satellite data and will generate the thematic maps in association with the concerned State Remote Sensing Application Centres. All the layers along with other information will be part of the GIS database of particular taluk/block. User friendly, query system developed by RRSSCs will be made available for accessing the data/advisories. The VRCs will also be linked to expert agencies like the Universities of Agricultural Sciences of Bangalore and Dharawad for Tele agriculture consultations and Three district hospitals and two specialty hospitals for telemedicine purposes; towards this a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) will be signed between ISRO and these institutions/ departments. ISRO will bear the cost of running and maintaining the VRCs (including staff salary, training etc) for the first two years.

• 5.1.2 Technical Capacity Building: ISRO will also be responsible for technical capacity building of the NGO staff. ISRO will extend its technical know how to the partner NGOs to maintain the VRCs functioning. The capacity building, aimed mainly to increase the technical knowledge base of the community will be delivered as Training of Trainers (TOT) programme, where in the NGOs would act as agents of knowledge transfer. Experts ro ISRO will prepare relevant course contents and training modules for the purpose and provide this training to the selected NGO staff or identified personnel.

• 5.2 Responsibilities of NGO

The NGO partners will act as a bridge between the technology and its social application. As part of the VRC programme, the responsibility of the NGOs will include to provide ·

A building (a hall and two/three rooms) for setting up the VRCs with necessary furniture, lighting and space for the installation of VSAT antenna and for telemedicine, tele education/tele agriculture facilities in each location. ·

Computer systems preferably, Pentium IV, for residing/accessing the natural resource database/querying and other services etc. ·

Cameras and other required accessories.·

Contents for tele-education / tele-agriculture programme will be generated / arranged by NGO through expert agencies or experts. ·

• Tele-Medicine – The NGO will network and facilitate services between local doctors, preferably from PHCs and expert doctors through telemedicine facilities. The honorarium for the doctors will be borne by the NGO.·
• Tele-Education – The NGOs will generate need based contents for capacity building. Interaction with subject experts will be arranged for the benefit of the rural populace, especially the student community. Possible networking with the existing ISRO tele-education facility will be explored for wider consumption.·
• Natural Resource Database –
  

1. The NGO will capacitate the staff of the VRC to use the natural resource database to cater to the community. It will also capacitate the staff to further capacitate the community to use the resource bases. ·
2. The NGOs will be responsible to record and document the priorities, perceptions, aspirations and requirements of the people through Participatory Rural Appraisal / Rapid Rural Appraisal. This would be used for deciding the deliverables and various advisories. Census data on population and other details will also be collected and suitably integrated by NGO. ·
3. The information collected through PRA/Census will be used to arrive at suitable agriculture/land/water resources advisories and to identify the health/education needs. ·
4. The NGO will collect all the details on governmental schemes, pests & diseases, market/price, livestock etc from various sources and will provide through VRCs. ·
5. The required trained manpower for manning the VRCs will be provided by the NGO. The VRC personnel will have the basic knowledge of computer operations.

• 6.0 Capacity Building

The participatory nature of the project calls for greater awareness and capacity building of the community. This requires a comprehensive training programme which can deliver both social and technical aspects to the grass root level regarding space available deliverables in an area-specific manner. The involvement of the NGOs would help the task of community training greatly. The process of capacity building involves training to the NGOs, who in turn would capacitate the community. The capacity building of the NGOs will cover two major spheres viz., Social and Technical. Social capacity building would involve modules on the VRCs, its functioning and utilities, Concept of VRC, Utility / Awareness / Data usage, Extension / Exposure, Community Participation, Sustainability of VRCs, Inter project linkages and Handholding and WithdrawalTechnical capacity building would involve Spatial data interpretation and utilization, Hardware usage & maintenance and Data generation and analysis.

This would be provided by ISRO as TOTs.

The trainings to the community would follow both formal and Non-formal modes of education. Awareness and sensitization of the community would follow the non-formal pattern involving PRA / RRA exercises. IGA / Skill and other technical trainings would follow the formal training mode. Training to the community to be part of the awareness and sensitization of the programme. How ever all trainings to the community to be completed by 3-4 months from the initiation of the programme. The training modules pertaining to the utility of VRCs to stress more on the concepts of tele-medicine, tele- education, Gender, Live stock and general health and sanitation. The tele-medicine / tele-education concepts under VRCs to be evolved as need based programmes. NGOs to facilitate tele-medicine project involving PHCs. Minimum awareness programme on health, including gender specific, AIDs awareness, human trafficking can be made as documentaries with popular appeal so as to evince intrest on these issues among the community for better living. Module wise time scale for training to be evolved based on content. Modules to be finalized in consultation with experts in the relevant field. NGOs with specialization in areas like education, health, rural development, computer knowledge, environment to be judiciously used / involved across the country. Modules to be administered on pilot basis with provision for feed back and corrections. The material to be provided in the local language. Greater emphasis on audio-visual aids for capacitation.

• 7.0 Withdrawal Strategy

The project as planned involves only technical support and capacitation there off, by ISRO. These activities, as planned, will be completed with the initiation of the VRC’s or shortly thereafter. The exit of ISRO has to be planned such that it does not create any lacunae and affect the functioning of the VRC’s. Proper strategies for this withdrawal need to be put in place well in advance. The withdrawal has to be in phases and based on the feedback loop established by the PMU. Learnings, if any, from the VRC’s established on the pilot basis need to be incorporated for subsequent phases. Technical capacity building support has to be continued as handholding even after withdrawal.

• 8.0 Summary :-

The village resource centres can be an ideal tool to achieve the goal of utilizing the space and communication technology for human development. Information and communication technology can find a development outlet through the VRC concept. The Millennium Development Goals envisaged can be realized to a large extent by the VRCs properly networked. Proper utilization and extension of VRC can result in reduction of rural poverty and increase in the livelihood standard of the masses. Using of realistic technology and to have knowledge partnership are the two basic requirements for the success of the VRC concept.

Q:- Can information and communication technologies (ICTs) support development and social infrastructure projects? Will the money invested in communication devices and computers bring in tangible benefits to the targeted group or it is better spent on providing food, shelter, health and education?

This is the dilemma funding agencies and donor organisations/governments often find themselves in. But the choice need not be 'either or'. If used intelligently and innovatively, ICTs can form an integral component of development projects. This has been amply proved by the Village Resource Centres (VRC) - a unique concept developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). VRC is a concept built on the mandate of the country's premier space organisation to develop space related technologies and apply them to the real problems of man and society. It is a service that facilitates information to the fishermen in the middle of the sea, where to find schools of fish; a service where a doctor sitting in a corporate hospital treats patients in a remote village in Kerala; a service that sources out scores of vocational course and churns out thousands of skilled/semiskilled workers. In short, this is a service that can harnesses technology to enhance livelihoods and skills for rural prosperity. The best part of the VRCs is that it does not use technology because it is there, but uses it for a genuine advantage. People and their contexts decide the implementation of development interventions. The needs of the people and the best means to satisfy them determine the entire programme. NGO LINK UP The programme, launched in 2004, runs in association with NGOs / Trusts and concerned state/ central agencies. This is to optimise the resources and to increase the reach and the quantum of content. While ISRO has set up VRCs in association with state governments in Sikkim, Nagaland and Kerala, it tied up with several genuine NGOs in many states. It has also forged consortia of NGOs to facilitate sharing of content. While ISRO primarily provides satellite connectivity and bandwidth; telemedicine and tele-education facilities; and available/ customised spatial information on natural resources, along with indigenously developed query system, the responsibilities of housing, managing and operating the VRCs, with all relevant contents rest with the associating agencies. SERVICES Laboratories, especially national labs, which have resources, have a superficial perception of the needs and demands of population. On the other hand, the NGOs who have a grassroot perception of the problems , rarely have the technological resources to solve them. To overcome this mismatch, NGOs associated with VRCs carry out extensive household surveys and gain a better understanding of the needs of the local population that range from need for information to need for finances. Linkages with banks, government bodies, universities, market agencies, hospitals and insurance companies provide supplementary information and services. Programmes, courses and services are then charted out based on the inputs from these discussions. A gamut of services are provided by the VRCs ranging from information and advisories on land use, natural resources to providing completely structured courses in computer literacy, carpentry, plumbing etc churning out trained nursing assistants, lab technicians and electrical technicians. VRCs have created a revolution of sorts with its programmes. For instance, the programme on micro enterprise and micro credit helps the self help groups right from the feasibility study through preparing project proposal, securing loans to providing hands-on training and providin market linkages. MS Swaminathan Foundation's (MSSRF) 'knowledge on wheels' is yet another unique programme. Under this, MSSRF tied up with Shankar Netralaya to provide eye care facilities and create eye care awareness using the VRC network. "The programmes envisages bringing the experts and grassroots level communities together in two-way communication with the objective that knowledge should reach every home," quips Senthil Kumaran, Director. Unlike ISRO-MSSRF VRCs, ISROAMRITA VRCs, working in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, are dedicated to the cause of education, health and community capacity building. The SEWA-ABHIYAN VRC network in Gujarat specialises in skill development courses, coaching classes for students and training for SHGs. The DHAN-Byrraju Foundtion working in Andhra Pradesh has tied up with the agricultural university for advisories on agriculture and Swamy Ramnanda Theertha Rural Institute for livelihood activities. This apart, DHAN-Byrraju network doles out a variety of programmes that include embroidery classes, beautician courses and coaching for engineering entrances. To sum up the activities at VRCs in the words of Dr VS Hegde (Project Coordinator, VRC, ISRO) , "Lot of experimentation is happening. I can't say big things are happening, but definitely unique things are happening." The availability of broadband network has enhanced the operational capacities of partner agencies in terms of both quantity and quality. Interactive services are enabled through VRCs to attract more users. For example, MSSRF VRC Thangachhimadam, Tamil Nadu, which used to have around 125 consultations per month has started getting more than 500 consultations after it graduated to ISRO-MSSRF VRC. This trend is visible in all VRCs. "We are bringing the power of synchronous learning to the public," asserts Dr Hegde. ONLINE DECISION SUPPORT With ISRO making available information on land and water resources through comprehensive databases on detailed scales extracted from high resolution satellite imageries, VRCs bring access to spatial information on various themes such as land-use/land-cover, soil, ground water prospects but also enable the farmers to get query based decision support. GIS databases comprising all thematic layers, cadastral boundaries, road network, canal and drainage network have been created. A software has been developed to accessing and querying the natural resource information and related advisories, which enables farmers to get online decision support at cadastral levels. ISSUES AND CHALLENGES While it has always been a challenge to evolve high-end technological solutions (like VRCs) to solve grassroot problems, the VRC experience has taught many a valuable lessons that gave impetus to take the programme further. First, it has established that a synergy and convergence with other initiatives is vital to bring in tangible benefits of technology to the rural people. For example, the ISRO-MSSRF VRCs in Tamil Nadu is able to provide enhanced services because of its convergent activity with Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity (NVA) and Microsoft Unilimited Potential Programme . Similarly, ISRO is able to service all the hardware needs of the VRCs across the country with the help of a call centre set up in association with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and deals all the software issues with AMRITA and inhouse resources. At this point, it is important to note that to widen the activities and reach out to larger population, We are in the process of conceiving such a system. IIT Madras has developed one such system and we have to see how best we can marry the VRCs with such systems. With the expansion of VRCs, the bandwidth requirement will go up, and we will require up-to half a dozen satellites to service all the villages in the country. It then becomes an investment aspect with demands for orbital slots, newer frequencies for meeting operational needs, etc. These aspects pose more challenges at the national level. Rural connectivity is the biggest problem today. The nearest telephone booth is about 30-40 Km in more than 30,000 villages. Reaching such places is a tremendous task. We will try to evolve a good, viable economic model, which can be replicated. That will be our next step. You talked about minisatellite. Do you think something of this sort can directly fit into a programme like VRCs? About 20 years ago, our IRS satellite weighed 850 Kg. It has been providing multi-spectral data useful for agriculture, disaster management, etc. Today, we have been providing the same capability with 80-100 Kg satellite. At this weight, the cost of the satellite comes down, cost of the launch comes down, they become more affordable, and if we want frequent observations, we can have a cluster of them. Today, it is not just sufficient to look at the surface of the earth. We should look at the atmosphere in more detail, especially when we have environmental problems. There are a lot of scientists waiting with good ideas to study the coupling of ionosphere, atmosphere and the solar system, such experiments become affordable. Also, a low cost terminal can directly relay information in a radius of about 100-150 Km. This makes it a good tool for local development. So mini-satellite experiment is a unique step for expanding space based activities. Apart from supplying hardware, do you see any area where the industry can contribute? Is there a scope for the industry to look upon this as a potential market that is largely unexplored? Again, we have to look at our economic condition. In a country like America or in Europe, a farmer can afford to pay. There are just about 2% farmers in their countries and their income levels are high. But here in India, 70% of our population lives on agriculture. And they don’t have adequate money to buy food, leave alone being able to pay for such services. So, it becomes by and large driven by the government sector to start with. As time goes, perhaps these services can be charged. More than the industry, public participation is important. If villagers can form cooperatives, such agencies can channelise the data and the type of improvement they seek, and then they can make it commercially viable. A private company investing in such venture will look for the returns tomorrow, and it is just not possible in an area like this. You ought to have patience, invest money and wait for a few years. Only then this will start paying. One of the things catching up in agriculture sector today is the concept of direct marketing or direct retailing. Do you see VRCs acting as some sort of marketing agency? coordinate with the best of various successful models like the Common Service Centres (CSCs) of NIC, enterprise based models like Dristi, government initiatives like e-Seva and Bhoomi and corporate sector models like e-Choupal. Being part of the synergy and convergence will help to avoid duplication, multiply the services and impart sustainability in a long-term perspective. Also, to take this to the next level of operationalisation, it is important to make these VRCs economically viable. That seems a utopia at this point because of the poor economic status of the target group but to sustain and widen the scope of activity, it is important that the programme is made economically selfsufficient. Taking a judicious stance on the VRC functioning to the next level, Dr Hegde says, "We need to improve serviceability and sustainability. We are trying to bring in financial and social inclusivity into the system so that it becomes a stakeholders' programme." With ISRO acting as a facilitator of technology and the NGOs taking a lead role in creating social infrastructure using the VRC network, it is important to sensitise partner agencies. It is also important to create awareness to attract more partner agencies to realise the mission to set up 60,000+ VRCs proposed. MILES TO GO.. "Ultimately, we want the VRCs to grow into local hubs and become one-stop shops for knowledge and information," says Dr Hegde optimistically. The challenge to achieve this is to enlist technology as an ally and not an adversary to bring in economic, social and gender equity. The creation of the Village Resource Centres is just the first step. The challenge is to provide a brighter future, connected to the world of opportunities and growth for 600,000+ Indian villages, building sustainable social infrastructure in the country. It may seem a farfetched thought at this point, but could be achieved through vision, determination and systematic tapping of resources already in place. ISRO - MSSRF VRC Reaching the unreached When the fishermen of the coastal regions of Thangachimadam, Tamil Nadu, await the new version of Apple iPhone to come to India to facilitate good catch at sea, you understand how informed and tech-savvy they are. All this and more became possible with the VRC network created by ISRO and operated by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). With 17 VRCs, 96 Village Knowledge Centres (VKC) spread in 550 villages across south India, the ISRO-MSSRF network is working wonders with the rural populace. With a well-structured 3-tier knowledge network in place, MSSRF first holds extensive discussions with policy makers, research institutions, panchayat leaders, and community based organisations to chart out locale-specific and demand driven training and awareness programmes using different participatory rural appraisal techniques that include focus group meeting with different sections of the community, time and trend analysis, social mapping, wealth ranking and household sample surveys. While a VRC at the block level acts as a hub, knowledge workers at the VKC level reach out to every villager with informed knowledge incorporating traditional wisdom and personal experience. The major content of the VRCs include advisories on agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and women's health. Information about government schemes and entitlements, micro-enterprises, civic services, environment and markets keep the villagers updated. Fisher Friend is another innovative programme that empowers fishing community with real time information on fish availability, access to market data and timely weather information. While rural yellow pages and employment news are unique, weekly tabloids like 'News of our village' in Malayalam, Tamil and Marathi highlight the activities and inform upcoming programmes. Locally relevant knowledge with lot of pictures and limited text, pamphlets, flashcards, touch screen and self-learning modules provide information in an impressive way. To supplement the content and capacity building, MSSRF forges a consortium of content partners at block level that include government bodies, banks, insurance companies, NGOs and hospitals. This consortium plays a vital role in providing necessary information and forms a link between the villagers and the world. "Gender concerns are central to the project and we believe that incorporating this concern is essential for project success," says Senthil Kumaran, Director, Information, Education and Communication, MSSRF. Due to this deliberate decision, more than half the volunteers operating the knowledge centres are women. "This has positively increasef the number of women users," he confides. Apart from the 384 Kbps uplink/and 1.5 Mbps downlink satellite connection ISRO provides, MSSRF uses a variety of techniques for the last mile dissemination of services and information like the Wi-Fi based audiovideo conferences, WLL phones, public address systems, electronic bulletin boards, K-Yan PCs. Advisories at the farm level use offline CDs, intranet website, audio visual media and hands on training. At the same time, no special efforts are made to promote access to tools of information technology among the poor. "Our goal is to empower them to improve their standard of living through better access to relevant information. Many tele-centre projects make the cardinal mistake of putting the technology ahead of the people. For us, the people, their context, and their needs come first. Then comes the content that can satisfy those needs. Technology is just an enabler to deliver the content in a cost-effective manner," opines Senthil. To make dissemination of information more effective at the village level, the MSSRF identifies grassroot academicians with traditional knowledge and wisdom and awards fellowships. This apart, every VRC employs an anthropologist to assess the case-studies and understand the needs of the villages. At MSSRF, there is a free flow of information both top down and bottom up facilitated by an MIS to monitor all the programmes. The statistics too are extremely gratifying. With 45 thematic programmes, 78,000 training programmes and more than 3 lakh users spread across 550 villages, the ISRO-MSSRF is bringing a revolution of sorts at the grassroots level. With success and commitment as foundations, MSSRF is rearing to share its experience with other NGOs. "We want to develop courses for VRC managers using the IGNOU network," says Senthil. MSSRF has already developed learning modules, pictorial based toolkits to set up VRCs and coming up with Web-based, Wiki based standardised content. To reach the unreached, MSSRF intends to start internet radio to air the audio content on a regular basis.
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