BytesForAll

From Dadri to Brindavan and Belgaum

The flagship programme in UNESCO’s New Delhi office, ‘ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) for reaching the Unreached’, has been identified as the major programme for UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Medium Term Strategy 2002-2007. The target groups that are ‘unreached’ include the poor, the illiterate, women, the marginalised, the disabled, and people from rural and remote areas. The programme aims to focus on developing ‘sustainable operational models’ for the unreached, to enable them to access information and knowledge resources from local to global levels.

In addition, it also aims at providing a platform for a free flow of ideas in order to strengthen their capacity to be information and knowledge providers—thus making them better equipped to take on new and emerging challenges in society, and to improve the quality of life.

UNESCO’s New Delhi Office, in collaboration with the Datamation Foundation in New Delhi, recently organised a national workshop at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. Prior to this, workshops catering to socially and economically disfranchised people were conducted “with encouraging results” at the following locations:

• Socially and economically disfranchised people from Western UP Dadri area of the former Gautam Buddha Nagar district (current Ghaziabad district) participated in a workshop in Dadri.
• Unemployed youth from the Mattanur area of Kannur district, North Malabar, Kerala took part in a workshop held in Mattanur.
• A workshop held in the Ranga Reddy district close to Hyderabad reached out to the Banjara tribals and indigenous tribes from the Mehboob Nagar and Ranga Reddy districts of Andhra Pradesh.
• The abandoned widows of Brindavan (Uttar Pradesh) and their supporting partners were also involved in a workshop held in Brindavan.

Also scheduled is a workshop to be held in Belgaum, North Karnataka. This, it was stated, would be based on extensive community mobilisation and will target women bound by centuries-old religious traditions from the Belgaum district of Karnataka and adjoining areas of Maharashtra. Details are available at unic.in at undp.org

Jagriti in Punjab

J S Sandha <jsandha@vsnl.net> reports that in March, Jagriti e-Sewa (www.jagriticom) celebrates its first birthday. It was designed to “bring in development and technology together for rural areas”. The Jagriti team has focused on developing low-cost (free/libre and open source) applications that are rural-centric and needed by the rural masses. Now operational in five districts of Punjab, Jagriti claims to have been able to “change the way people think and live.” It says: “Most important has been the concept of PURA and agriculture development services. The most important being the initiatives on promotion of organic farming and the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants in Punjab.”

Healthsat on its way

Poor people in India’s nearly 600,000 villages will be able to consult specialist doctors in cities through live video when a telemedicine satellite is launched at the end of 2005. That’s the promise being made by India’s space agency chief, and reported by S Srinivasan of the Associated Press, from Bangalore. “We will launch it toward the end of next year…It will cover the entire country,” G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, was quoted as having said. The satellite, to be named Healthsat, could give villagers access to urban health care facilities that are otherwise unaffordable and unreachable, Nair said.

At Bangalore

In early March 2004, St Joseph’s College of Commerce and Bangalore University held a one-day seminar on ‘Transcending the Digital Divide’. It brought educationists, NGOs, ICT experts, management gurus and others together. Among the presentations were those by Azim Premji Foundation (on taking computers to primary schools in rural India), and by Sunil Abraham (ICTs, an affordable and low-cost technology perspective).

D-forum on gender issues

The Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS) has moved its electronic discussion forum on gender issues in South Asia, BOL, to a platform offered by OneWorld

and its partners. The platform, www.dgroups.org, is a space for development groups. The new CWDS forum address is www.dgroups.org/groups/ cwds-bol/index.cfm.

OneWorld South Asia is a network of over 220 civil society organisations, promising an accessible, democratic platform to its partners so that they can build online communities to share experiences, learn from one another and advocate for peoples’ rights. Dgroups is one such platform—an online tool and service to support the activities of a team, a group, a network, a partnership or a community. Say its promoters: “There is no comparable service that is as simple, non-commercial (no ads), respectful of privacy, and targeted at low bandwidth users in the South.”

BOL is a moderated electronic discussion list with over 700 members from around 20 countries. It was initiated by CWDS in 2000 to bring together, individuals, and organisations at the local, national and global levels to create a common forum on gender issues in South Asia. Information availabke from kedar.dash@oneworld.net or cwdslib@alpha.nic.in.

Science communication

Check out this new section of the SciDev.Net website devoted to science communication, focusing on its application in developing countries <www.scidev.net/scicomm>. It offers an e-guide on science communication

The e-guide is a ‘one-stop shop’ providing both original articles and links to the best material elsewhere. Designed to inspire dialogue, it will grow as registrants from across the globe add their own resources and tips. Wherever you are in the world, if you are interested in communicating information about science more effectively, this is the guide for you.

Use of the e-guide to science communication (and the rest of the site) is free. However, visitors need to register with SciDev.Net in order to access e-guide. The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) aims to build capacity through the provision of free reliable information on science-based issues for the Third World.

Email: barbara.keating@scidev.net

Radio and ICTs

Do you believe radio has a role to play? Join a mailing-list campaigning for the legalisation of community radio in India. https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/ listinfo/cr-india

HealthICT list

Dr Vinod Scaria <drvinods@HotPOP.com> has recently announced a new list HealthICT which discusses “the myriad issues surrounding ICT applications in Healthcare.” Join at www.virtualmedonline.com Other contacts: Dr.Vinod Scaria www.drvinod.netfirms.com e-mail: vinodscaria@yahoo.co.in; Mobile: +91 98474 65452

ICT for Rajasthan carpet weavers

With the help of a series of ICT interventions since the year 2000, the Rajasthan carpet industry, which was ealier declining, has not just regained compititiveness, but has started registering impressive exports. From an export figure of Rs 223 crore during 2000-01, earnings have virtually doubled to Rs 403 crore at the end of fiscal 2002-03. www.bharattextile.com /newsitems/1988502

Free software in Kochi

Interested in free software in Kochi? Visit and join http://puggy.symonds.net/~fsug-kochi

ICT4D monthly

info@i4donline.net brings you daily newsclipings about ICT4D. Check www.i4donline.net, the first monthly magazine on ICT4D.

India Computes! is presented by Frederick Noronha, a freelance journalist based in Goa. He is the co-founder of BytesForAll, a voluntary unfunded venture focusing on how IT and the Internet can benefit the common man, particularly in South Asia. To join the Bytesforall mailing list send a blank e-mail to bytesforall_readers subscribe@yahoogroups.com Website: www.bytesforall.org