Globalization, New communication Technologies and Rural Development in India: A Critical Analysis Virendra Pal Singh

The present paper first of all reviews critically the strategy of rural development in India and their social consequences for the rural masses in India . In the second part the paper examines the consequences of the globalization on the rural masses in general and on the weaker sections in particular. In the third part , an attempt is made to explore the ways the new communication technologies can be used to facilitate the process of rural development in India . The paper also suggests for adopting new policies for the faster diffusion of these technological innovation in rural areas by recasting the strategy of integrated rural development in India. I The Strategy of Rural Development in India After independence one of the major tasks before the independent national government was to formulate and execute the plans for restructuring the Indian society. The immediate step in this direction came with the abolition of the instruments of exploitation like Zamindari and Rayatwari Land tenure system which had been responsible for the collapse of the Indian economy. In the first Five Year Plan (1952) the laws regarding tenancy right and ceiling of land holdings were implemented. This enabled the tenants to get back their land from the clutches of rentiers. The other major steps for restructuring the rural community were the innovations of Community Development Programme, Panchayati Raj and rural co-operatives. Moreover, social movements like Bhoodan and Gramdan were launched by eminent social reformers like Vinoba and Jai Prakash Narain. The Community Development Programme introduced in 1952 was an attempt at asystematic and integrated rural development in the country. The basic objective of the programme was to serve the rural people and to reach as large number of them as possible. The programme put into operation the concept of making a multi-purpose functionary responsible for the needs of the rural households. It was a major departure from the Gandhian model of rural development, which emphasized on the self-sufficiency of the village. Thus, for the first time, the office of village level worker (VLW) supported at the Block level by a team of various subject matter specialists was introduced and the community development block was made a unit of planning and development. For all the rural development programmes at the block level and for the block level functionaries, the Block Development Officer was supposed to act as a cocoordinator. By the end of Second Five Year Plan every village in India was brought under this scheme, the major items included in this programme were related with the following eight categories: (1) Agriculture and related matters, (2) Communications, (3) Education, (4) Health, (5) Training, (6) Social Welfare, (7) Employment and (8) Housing. The programmes adopted to cover these items may be classified into following four categories: (a) construction programmes (include roads, culverts, drains, pavements, school buildingd, community centers, dispensary, house for poor villagers and drinking water sources); (b) irrigation schemes (wells, pumping sets, tube wells and tanks); (c) agricultural programmes and (d) institutional and other programmes (Youth Club, Womens organizations, Community centers, etc.) (Desai 1978: 613). The impact of the community development programmes has been a subject of analysis and evaluation for a number of social scientists (Dube 1958; Taylor 1958; and Lewis 1958). They have attempted to assess the nature of the impact of this programme on the life of the rural people, The major weaknesses of the programme were as follows: (1) the government machinery had not assimilated the true spirit underlying the entire programme. The programme was operated more as an executive assignment.

The administration of the programme was predominantly based on aids from the reliance on the government. The involvement of the people in the programme was lacking. (2) the government machinery relied more on propaganda and spectacular results rather than on group work and voluntary creative participation of the village people. (3) the advantages of the improvement were taken by the large cultivators while small peasants, artisans and agricultural laboureres could not get much from the programme. As a result, the programme widened the gulf between the rich and the poor cultivators. It made artisans and agricultural labourers relatively more handicapped than the cultivators and therefore created greater inequqlity in the rural community. Thus, the community development programme could not bridge the gap between the rich and the poor but conversely widened the gap between the two. In 1957, the Team for the study of Community Projects and National Extension Services, popularly known as Balvantrai Mehta Committee, was appointed to correct the drawbacks in implementation. The committee recommended as a way-out the formation of a hierarchic three-tier system of rural local government to be called Panchayati Raj. These institutions were introduced a t the district, the block and the village level throughout the country to ensure peoples participation and inculcate the democratic values at the grass root level. The three-tiers are the gram panchayat at the village level, panchayat samiti at the block level and Zila Parishad at the district level. At the village level, all the states decided to have direct election to the village panchayat, but at the intermediate and the distrcict level variations have been found in their organization. The power of these bodies varied from the state to state as a consequence of the structural and operational variations in the pattern of panchayati raj institutions. (Maheshwari 1985 :3). In three tier system of panchayati raj, the real locus of political power is at the middle tier i.e., with the Samiti president. he is the key figure in the whole set up. He can easily influence the authorities at the block and the district levels. Gray (1978: 537) observed that they (samitis) consist almost entirely of members of the dominant land owning castes, whatever yhe political affiliations of the members concerned. More (high) caste, more land, more money, more education are still the requisites for political success. Thus, the panchayati raj institution also became the instrument of getting various advantages from the development programmes for the land owning and high caste people of the villages. In 1989, amendments were made in the panchayati raj act and provisions of allocating and disbursing funds directly to village panchayats were made in order to check misappropriation of funds at the district and samiti levels. But they created other kinds of problems which will be discussed later while evaluating the performance of later strategy of rural development. In 1950s agricultural yields were very low and it became apparent that agricultural production was not increasing quickly as was expected. On the other hand, pressure of popupation was increasing at a much faster rate. the country was thus compelled to feed its population by import of foodgrains. In 1959, India invited a team of American experts to suggest the strategy for an immediate augmentation of agricultural production. The accepted recommendations were packed into what came to be known as the Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) which went into action in 1960. The Third Five Year Plan (1961-66) incorporated the IADP and this programme was to be taken up in one district in each state with a purpose to contribute both to a rapid increase in agricultural production in selected areas and to suggest new innovations and combination of practices which could be of value elsewhere (Govt. of India 1961: 316). The IADP was designed as a pace setting programme which would demonstrate how to augment production more rapidly and as a path-finding experimental programme which would develop innovations, fresh ideas and procedures for wider adoptations in agricultural development (Maheshwari 1985: 73). In 1964, the concept of IADP was extended to other districts under the nomenclature of Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP). Although, this new programme followed the concept of IADP but its staffing pattern was reduced in intensity. Moreover, certain facilities like soil testing laboratories, workshops and investments were also lacking at the field level The centrally laid down criteria for the selection of the districts were not met in full. the selection process often was inspired by ascriptive criteria. As the programme entailed heavy public spending, politicians actively lobbied for the inclusion of their constituencies. Politics emerged as a variable of significance in the selection of of districts. It was again under political pressure that somewhat diluted IAAP was put into operation

(Maheshwari 1985:75). Thus, initially IADP and IAAP both had shown little sign of acheiving their principal targets of augmentation of agricultural production. The food problem in the country became more severe as a result of continuous drought from 1964 to 1967. in 1964, India imported as much as 10 million tonnes of foodgrain from the USA. In such a crisis situation the IADP was linked to New Agricultural Strategy (NAS). This was a well-synchronised package programme involving action at many levels and sectors of activities. The programme made serious efforts to generate the farmers own interest in in agriculture by means of the promising him an incentive or a remunerative price for his produce. In order to control the market forces institutions like Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Warehousing Corporation were set up to buy grain at the officially announced price and to storage it respectively. the programme was well supported by the institutions of agricultural research centre like Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Agricultural universities began to set up and they were made responsible for education, training and research in agricultural sciences. In order tomeet the problems of developing high yield variety seeds suitable to Indian conditions and to regularise the supply of these new varieties institutions like Natioanal Seed Corporation (NSC) and State Farm Corporation (SFC) were set up in 1966. Simultaneously arrangements were made for the irrigation and supply of the fertilizers. The NAS wa sput into operation in 1966 and as a consequence, the IADP got tremendous success and led to green revolution in the country. Although the results of this strategy were very fruitful as the country attained self-sufficiency in production of foodgrains but It had disrupted the traditional rural socio-economic structure. The benefits of the programme were received mainly by those farmers having commendable size of the land and other material resources and left small and marginal farmers completely unaffecte dif not worse off. Thus it has further widended the gulf between the rich and the poor. This aroused a concern for the marginal man and in the process, the programmes like Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA) and Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Agency (MFAL) were launched in 1971-72. These agencies were set up as corporate and autonomous bodies to work at the district level. The basic objective of the agency was to to raise the earning capacity of the target groups through various programmes related to the improvement in agriculture, subsidiary occupation etc. the focus of SFDA was directed towards intensive farming while MFAL emphasised on the provisions of subsidiary occupations and other employment generating programmes. These schemes were to be prepared in co-ordination with technical departments of the state government. In 1974, the distinction between the two agencis was abolished and a single agency of SFDA-MFAL came into existence. The agency was set up in selected districts. Its organisational structure consisted of a governing body with a small executive staff headed by the district head. Its members were the heads of sectoral department which were closely concerned with its programme. The financial institutions like the Land development Bank, Central Co-operative Bank and Zila Parishad were also represented along with some non-officials. At the state level, the programme functioned under the overall control and supervision of a State Level Co-ordination and Review Committee which consisted of senior officers of departments closely connected with the activities and programmes of agency. But due to bureaucratic bottlenecks and lack of sufficient credit facilities the programme could not do much for the upliftment of the small farmers, marginal farmers and agricultural labourers. Moreover, fallacies in identification of beneficiaries and delays in release of subsidiary have been major drawbacks of the programme. In mid-seventies, a more comprehensive strategy envisaging direct attack on poverty was adopted which was basically different from the earlier approach to rural development-the integrated rural development approach against the sectoral development approach. The sectoral development appr oach tended to divide development into departmental activities and responsibility for development perceived as administrative responsibilities. But the integrated approach to rural development emphasised on spatial development. I the sense, that it concentrated on the development a given area not the development of a sector. As the major thrust was the development of a given area, the development programmes are based on development of local resources and based on local needs, local aspirations and local potential. Moreover, it gave more emphasis on micro-level planning rather than centralized macro-level planning at

the national and the state levels. Thus, the integrated rural development programme launched in 1979 tended to decentralize the development planning at the district and block levels. Apart from its emphasis on the area development, it also concentrated on certain target groups i.e., poor sections of the society. Thus, integrated rural development had two major components: (a) area development and (b) beneficiary oriented programmes. The programmes in the first category had mainly focussed on development of infrastructure and local resources. It included Minimum Needs Programme, Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Hill Area Development Programme (HADP), Integrated Tribal Area Development Programme (ITDP) and Desert Area Development Programme (DADP). While the programmes of the second category aimed at reaching benefits to the poor directly creating productive assets for them. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) with its components TRYSEM and DWCRA and Jawahar Rojgar Yojna and other state sponsored programmes of similar nature can be put in this category. Thus, the integrated approach to rural development has two type of programmes-self-employment programmes and wage employment programmes with difeerent nominclatures changing from time to time depending on the choice of political leadership in power. The achievement of this series of the programme also failed to give desired results. The most ambitious programme IRDP has been the subject of criticism among the social scientists on a number of grounds: (1) IRDP is not an integrated programme in the real sense of the term as it does not integrate resources basedon sectoral planning with the house hold based planning. It is merely a household based plan whose main focus is on identification of the rural poor and preparing a plan for these individual beneficiaries. (2) The Antyodayaapproach of IRDP which aims at giving self-employment to the poorest household of rural society is not a realistic approach as these households are of the aged and the handicapped or the poor who have little enterprise or riskbearing capacity. Studies of IRDP shown that these households have faced the worst in various schemes. (3) The subsidy element of IRDP has encouraged corruption in rural areas and has raised indebtedness of the poor in many cases. (4) Gains of IRDP have not percolated to the lowest levels as a very low percentage of beneficiaries have crossed the poverty line. (5) Our economy does not have enough assets for distribution to the poor under IRDP. Consequently, many times assets with very low productivity were given to the poor under the programme. Thus it has not helped the rural poor in most of the cases. On the above grounds Rath (1985) argued that the strategy of IRDP is largely misconceived. In fact, it is capable to help only a very small number of people. Putting more burdon on this approach will discredit the line of attack, generate wastage, coruption and ulimately cynicism. In a multipronged attack on poverty this approach has a legitimate place, but it can not be a mainstay of such a programme (Rath 1985:245). Therefore, he emphasized on concentrating massively on wage employment generation rather than self employment programme. Hirway (1985) distiguished between two categories of the poor (1) those who have atleast some asset or have some skill, education or enterprise to take up self employment and (2) those who neither possesss any asset nor have any skill or enterprise, education etc. to take up any activity independently. She suggested that the former category should be given assets for self employment while the latter should be offered wage employment. These categories should be treated separately by suitable policy measures. But unfortunately IRDp clubs together both the categories in one and expects even the second category (in fact gives priority by using Antyodaya approach) to take up self employment. IRDP in her view, overemphasized self employment as a measure for poverty alleviation. In her view, Rath has under emphasized the need of self employment. she warned that overemphasis on wage employment may also produce similar results. Because the problems of non-percolation and corruption are originated from our socio-economic structure. These problems can not be checked without bringing desired structural changes. Thus, the strategy of rural development should be such that can generate gradual changes in socio-economic fabric of the Indian society. In fact, the interference of political leaders at micro-level planning of the programme is not fruitful but most harmful (Hirway 1978). The studies of wage employment programmes have indicated that the programmes have been implemented in very diluted way and the whole thrust of the integrated approach to rural development has ben lost in political and bureaucratic manhandling from the very begining. The idea of integrated area development planning was dropped in the very beginning when it was suddenly extended to all the districts in 1980. The delinking of area development with beneficiary

oriented programmes was the first casualty of the programme. The programme was implemented without understanding the basic concept and idea of planning. In the concurrent evaluation of NREP in Assam the present investigator found that the planning of NREP in Assam was adhoc in nature and suffered with a number of other shortcomings such as lack of planning skills at the district and block levels, trined incapacity and lack of proper orientation among the officials who are entrusted to draw the blue print of the programme at the field level. Although rural link roads and school buildings were selected on top priority throughout the state in the Sixth and Seventh Plan but no effort was made to prepare a shelf of projects as well as inventories of the existing roads and school buildings in any of the districts of Assam (Singh 1995: 159-160). More or less similar situation prevailed in other states as well (Maithani and Singh 1986; Singh 1994). The allocation of development fund directly to village panchayats has further defunct the programme and it has now remained as a charity programme just to pump some money in the rural areas . As institutional structures to deliver the goods of development were directly under the control of the government. Peoples participation in the government sponsored rural development programmes has remained a dream. It was because of the apathy of the government officials to involve the people in the programme. As an alternative of these structures the state took initiatives to promote voluntary agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) in development process by establishing Peoples for Development India (PADI) and Council for Advancement of Rural Technology (CART) in 1978 which later in 1986 merged together with a new nomenclature Council for Advancement of Peoples Action and Rural technology (CAPART). The growth of NGOs took momentum in later part of the 1980s and 1990s. With the turn of century the voluntary sector registered its presence in undertaking the task of rural development in different parts of the country. The story of voluntary efforts for rural development is also not very different. The projects undertaken by different NGOs have hardly made any impact on the socioeconomic conditions of the rural people (Singh 1999) Thus, the strategy of rural development in India has been unable to bring structural changes in the rural areas and the gulf between the rich and the poor widened even after a series of development programmes using sectoral as well as integrated approach to development. The economic reforms introduced in 1990s have further complicated the task of rural development in India. in the next part of the paper an assessment of the consequences of globalization on rural masses will be examined. II The Consequences of the Globalization on the Rural Masses Globalization in its present form is a process, which has implications not only for social and cultural institutions of developed countries but are also transforming the social fabric of developing societies like India. New communication technologies are facilitating the process of globalization and socio-cultural scenario is changing at a faster rate in these societies. Education is one of the institutions, which not only transmits the cultural heritage of a society but also intervenes in the process of social transformation. The new media technologies particularly Internet has brought significant changes in the field of education, both formal and informal. This new communication technology can be used in inducing the process of social change in India. Globalisation is the central driving force behind the major economic, cultural, social and political changes that are affecting virtually all the worlds people today. Globalisation is seen as the overall consequences of closely inter-linked processes of change in the areas of technology, economic activity, governance, communication and so on. Developments in all these areas are mutually reinforcing or reflexive, so that no clear distinction can be drawn between cause and effect . Transformationalists regard contemporary patterns of cross-border flows (of trade, investment, migrants, cultural artifacts, environmental factors, etc.) as without historical precedent. Such flows integrate virtually all countries into a larger global system, and thus bring about major social transformations at all levels. The societies throughout the world are now passing through the process of profound and rapid change. This change is closely related with the processes of globalization. In last decade, this process is taking place in most of the countries of the world. Globalization refers to the increasing interdependence of the people across the

world, it refers to the increasing impact of living and working in a single, global market place, but more fundamentally, it refers to a basic shift in the institutions of our lives (Giddens 1999). It has given rise to a debate among the social scientists on the one hand and the policy makers on the other hand to assess the impact of the processes associated with this wider phenomenon on the social and cultural institutions of the societies not only in the developed societies but also in academic and political forums in the developing societies particularly those who have adopted policy to privatize and liberalize their economy in the recent past. But the process of globalization is not confined to economic and political concerns of these societies. Its impact can also be observed in the field of mass media communication and other social and cultural institutions of the society. Globalization in India The globalization in Indian economy started in early part of 1990s with a shift in economic policies from a mixed economy adopted after independence in which both the public and private sectors were given due consideration. The priority areas were established in the form of public enterprises owned and controlled by the national government. It helps in giving a boost to some of the sectors of economy but at the same time the inefficient management of some of these public enterprises turned them into non-profitable units and a burden on the government. The downfall of USSR as one of the model of economic development through state owned public enterprises and the emergence of some of the countries of East Asia who have adopted free market economy into Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) has compelled the planners in India to review the economic policies. Thus, in 1990s India adopted the policy of Globalization, Privatization and Liberization, which initiated the process of economic reforms in India. The political leadership at that time was keenly interested in signing the GATT and to become the member of World Trade Organization (WTO). This has brought some new dimensions to the Indian economy. The Multinational Companies (MNCs) found the Indian market very attractive where they could sell their products. Another attraction for them in India as in other Less Developed countries (LDCs) was the availability of cheap skilled labour. One of the conequences of globalization is that economic policies of developing countries are greately influenced by the institution like IMF and WTO who have a tendency to pressurize the government to cut the subsidy from the agriculture sector which is the base of Indian economy whose 70 percent population still depend on agriculture and related activities. Under the pressures of these institutions the government has lost interest in rural development programmes and no serious effort has been made to streamline the strategy of rural development in last one decade. Only some patchworks can be seen in the form of Pradhanmantri sadak Pariyojna etc. Some of the adverse impact of globalisation on the disadvantaged sections of the society, masses at large and rural areas in general has been manifold such as: Sharp decline in employment opportunities; steep price-rise sans matching increase in incomes; decline in investment in agriculture, hitting hard the poor small and marginal peasants and landless labour; extinction of village industries and crafts as well as numerous small industries due to unequal competition; misconceived and ill-planned disinvestment of even profit-making public sector undertakings at throw-away prices resulting in heavy losses; retrenchment of labour sans alternative avenues; resource crunch adversely affecting social sector especially health and education; greatly enhanced corruption and a series of scams in public sector undertakings; problems arising from dumping, patenting, WTO regulations, and the pressure applied by the WB/IMF through their conditionalities; and not the least, erosion of self-confidence, sense of security, and national sovereignty. On the whole, the life for the rural poor in particular and masses at large has become far more painful and insecure due to the panic and penury resulting from globalisation (Tripathi 2002) The process of globalization will further marginalized the rural areas as economic growth will bring prosperity in urban areas and underdevelopment in rural areas. Within rural areas small farmers, marginal farmers and agricultural laboureres will be worst affected. It will thus intensify the poverty in rural areas as problems of unemployment and under-employment will further increased with globalization

of the Indian economy. This gives rise to some theoretical questions, which have yet to be addressed by the social scientists in India. What are the possible consequences of these changes in the field of economy and communication for social and cultural processes in India ? Whether these changes will enhance the process of development in India or will lead towards the further underdevelopment of the Indian society. Thus, the process of globalization poses new challenges for the planners and practitioners to cope up with this process of transformation in such away that it cannot have an adverse effect on the rural population and the weaker sections of the society. It also demands new policies for the development of the rural areas for the development of the rural areas by introducing new communication technologies, namely, Internet and mobile, at the mass level so that the information revolution can be brought in the country at a very fast rate , within a period of one or two decade. It proposes to think afresh for the new for the new strategy of rural development in India in the light of these rapid changes comparable with the changes took place in 19th century European society. The information revolution if directed properly has the potential to transform the social fabric of the rural society in India. The new communication technologies can facilitate the transformation of the rural society if these technologies are applied at massive scale. In the next section an attempt is made to explore such posssibilities. III New Communication Technologies as Facilitator of Rural Development in India Recent Developments in Communication Technologies New communication technologies such as satellites, cable television, wireless telephony, the Internet and computers are bringing about noticeable changes in Indian society. Communication technology includes the hardware equipment, organizational structures and social values by which individuals collect, process and exchange information (Singhal and Rogers 2001: 31). The new communication technologies have certain characteristics that are similar in some respects to those of both interpersonal and mass media communication, but that are different in many other respects. Interpersonal communication consists of face-to-face exchange between two or more individuals. The message flow is from one to a few individuals, feedback is immediate and usually plentiful and the messages are often relatively high in socio-emotional content. In contrast mass media communication includes all those means of transmitting messages that enable a source of one or a few individuals to reach a large audience. Some type of hardware equipment is always involved in mass communication, feedback is limited and delayed, and the massages are often relatively low in socio-emotional content. The new media integrates the characteristics of both interpersonal and mass communication. Communication that occurs through these media often links two individuals or a small number of people. In this sense, the new media are like interpersonal communication, in that the messages are targeted to specific individuals (de-massification). But interactive communication through the new media is somewhat like mass media communication in that hardware equipment is necessarily involved. Information exchange via the new media is interactive, meaning that the participants in a communication process have control over, and can exchange roles in, their mutual discourse (Singhal and Rogers 2001: 31; Mc Quail 2000 : 128). Interactive technologies of communication are at the heart of the communication revolution that is occurring in India. The computer and its various application in satellite and cable television, telecommunications and the Internet are the main driving force of communication revolution taking place in India. In India following changes have been taken place in last few decades which may be said to began the process of e-revolution in India. Firstly, during the decade of 1980s modernization of Telecom sector particularly use of satellite technology to connect the telephone and availability of telephone connection with STD and ISD facilities not only helped in smooth and faster communication both at the national and international levels but also provided better connectivity to rural areas. The establishment of PCO/STD/ISD booths even in small towns and urbanized villages can be taken as an important parameter of the development in Indian society. This development of communication services in India provided new employment opportunities to the people both in urban and rural areas. Secondly, advent of mobile and cell phone in recent past enhanced the process of globalization, privatization and liberalization in India. The

popularity of mobile phone in Indian middle class is one of the prerequisites of globalization process. Thirdly, the Internet, which was initially computer mediated communication technology, has now revolutionized the world of communication. The availability of Internet on mobile is a new development in the field of communication. The popularity of E-mail, Internet chatting and use of Internet for educational and commercial purposes has opened a new era of communication in Indian society. Fourthly, The mobile phone is another medium, which has been adopted very widely by the Indian masses . It has a great potential to break down the bottlenecks of communication in remote areas as this is based on wireless technology. The most important feature of the cell phone users is that it has not only been adopted by the urban elites but also by the self-employed artisans such as carpenters, blacksmiths, petty businessmen etc. living in the rural areas. Although, the policy of Globalization, Privatization and Liberalization initiated the process of economic reforms in India. But globalization in its present form is a process that has implications not only for economic institutions of developed countries, but are also transforming the social fabric of developing societies like India. New Communication technologies are facilitating the process of globalization and socio-cultural scenario is changing at a faster rate in such societies. The new media technologies particularly Internet and mobile have opened up new ways of communication in last one decade. The Internet is integrating all existing form of media and is affecting the mode and contents of communication among the Indian masses. The Internet has been adopted very widely by different sections of the society for performing different types of activities. E-mail has been emerged as one of the most popular mode of communication among the educated people. The advent of computer and Internet has opened up new avenues of interactivity among any set of individuals from any part of the world, at any point of time. Computers and the Internet can break barriers of geography, which have existed since time immemorial. Computers and Internet as a new form of educational technology is undergoing a rapid expansion and it offers an interactive and user-friendly approach in imparting information to the learners. It increases the interest of the user in addition to providing consistency, privacy, and reduced learning. Multi-media technologies can be of multiple uses both in the formal and non-formal settings. It can not only motivate the students and increase their interest in their learning process in formal educational set-up but also can be of great use in providing e-services in remote rural and urban setting. It offers an opportunity to improve the quality of teaching and students learning experiences, greater opportunity to learners for revision, in-depth thinking and integration. Computer and Internet can also be effectively used to promote education at various levels - Primary, secondary and higher, not only among the general population but it can also be effectively used for reducing further marginalisation of the disadvantaged social groups of Indian society with appropriate interventions. The most important characteristic of the Internet is that it has blurred the notion of time and space, in the sense that the communication through Internet can take place in a fraction of a second connecting two or more people at the same time from any corner of the world, which has important implications for social processes both for the developed and developing societies. In case of the developing societies, globalisation and privatisation are bound to marginalize some sections of the societies such as SCs, STs, women, rural population and minority groups like the Muslims. Therefore, some specific measures are required to protect the interests of these social groups. By empowering people with access to computing and the Internet, we can create a bottom-up revolution across India. These connected computers themselves will not work wonders, but they will open up people, especially the young, to new ideas and new worlds. They will make people learn new skills, which could be harnessed in a myriad of different areas. For example, farmers could use the connected computers to get commodity prices faster, or get information on new agricultural techniques. The youth would get details on job opportunities across the state. The district administration could get details of problems in near real-time. The eligible could search for matrimonial matches across adjacent villages and towns. The voters would communicate their concerns to the politicians and bureaucrats electronically. The village officials could share governance best practices faster among their counterparts elsewhere.

Many of these and other activities could doubtlessly be performed without computers. But there is a pain in those processes. That is where technology can make a difference. Computers have been the disruptive innovation of the past two decades. And yet, they have barely made a difference to the lives of people in most of the developing societies of the world. But now, the time has come to take computers and allied technologies to every town and every village of the world. Only through such a mass-scale deployment can we create a platform on which can be layered other programmes whose power can now be amplified dramatically. From primary education to adult literacy, from providing a two-way flow of information to enabling transactions, from increasing governance transparency to reducing corruption, from jobs to marriages, computers can indeed be the boon for the contemporary societies. But by themselves, computers will do little. There is a need of major applications to make a difference, especially changes in governments processes. By making computing available to every citizen, they will force a seismic change through the lines of governance. They will become the platform, which can be built upon to layer a whole range of different services. India can become one of the first markets to try out a set of new ideas as Indians have the requisite technology skills to put together the solutions. This can also help in bridging the possible digital divide (among the rural and the urban, the advantaged and the disadvantaged, the majorities and the minorities) to be created by the new communication technologies along with the forces of globalization and privatization. So far, much of Indias IT industry has focused outward making India as a destination for outsourced services. We should also now be looking inwards, and suggest working ideas for the development of the villages and the disadvantaged groups. Some initiatives in this direction have already been taken by some governmental and non-governmental organizations in the form of pilot projects for the development of the villages, throughout the world as well as in India. Bridging the digital divide through technology has been the focus of many initiatives worldwide. Madanmohan Rao (2003), provides a summary of various such projects in his report on the IT Summit 2002 held in Nepal: Examples from other countries include: FarmNet (for agricultural workers in Uganda). Nabweru and Buwama telecentres (for economic empowerment of women in Uganda). Rural Multipurpose Community Telecentres (libraries and online centres in Benin, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda). MahilaWeb (for information sharing about women and gender in Nepal). Pakissan (for farmers in Pakistan). PeopLink (artisans portal for 22 developing countries). Tortas (e-commerce portal for homemade cakes made by Peruvian women). Bankilare (a community network in Niger). Across Borders (connecting Palestinians in refuge camps). MarketWatch (price information service in Mongolia). Nairobits (Web services centre for slum children in Kenya). Street Children Telecentre (for IT skills in Ecuador). Mountain Forum (for knowledge sharing on mountainous region communities in over 100 countries on topics like renewable energy, agro-industry, potato research). Virtual Souk (for underprivileged artisans in the Middle East and North Africa). Multipurpose Community Telecentres (in four farming and fishing villages of northern Mindanano in the Philippines). Grameen Phone (in Bangladesh).

HealthInfo (for IT among health workers in Ethiopia). Village Leap (for selling scarves made by Cambodian women). Metrocomia (outsourced Web services centres in about a dozen countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia). Communications Boat Project (to bring IT tools via boats to Amazonian communities). Malaysia has come up with a number of demonstration applications such as Project Cybercare for providing Internet access and educational resources among 26 networked orphanages and a telecentre called e-Bario has also been set up for the Kelabit ethnic community in rural Sarawak. Examples in India include: TaraHaat (for e-marketing in rural areas). AkashGanga (for dairy cooperatives in Gujarat). Warna Wired Village Project (for sugarcane farmers in Maharashtra). HoneyBee Network (documenting grassroots innovations for knowledge on sustainable natural resource management). Gyandoot (community centre network in rural Madhya Pradesh). The National Informatics Centre is proposing a Rural Studio initiative for developing reusable software components and services for the rural development sector, and IndianVolunteers.org networks volunteers interested in such initiatives. Kerala is rolling out an e-governance grid via a network of information kiosks providing sales tax forms, income certificates, domicile certificates, ration card forms, and company registration. Bhoomi is project launched by the Government of Karnataka to create a service to computerize land records and make them available to the people at a nominal fee of Rs.15. The Andhra Pradesh Government has launched eSeva with the aim providing One-stop nonstop service to the citizens offering a wide spectrum of services ranging from Payment of Utilities Bills, Certificates, Permits / Licences, Transport Department Services to Reservation, Passport Applications and Downloading of Forms. Information Village project set up by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, in Pondicherry for the purpose of providing information for the rural people on prices of agricultural inputs (such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides), and outputs (rice, vegetables), markets (potential for export), entitlement (the multitude of the schemes of the central and the state governments, banks), health care (availability of doctors and paramedics in nearby hospitals, womens diseases), cattle diseases, transport (road conditions, cancellation of bus trips), weather (appropriate time for sowing, areas of abundant fish catch, wave heights in the sea), etc. Drishtee - an organizational platform for developing IT enabled services to rural and semi-urban populations through the usage of state-of-the-art software, which enables include access to government programs and benefits, market related information, and private information exchanges and transactions. This builds upon the Gyandoot project of Madhya Pradesh. Project eChaupal, setup by the ITC across the agricultural belt in India to offer the farmers all the information, products and services they need to enhance farm productivity, improve farm-gate price realisation and cut transaction costs. They can also access latest local and global information on weather, scientific farming practices as well as market prices at the village itself through this web portal - all in Hindi. Choupal also facilitates supply of high quality farm inputs as well as purchase of commodities at their doorstep. Warana Wired Village was conceived as a pilot project to bring benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to rural India. Warana is a cluster of seventy villages, fortysix from Kolhapur and twenty-four from Sangli district, in the Western State of Maharashtra,

India. There are several cooperative societies actively working in Warana complex like Sugar Cooperative, Dairy Development Society, Cooperative Bank, Womens Cooperative Society, Super Market, Educational Institutions, etc. Sugarcane is the major crop of this area and most of its production in Kolhapur and Sangli districts is processed at the Warana Sugar Co-operative factory. Each village has about 200-300 farmers registered as members of various cooperative societies. (More, from a discussion paper by DP Bobde, A Deb, RR Rane.) Media Lab Asia: MLA, a joint initative of MIT Media Lab and the Indian Government, is doing a number of projects in the areas of World Computer with a goal to create a sustainable digital ecology that maintains traditional values and community while opening economic and expressive opportunities. Sustainable Access for Rural India: SARI is a project in the villages of Madurai district in Tamil Nadu to offer voice and Internet services that aims at identifying and providing appropriate access technologies and applications that will be of use to the local community. Possible applications are school education, farmers commodity market information, e governance, local commerce, etc. FRIENDS and Akshaya: Keralas FRIENDS (Fast Reliable Instant Efficient Network for Disbursement of Services) centres accept all utility bills, taxes and fees pertaining to the participating departments and offer quality services to the citizens. Mahiti Shakti Kendras: Started in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat, the Mahiti Shakti Kendras became a single-window clearance for forms and other information that people in small towns and villages may require. Information pertaining to ongoing schemes like those under the District Rural Development Agency and District Planning Board have also been made available. Setu: An initiative by the Maharashtra government for setting up citizen facilitation centres across the state is Setu with an aim to create foundation for citizen centric e-governance, at district headquarters and subsequently at taluka headquarters by offering single window clearance of 83 important certificates, quick redressel of public grievances, common registry of letters, petitions for all sections of the office. Akashganga based in Guajarat with the objective to spread information technology among rural masses among identified milk cooperative society beginning with computer and software in regional language, weighing scale, card reader & instrument to integrate the full process. Also developed was an accounting system (Rojmel) to automate and integrate their accounting function in the system. Sristi (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Innovations) a nongovernmental organisation setup to strengthen the creativity of grassroots inventors, innovators and ecopreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity and developing eco-friendly solutions to local problems. There are several projects centred around Education. These include: Headstart: It is a project in Madhya Pradesh to provide computer-enabled education and development of basic computer skills for all students in Primary Schools and Middle Schools through the 7000 Jan Shiksha Kendras (cluster resource centres) located in Middle School premises in 48 districts. It will equip every Jan Shiksha Kendra in the state with computer hardware and multimedia software. It repositions the JSK as a media unit capable of providing computer-aided education for the children of the middle school in which the JSK is located and familiarization to computers to all children in primary schools through simple demos and games to excite their imagination. So far, about 2,700 Headstart centres have been set up.

AP Schools: In 2002, the Andhra Pradesh government contracted with NIIT for setting up 663 modern computer classrooms with over 8,000 computers and implementation of computer education in high schools to educate over 300,000 students. The five-year project was worth Rs 155 crore, averaging Rs 90 per student per month. Vidya Vahini: The Indian government has launched a project called Vidya Vahini to provide for IT and IT-enabled education in 60,000 schools in India over three years (India has about 1.1 million schools), as part of a Rs 6,000 crore project. A pilot covering 150 schools is currently underway. Each of the schools would be provided with a computer lab. The computer lab will also be equipped with Internet, Intranet and television to facilitate video-conferencing, Web-broadcasting and e-learning. Community Learning Centres (CLC): CLCs are being set up by the Azim Premji Foundation in rural Karnataka, with the objectives of attracting children to schools, creating excitement in and around the school, Simplifying difficult concepts, thereby making learning exciting and fundamentals strong and building a Sound foundation to IT literacy. A CLC has about 6-8 computers in a Government Higher Primary School, used by children of that school during school hours for learning curriculum through interactive games and exercises. They are used by the community before or after school hours and during holidays. So far, about 90 CLCs have been set up. (Source: Jain, 2003) These are some of the successful small-scale educational projects concentrated on the general population as a whole. When we take a look at Indian projects, some of them have been major successes. However, they are all pilot projects, almost all meant for the rural population. Major interventions have to be taken to draw up large-scale projects, so that not only all the 6 lakhs villages of India are connected together and provided with the benefits of the e-networking, but also other marginalized sections of the societies such as SCs, STs, women, and minority groups like the Muslims are uplifted. However, one can gain insights to achieve this, from the successful pilot projects. According to Jain (2003a), today, the village is singularly isolated. It is not part of a larger community. Its interaction with the external world is quite limited. In a sense, it is an idyllic world, unspoilt by modernity. Yes, villages can now watch TV, talk on phones, and get newspapers and magazines. But by and large, the village voice is silent, except when it comes to the ballot box. What is needed is an interactive solution, with the villagers having a say in what they do and how they grow. What is needed is for the village and its people to have greater access to new opportunities. Even as the nation moves ahead, the village for the most part has remained an island of its own. This is what has to change. The village needs to become a self-sustaining unit, and at the same time integrated with the rest of the ecosystem. The underlying idea is to use the solution to put more power and responsibility into the hands of the local community at the village, by providing them with the right technology and information they need to make decisions. This kind of solution, according to Jain (2003a, b), that can be provided for the villages can be thought of from the view points of four stake-holders: 1. From a villagers point of view, this is what he would like to see: A connected computer, which provides access to computing resources and the Internet. A programme to ensure that he and his family can be made literate and e-literate. At the minimum, there should be at least one person in the family who knows English and can use a computer. An email ID, ensuring that he can be reached electronically.

 Storage Space for keeping electronic copies of key official documents (eg. land records, certificates) and other information (eg. medical records). Access to various e-Services for government interactions from accessing information to doing transactions. This should be combined with service-level guarantees from the government departments. Computer-enabled education for his children in schools, so they are comfortable with technology from an early age. . classes for attitudinal change of the muslim population especially towards the education of the muslim girls, who are more extremely backward educationally as compared to the other sex. . Special education programs for woman on health care, child care, household industries, using of e-mails and the like. Access to e-markets, where he can sell his products directly without being dependent on middlemen who take away much of the profit. Programmes to upgrade his and his familys skillsets, so they can become better at what they are doing and learn new skills. Protection of data, so that unauthorised access does not happen. All of this to be available for a monthly basic fee of not more than Rs 20 per family. 2. From a village administration viewpoint, the solution should: Help in village planning and monitoring. It should assist in identifying and tracking the resources that a village has. In case any of these resources has a problem, there should be a way the village can notify the appropriate government department for action. Share and discuss best practices with other village administrators. This is a peer -to-peer interaction model which is not possible today, except for sporadic gatherings. Think of this as a community weblog, which helps bring out good ideas and success stories from what others are doing. Provide a micro-credit facility to enable villagers to save money and get loans when required. 3.This is what the state administration should be seeing in the solution: Two-way information flows: the administration can update the village and its residents on various government programmes and schemes (this is typically done through the publishing of gazettes), and in turn get regular updates from the village on progress on key parameters reflecting the health of the village. . Electronic accounting for the funds, which are disseminated by the state/district administration for village activities. Ability to provide better services to the citizens (for example, telemedicine). Provide comparisons across villages on various parameters, to be able to identify success stories and enable their replication across other villages. 4. Rural marketing organisations should be seeing the solution like: Use a medium by which they can reach out to villagers for their products and services. Get a distribution point for eCommerce (delivery could take place through the postal system). Have a mechanism by which they can collect payments for their offerings. One can think of the state (or district) as managing an enterprise with multiple branch offices (the villages). To ensure a successful and profitable business, there should be a right mix of centralisation and decentralisation. This is what the solution will have to offer. This is the first step towards the transformation of the rural economy and its people, there by uplifting the rural people. There are three

key ideas in using technology to transform Rural India. First, set up a TeleInfoCentre in every village. Next, network these TeleInfoCentres to create a Village InfoGrid to ensure a peer-to-peer communication network between villages. Finally, computerise key government operations in an eGovernance initiative, starting with those that can have the greatest impact for the villagers. The task of transforming rural India require political determination and dedication. The massive task of revolutionizing the rural communities necessary infrastructures are not only be created but also it has to be ensured that basic amenities like connecting the villages by matelled roads and regular electric supply (which has been emerged now as one of the major problems at national problem). The cost of computers and mobile phone sets are to be reduced. The tariff rates of mobile and internet services should be subsidised for rural areas so that communication process can be facilitated. The rural development programmes may also be directed to provide necessary support in this task. It will in long run will transform the social, economic and cultural fabric of not only of the village India but also of its urban counterpart. References Desai, A. R. 1978: Rural Sociology in India, Bombay: Popular Prakashan. Dube, S. C. 1958: Indias Changing Villages, Bombay: allied Publishers. Lewis, Oscar 1968: Village Life in Northern India: Studies in a Delhi Village, Urbana: University of California. Maheshwari, S. R. Rural Development in India, New Delhi: Sage Publications. Gray, Hugh 1978 The Problem in A. R. Desai (ed.) Rural Sociology in India, Bombay: Popular Prakashan. Rath, Rath, N. K. Garibi Hatao: Can IRDP Do It?, Economic and Political Weekly, March Hirway, Indira 1985:Garibi Hatao: Can IRDP Do It?, Economic and Political Weekly, March Hirway, Indira 1978: A Critique of target Group Approach in S. D. Pillai and Chris Backs (eds.) Winners and Loosers, Bombay: Popular Prakashan. Maithani, B. P. and V. P. Singh 1986:Planning and Implementation of NREP in Arunachal Pradesh, Journal of Rural Development, vol.6, No. 4, pp.366-385. Singh, V. P, 1994: Dr. Ambedkars thoughts and Strategy of rural Development in India Emerging Trends in Development Research, Vol. 1, No. 1&2, Jan.-July, pp. 1-16. Singh, V. P, 1995: Planning and Implementation of NREP in Assam in R. G. Singh and R. D. Gadkar (eds.) Social Development and Justice in India, New Delhi; Radiant Publishers Singh, V. P. 1999 Role of NGOs in Rural Development: Some Case Studies, Journal of Assam University, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 119-126. Jain, Rajesh 2003a: Transforming Rural India: IT for the Masses, Tech Talk, http://www.emergic.org/collections/tech_talk_transforming_rural_india.html, Monday, March 13 Jain, Rajesh 2003b: Transforming Rural India: A Wider View, Tech Talk, http://www.emergic.org/collections/tech_talk_transforming_rural_india.html, Monday, March 10, 2003. Tripathi, P. M. 2002 Impact of Globalization on Regional Development in Asia Focussing on India , AVARD, New Delhi