Reaching benefits of ICT to rural doorsteps
Sunday, 9 December 2007
RURAL Bangladesh has not changed much in the past decades. Schools and colleges have come up in substantial numbers, but many of those still lack teachers and other physical facilities. Thana headquarters have a few telephone lines but getting dial tones still remains a challenge. Power supply is highly erratic and the large part of the rural population is still living in the era of kerosene lamp. Healthcare facilities are inadequate with doctors employed by the government to serve the villagers remaining absent from their workplaces most of the time. Villages are dependent on agriculture for their sustenance. But floods, cyclones and droughts are recurrent events that cause enormous sufferings to the farming community. So, the majority of the villagers are still poor though there could be some variations in percentage estimates. The per capita income of a sizeable number of the rural population is well below the national average. In fact there exist two Bangladesh. The urban Bangladesh is looking ahead with promises of a better future and the rural one is still stuck in the past except for a few cosmetic changes. But how can a process of reversal be started?
Priority-wise, rural people need food, safe drinking water, education, electricity etc. But technology has the potential to transform their life and expose them to new worlds. So far, the governments have tried a lot of programmes, in most cases, in line with the wishes of the multilateral donor agencies, to help the rural people generate more income and, thus, improve their living conditions. The end results have not been that impressive. Lately, poverty alleviation are the two most frequently used words by the donors, policy makers and development planners both at national and international levels. Information technology that has brought about a sea-change in the life and living conditions across the globe if made available at the doorsteps of the rural population is unlikely to make a noticeable change overnight. But it would surely help trigger gradual transformation of rural Bangladesh.
A private information technology firm - Bangladesh Telecentre Network, BTN, which is devoted to the task of reaching the fruits to ICT to villages, has launched Mission 2011 to set up 40,000 telecentres or information kiosks all over Bangladesh by 2011. The theme of the mission is building a sustainable ICT-based information and knowledge system for the poor and marginalised people. A telecentre or an information kiosk is a public place where people have access to computers, internets and other technologies. Such centres, in addition to helping overcome isolation, could ensure a lot of economic benefit to the rural population. By availing the internet services, farmers would be able to know the commodity prices in distant urban markets and the youths would get employment information.
The government also would be able to circulate necessary information to the people at grassroots easily. Neighbouring India which now earns more than US dollar 50 billion a year from IT exports has engaged itself in reaching the benefit of the technology to rural areas. Thousands of information kiosks have been set up in villages. Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed while inaugurating the 'Mission 2011' of the BTN late last week expressed the hope that the mission would achieve similar objectives. The cell phone has brought about a revolutionary change in our life, rural or urban. The availability of internet services at the door steps of the rural people through telecentres or kiosks would take that revolution one step forward. The BTN or any other organisation engaged in the task of widening the use of ICT should try to penetrate deep into rural Bangladesh and must not concentrate in urban or semi-urban spots for the sake of higher profit earning.
Priority-wise, rural people need food, safe drinking water, education, electricity etc. But technology has the potential to transform their life and expose them to new worlds. So far, the governments have tried a lot of programmes, in most cases, in line with the wishes of the multilateral donor agencies, to help the rural people generate more income and, thus, improve their living conditions. The end results have not been that impressive. Lately, poverty alleviation are the two most frequently used words by the donors, policy makers and development planners both at national and international levels. Information technology that has brought about a sea-change in the life and living conditions across the globe if made available at the doorsteps of the rural population is unlikely to make a noticeable change overnight. But it would surely help trigger gradual transformation of rural Bangladesh.
A private information technology firm - Bangladesh Telecentre Network, BTN, which is devoted to the task of reaching the fruits to ICT to villages, has launched Mission 2011 to set up 40,000 telecentres or information kiosks all over Bangladesh by 2011. The theme of the mission is building a sustainable ICT-based information and knowledge system for the poor and marginalised people. A telecentre or an information kiosk is a public place where people have access to computers, internets and other technologies. Such centres, in addition to helping overcome isolation, could ensure a lot of economic benefit to the rural population. By availing the internet services, farmers would be able to know the commodity prices in distant urban markets and the youths would get employment information.
The government also would be able to circulate necessary information to the people at grassroots easily. Neighbouring India which now earns more than US dollar 50 billion a year from IT exports has engaged itself in reaching the benefit of the technology to rural areas. Thousands of information kiosks have been set up in villages. Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed while inaugurating the 'Mission 2011' of the BTN late last week expressed the hope that the mission would achieve similar objectives. The cell phone has brought about a revolutionary change in our life, rural or urban. The availability of internet services at the door steps of the rural people through telecentres or kiosks would take that revolution one step forward. The BTN or any other organisation engaged in the task of widening the use of ICT should try to penetrate deep into rural Bangladesh and must not concentrate in urban or semi-urban spots for the sake of higher profit earning.