International Archives of the Photogrammetry, R
emote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B7. Istanbul 2004
refilling the cells with mineral water is required
sometimes.
Empowering Women
Female workers at the Kiosks upload
information regarding weather and a variety of other
daily information.
Language Interface
Tamil is used for all information exchange over
a wide array of media. C-DAC, Pune developed the |-
Leap Tamil fonts and keyboard layout. WAV audio
format using Real Audio compression makes audio
transmissions lightweight and easy to transmit via
email. MS Exchange (email application software) was
found to be the optimal protocol for analog wireless
networks.
Funding And Support
The total investment for the entire setup is
around Rs 1.5 to 2 lakhs per village.
The IRDC, Canada has funded the MSSRF
Research Project and the Friends of MSSRF, Japan
have donated the computer systems.
The community bears telephone bill,
electricity bill, rent free accommodation and provides
volunteers to run the VKCs. The MSSRF imparts
training, develops content, maintains hardware and
updates dynamic information. Now as extensive
training is imparted by the MSSRF to the VKC
volunteers, the community volunteers including
women are able to operate, maintain and train others
in the village.
The village school going children gather in
the VKC and get familiarised with the computers and
often found playing computer games at nominal
payment(Rs 5 per child). The VKC volunteers are well
versed with MS Office, Page Maker, Photoshop
softwares and take job work from local Milk
Cooperatives and other petty merchants/business
agencies, which generate good revenue for the VKC to
maintain itself sustainably.
Hub Centre
The project centre at the Villianur village is
where the information is fed into the Intranet. This
centre functions as the Intranet hub for the project
villages. Other villages of the VKCs are Embalam,
Veerampattinam, Killur/Kizhor, Kalithirthakuppam,
Nallawadu, Purnamgkuppam, Aryur and
546
Thirukanzipet, where the information nodes are
located mostly at the village panchayat buildings.
Villagers meet last Saturday of each month
to discuss on chronic problems and system problems
and decide on appropriate action agenda and follow it
up to maintain the facilities functional at optimal level.
Procedure For Setting Up Of Vkc
The procedure for setting up such a node
requires a request from a village with signatures of all
the villagers. A formal memorandum of agreement
(MOU) is signed by the MSSRF with the villagers
indicating that the community is willing to supply the
basic infrastructure such as electricity and the space,
and identify volunteers to operate the facility. MSSRF
provides three computers and a printer, a wireless
device, and a solar panel.
Manpower Development
All the volunteers are trained in operating the
systems and undertaking basic maintenance and
repairs. More than half the volunteers are women and
in some villages all the volunteers are women. The
proportion of women users varies from 34 to 50 per
cent and about 16 per cent of the users are from
households below the poverty line (the average
number of families living below the poverty line is 21
per cent). The content has been created with the active
participation of the villagers and to help them identify
with the information, culture-specific aspects have
been included such as astrological advice on daily
activities.
Strengths
The remarkable features of this project are the
focus on women and the local creation of content. This
has resulted in extensive use of the system and a
strong sense of ownership among the villagers.
The success of the knowledge centers has
resulted in the Government of Pondicherry replicating
the project in all the villages in the Union Territory.
Weakness
The weaknesses of the project are its
financial sustainability, as services are provided free
of cost to the users and the systems are installed
through grants.
In
