Mission to Movement 20.02.10 - Ningapi.ning.com/files/STRP1-VVJm18Yn*ZANMdsqwaLWKIFW... ·...

M O V E M E N T

M I S S I O N T O

Author | Basheerhamad ShadrachConcept | Basheerhamad Shadrach / S SenthilkumaranConcept Review | Patrick KalasDesigner | Chandrakesh Bihari Lal (James)Photo Editor | Vignesh SornamohanPhoto Credit | MSSRF / GGA / telecentre.org / Drishtee / TARAhaat Copy Editor | Shipra SharmaCoordinator(s) | Reema Singh / Ganga VidyaPublisher(s) | telecentre.org / Grameen Gyaan Abhiyan Secretariat

Having established Canada’s first ever rural and online telecentre network and system in the late 1980’s and my arrival a decade later at the

International Development Research Centre as its Director for ICT4D program, I was greeted with a very impressive telecentre project in India. In 1997, IDRC was asked to support the first telecentre project under the stewardship

of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. As a telecentre advocate, this project was a very special one for me, but I had no idea that our small investment would be a stepping-stone in Professor Swaminathan’s subsequent launching of Mission 2007 several years later. In October 2003, when the idea for scaling up the Indian telecentre projects was discussed, again, we had little notion that it would transform into a major movement in India in a short six months time. The Mission, launched in 2004, was among the largest and boldest initiatives that the ICT4D world would witness. A telecentre in each of the 600,000 villages in India meant that the nation would have three times the number of telecentres in the rest of the world. It appeared to be an ambitious target in 2003. However, today, the Government of India has committed financing and placed a programme management unit to install 240,000 telecentres by 2012. And, there is a coalition in place to support the movement. It is indeed fortunate that India continues to benefit from visionaries like Professor Swaminathan, and those who are able to translate this vision into reality. I am glad that my friend and colleague, Shaddy (Basheerhamad Shadrach) has compiled this photo book that narrates the story of Mission in an engrossing way. telecentre.org and IDRC have been privileged partners to support Mission 2007 since its inception. I congratulate Professor Swaminathan as I do Shaddy on his initiative in putting together this book.

Richard FuchsCo-Founder, telecentre.org

Regional DirectorOffice of South East and East Asia, International Development Research Centre

Preface

Juxtaposed to this and facilitated by the recent revolution in and convergence between information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as community radios, mobile phones, personal computers, interactive media, Internet etc, there are unprecedented opportunities emerging in rural areas to expand access to information, facilitating knowledge sharing and enabling all people to voice their concerns for inclusion in decision-making processes for more effective governance. In other words, new information and communication channels facilitated through converging and accessible information and communication technologies as enabling tools, foster increased participation and

inclusion of all population segments in development processes. Examples of such opportunities include the passing of the Right to Information Act with a subsequent community radio policy in India and Bangladesh, the rapid expansion of mobile phones in Africa (Global Mobile Phone Subscribers to Reach 4.5 Billion by 2012; growth sector mainly people living on less than 2 US$ a day) and a growing number of internet public access points through telecentres or knowledge village centres.

However, despite this promise, the digital divide between and within countries remains a significant challenge. Many efforts in integrating ICTs fail due to its exclusive focus on technology, infrastructure and hardware not people while neglecting the software components such as capacity development, content development, communication, an enabling policy environment and not embedding this “tool” properly within the local development context. In addition, environmental issues of e-waste, product life cycle management and recycling have only recently enjoyed the necessary attention.

Recognising this gap and potential, Professor M.S. Swaminathan, the “father of the green revolution” in India, developed a holistic vision coined “Mission 2007- Every Village a Knowledge Centre”. At the heart of the vision lies the attempt to expand the ICT-enabled knowledge revolution in a comprehensive, people-centred and multi-stakeholder approach to benefit particularly the poor and marginalised in rural areas. This bold attempt called for an unprecedented up-scaling effort with the necessary dedication and innovative, multi-stakeholder partnerships for implementation.

Martin Dahinden Director-General

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Switzerland is proud to have supported this vision and implementation process as a partner. Based on the common values and principles that emerged from the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005, this effort went beyond a technologically-driven to a comprehensive, inclusive, people-centred approach putting humans and not technology at the centre. These general WSIS principles and values were complemented by more particular “Swissness” factors in the realm of integrating ICTs into development programmes such as a determined focus on poverty alleviation in rural areas, a willingness to innovate and take risks, going beyond infrastructure to include soft ICT-issues such as capacity development, content development, communication, and interactive media, a pro-poor policy environment, supporting multi-stakeholder approaches while maintaining a certain flexibility and adaptability. But above all, the decisive ingredients to move from this vision to implementation was the fundamental value of partnership based on mutual trust, understanding and complementarity combined with the tireless efforts and dedication by Prof. Swaminathan and his team.

Looking into the future, the envisioned transformation of the “Mission” into a continuous “Movement” is a timely step given the growing challenges particularly in climate change and food security. Within climate change adaptation programmes, increasingly accessible and embedded ICTs can reduce the vulnerability and risk of exposed populations through raising awareness at grassroots level, enabling timely access to relevant information (such as early warning systems), facilitating learning and practical knowledge sharing among communities (to develop coping strategies) while providing an inclusive voice to the poor and marginalised for political accountability. Within food security programmes, ICT-enabled access to and sharing of information and knowledge can improve access to market information and rural extension services, enable more efficient food production while facilitating more equitable market access.

This publication marks a personal tribute to a remarkable man who is living with the courage of his convictions to extend the light of knowledge into previously dark places. Prof. Swaminathan has proven, that with the power of imagination and partnership, social, economic or political lives of those most in need can be impacted through creating knowledge-based opportunities and empowering people to become determinants of their own destinies.

Foreword

“Mission 2007: every village a knowledge centre by 15 August 2007 is a gift to the nation by the citizens of India!” announced Professor M. S. Swaminathan at the formal launch of the Mission in July 2004. A very ambitious program launched; targets set; deadlines determined; and the purpose defined!

In February 2004, during my 30 hour long train journey to Delhi from Chennai after attending a meeting at MSSRF where I was nominated as the Secretary of Mission 2007, many things occupied my mind. In less than 40 months, India would require USD 5billion to spend on rural ICT infrastructure and the back-bone support

systems; there would be the need to train some 500,000 individuals, who would staff telecentres, and these people need to emerge from within the village communities; there would be the need for developing and digitising appropriate and value added content and services aimed at 115 million farm families; rural India would require over 250,000 public spaces that offer access to ‘all’; reliable and affordable rural broadband that will carry pro-poor services in response to the demand expressed by the rural populace; and, above all, there should be ownership among the community

Basheerhamad ShadrachSecretary to Mission 2007 (2004-2007)

Secretary to Grameen Gyan Abhiyan (2007-2012)

members to lead this movement. This would need enormous coordination among all those, who could contribute to the movement.

Looking back six years now, I can gladly note that not only did the Mission achieve its objectives; but it has also helped to develop a bench-mark for service delivery in rural India. The Mission has successfully offered an ecosystem for village knowledge centres (commonly referred to as telecentres) that are presently meant to bridge the various divides that exist in India. The Mission has ensured commitments from multi-stakeholders for establishing telecentres in each of the 240,000 Panchayat villages in India. The Mission has brought together a coalition of the concerned that is engaged in playing appropriate roles. And, the Mission has now become a movement, which the nation is willing to endure for the next generation. The Rural Knowledge Movement – Grameen Gyan Abhiyan has been an invention of Mission 2007.

This book is my personal tribute to Professor M. S. Swaminathan, and the hundreds of missionaries, who have helped to shape up the Mission. And, equally so, to the thousands of grassroots champions, who continue to live-up to the challenges that the Mission 2007: every village a knowledge centre movement in India is deemed to overcome.

From the Author

Mission 2007 The ConceptI have always believed that “every village a knowledge centre” is a simple, but a powerful concept. For me, it is smart enough to call for the need to establish ‘knowledge’ centres rather than ‘service’ centres. Whenever I heard Professor Swaminathan deliberate upon the concept of Mission, what my mind registered was his interest to emphasise upon the ‘two-way’ interactivity among the knowledge seekers and the knowledge providers. He has always been categorical in advocating for providing demand-driven, dynamic and responsive knowledge services to citizens that seek to benefit from knowledge-led practices over resource-intensive ones in their daily lives. The concept of Mission 2007, for many of us since then, has been very specific about the need for establishing these centres in each and every village of India. I have also felt that there was consensus among stakeholders for the need to ensure local ownership and commitment in the care and management of these centres. And finally, for me, the Mission calls for a symphony approach. Each and every stakeholder has had an opportunity to play its own part, be it a government body or the industry or the civil society, the media, the academia and above all, the grassroots communities themselves.


EVERY VILLAGE A KNOWLEDGE CENTRE

10 | Mission to Movement


The FormulaI distinctly remember Professor M. S. Swaminathan at the valedictory session of the first convention of Mission 2007 in July 2004 spelling out his magic formula for the Mission. And, it remained as one that not only India, but the entire world embraced.

5Cs for the Mission:

n Connectivity and devices, which are accessible, affordable and reliablen Content and services that are appropriate and responsive to the demands expressedn Capacity building for one million knowledge workers as torch-bearers in Indian villagesn Coordination efforts that bring along all actors for knowledge connectivityn Care and management by rural communities themselves for sustaining knowledge centres

The 5Cs together support the beautiful ecosystem for a village knowledge


Connectivity

At the first convention of Mission 2007, I heard Pradip Baijal making a prediction for 200m mobile connections

in 2006 with a footnote that the target could be achieved only if the government would allow the market forces to take charge. Today, India boasts of double that figure. Dr. D. P. S. Seth passionately made a plea for bringing down access related costs, and today, India’s Internet connectivity costs are one of the lowest in the world. Then, I heard my friend, Ashok Jhunjhunwala demanding rural connectivity policy that lends support to the back-bone for all services in rural areas. Today, that call has indeed become a reality, for India with options ranging from wired to wireless is willing to ensure rural Broadband backbone to serve its citizens. Ajai Chowdhry led the call for a Fab Unit in India, and incentives for domestic hardware market. Since then, the partners of Mission have made unimaginable innovations possible that range from low-cost computing to multipoint mouse to rugged and rural PCs, to connected wimax laptops, and so on. The idea for 600,000 access centres has now become a government policy with the announcement made by our Hon’ble President in June 2009. India will have 240,000 Bharat Nirman community knowledge centres by 2012.

14 | Mission to Movement Mission to Movement | 15

I have always believed that the call for appropriate, contextualised, demand-driven content and services has always been a challenge for all actors concerned about

the efforts to connect rural Bharat. The first achievement in this regard has been the recognition of knowledge connectivity as a part of Bharat Nirman where physical connectivity was seen as the core. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, at the launch of the International Support Group for Mission 2007, lived to the above promise. Since then, innovative approaches to gathering, processing and disseminating content in an interactive manner have taken India in its stride. Today, as my friend Ravi Venkatesan points out, the


Content nation is seen as the test bed for content-related innovative experiments, ranging from telephone-based query response systems to providing spot market prices and future market analysis, to screening rural population for tuberculosis and heart diseases, and for providing micro-enterprise training using eLearning techniques. This trend was, in fact, initiated by the Late GV of Aravind Eye Hospital when he partnered with village knowledge centres to screen patients for eye-care over a web camera. And, I believe the VKCs shall also redeem the nation in its efforts to promote climate literacy and adaptation, and to prepare communities to manage inevitable natural disasters.


Capacity Building

Ashok Khosla, who together with Ankhi Das led the Capacity Building taskforce of Mission 2007, always

thought that offering training to over a million grassroots champions was a mammoth task. He often asked all of us to think about forging partnerships with established institutions to pursue the goal. The magic mantra of Professor Swaminathan has always been, ‘equipping one woman and one man from each of its 600,000 villages’ as the knowledge gatekeeper and grassroots champion. I think, we listened to Ashok Khosla carefully, and have brought a number of Mission partners, led by the Jamshetji Tata Training School (JTTS), to undertake various innovative steps towards empowering the knowledge workers in villages as the true ambassadors of change. Kiran Karnik often mentioned that for India to sustain its pattern of inclusive growth, these one million plus knowledge workers would need to be supported with appropriate learning systems with curricula that help to unleash their potential. Mission 2007’s capacity building formula, today, informs the telecentre.org Academy at its global level, partnered by JTTS and the Indira Gandhi National Open University and 14 other open and distance learning higher education institutions around the world.

Capacity Building efforts that turn ordinary women and

men in rural India into knowledge workers, for President A P J Abdul Kalam means, “Celebration of the core competencies of rural India”.


Care and Management

Whenever I asked him for the best telecentre model that would suit the rural knowledge movement in

India, “Let thousand flowers bloom” has been the one-liner of Professor Swaminathan. I have witnessed Mission 2007 embracing, promoting and celebrating all models of village knowledge centre movement, ranging from Drishtee’s enterprise model to TARAhaat’s social enterprise model, to ITC e-choupal’s corporate led supply-chain, to MSSRF’s community based models. The Government of India chose to elect a model that offered village level entrepreneurs options to make money, and in the process assist the rural communities they serve in enhancing their revenue generation opportunities. While one-size fits all policy wasn’t pursued by Mission 2007, it surely advocated for community ownership and control over the functioning of these knowledge centres in line with the principles of antyodaya.


Co-ordination

Coordination of linkages between knowledge providers and knowledge seekers is a very important aspect of

Mission 2007’s ecosystem conducive for the village knowledge movement. Since the community members are often seen as the seekers of information, I appreciate that the Professor has considered a set of linkages to emphasise their role as the providers of knowledge and information. These are: Land to Lab; Lab to Land; Lab to Lab; and, Land to Land. These four linkages are evidence to the fact that the knowledge seekers are not always the community members (land), but the policy-makers and scientists (lab) while connecting with their peers, also seek knowledge from people. The above linkages articulated by Professor Swaminathan demonstrate the importance of peer to peer learning within and across communities. . Strengthening of the said knowledge linkage ecosystem is necessary instead of developing an information architecture, which is one-way and often, top-down.


Conducive Policy

Conducive policy that stimulates, incentivises and sustains the rural knowledge movement. It is heartening to note that the Government of India continues to draw out a citizen-focused policy, while ensuring that the industry and the civil society are engaged in policy development.


Convergence of Resources

Coalition of the Concerned

Community Champions

Convergence of resources from public and private sources coupled with investment by communities themselves. Many companies see the rural communities as emerging markets, hence are at the forefront of investing time and efforts for designing new service and business delivery models.

Coalition of the concerned, rather than that of a ‘coalition of willing’ to help move the mission forward. With over 600 partners, the Mission ensures that the efforts for a new deal for rural India are strengthened.

Community champions and their willingness to be a part of the movement as the main stakeholders rather than beneficiaries. Today, it is a truth that the poor community entrepreneurs are willing to invest over 1billion USD, and are already at the forefront of service delivery.

During the course of Mission 2007’s evolution, I felt that while the 5Cs of Professor Swaminathan helped to create an ecosystem for implementing the

village knowledge movement, there was an apparent need for the following 4Cs to be recognised as necessary conditions for achieving the same:

Multi-Stakeholder

The Multi-stakeholder partnership approach in Mission 2007, for me and many of my friends in government,

is a natural selection over the hitherto omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent role of government in program implementation. At the very early stage itself, what I felt exciting about the mission was its collaborative principle that brought along different sectors of the society: the public, the private and the civil society that encompasses NGOs, research institutions, academia and the media, and last, but not the least, the communities themselves as means to scale-up targets and meet its objectives. Mission 2007 was set to achieve its common goals together rather than relying upon one single agency. 600 and odd organisations, most importantly the government agencies, such as the Indian Space Research Organisation, led until recently by Madhavan Nair and now by K Radhakrishnan and the Department of Information Technology led by R Chandrasekhar, have actively contributed to the achievements of the Mission. The contribution of industry is equally compelling that with Y C Daweshwar, Ravi Venkatesan and S Ramadorai and others we have seen a new trend in rural India. Contribution by a number of civil society organisations is unparallel. The concept of ‘Team India’ has been central to Mission 2007.PARTNERSHIPS


Public Sector

The Indian Space Research Organisation has been the major contributor to Mission

2007 till date. They truly believed in the MSP approach promoted by the Mission, seeking to establish hundreds of village resource centres connected to each other as content and capacity building nodes. The Mission helped the Department of Information Technology to leapfrog in its efforts to establish 100,000 Common Service Centres with managerial support from Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS).

The program offers potentials to Mission 2007 partners to contribute. Many actors in Mission 2007 always stressed upon the notion ‘small is beautiful’. I believe that the VRC, CSC and other programs will best serve the communities if ‘knowledge connectivity’ becomes central and the obligations of the State takes precedence over the compulsions of financial sustainability as the yardstick for measuring success. It is equally important for the Public Sector to provide a bouquet of services through a one-India plan.

Mission to Movement | 2928 | Mission to Movement

Private Sector

Emanating from the idea of the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, many private sector

organisations, today, have plans to penetrate the rural market. The rural population is also willing to benefit from the plethora of services offered, especially by the agro-business retailers and the IT companies. The Mission has been successful in demonstrating

the power of rural innovation in rendering public services, such as health, education and livelihood generation. The financial sector, led by many leaders such as Nichiket Mor and O P Bhat, has been responsive too in ‘banking the unbanked’. However, the best of the private sector, for me, is yet to come. Once the rural infrastructure is conducive


to introducing innovative business models, I strongly think, it is possible to contemplate the following:

n reduction of costs in procuring goods and services

n reengineered income generation opportunity

n rural market as service providers in

any value chain modeln rejuvenating the rural youth as assets

rather than liabilities

And, indeed, the private sector has to accept the ‘economy of scale’ in a positive and advantageous manner.

Civil Society

Traditionally seen as the advocates for realising people’s rights and as the most

successful intermediaries wherever the State failed to deliver, the civil society is a great mover of Mission 2007 principles in totality. The concept of ‘social enterprise’ promoted by Ashok Khosla and others for rendering ‘knowledge-led services’ was not difficult for the civil society partners of Mission 2007 to accept and practice, even when often overlooked by the formal systems. The Civil Society has proven track record to innovate and test new concepts on the ground. The 600-

odd civil society partners have been unspoken heroes of the inclusive growth mantra of the nation. And, it becomes imminent for the designers and implementers of large-scale government schemes to consider the role of civil society, including that of the Common Service Centres programme. Else, it would be a lost opportunity and an expensive parallel process that might have little or no chances of imbibing the idea of ‘social enterprise’. One cannot and should not ignore the role of civil society in government pursuits.


AcademiaThe role of academia cannot be confined

to research and reporting only. Thanks to some path-breaking initiatives of Mission 2007, such as the Jamshetji Tata National Virtual Academy and the Jamshetji Tata Training School, a number of distance and open education institutions have come forward to extend formal and vocational education to rural population. The community college concept initiated by Rajasekharan Pillai of Indira Gandhi National Open University testifies this. In addition, the Academia has responded favourably in addressing the learning needs of the 500,000 grassroots champions to staff and manage village knowledge centres efficiently. Together with telecentre.org, the MSSRF and IGNOU are pitched to play a stronger role in preparing a new labour force for the world, hitherto unheard of, in the form of certified rural knowledge workers. I believe, the problems in society, including the challenges of climate change, water and food scarcity, cannot be solved by the government and the corporate sector without the help of these certified knowledge workers. And, the Academia, including a number of Agricultural Universities, is willing to share its worth in preparing them.


Media

The media has been a great ally of Mission 2007. Not only did the media help to

promote the idea of ‘every village a knowledge centre’, it also endorsed the need for the same. Using the traditional print media and the support of people like N Ram, the Mission could reach out to common people; through the online media, the Mission was able to

speak to the development community; and through its own newsletters compiled by Ganga Vidya and Senthilkumaran, it could address the policy-makers. Finally, the online social network tools helped the Mission to promote its ethos among numerous knowledge workers and telecentre stakeholders around the world.


Community

The community of village knowledge centre operators continues to play an

important role as it did in the first phase of Mission 2007. They helped to advocate for the need of telecentres and have validated the successful traction that these centres were making in the lives of common people. Be it making a sixty year old housewife literate, so that she is no longer dependent; or helping

a group of people to learn how to cultivate mushroom and market the produce together; or assisting a farmer with timely advise to save his crop, these champions have been at the forefront of achieving the impossible. Wherever and whenever the government extension system failed, these Champions are at the helm of affairs filling the gap. As the prime stakeholders of the movement,

these smart women and men from villages proved that they are no longer to be seen as beneficiaries, but as the rightful allies of the movement. Even a meagre investment of about Rs. 50,000 by a community champion in each of the 240,000 telecentres in India means that the investment made by them in the telecentre movement amounts to almost USD 300m. In fact, their investment

can surpass over USD 1b. With the kind of investment they are willing to make, are they not the prime stakeholders of the movement? I hope after reading this statement, the government officers will stop calling them as beneficiaries.


Multi-stakeholder Partnership Matrix


Intended Development Outcomes

Design Parameters Partners Resources & Competencies

Promoting rural communities’ access to knowledge through ICT tools to enhance livelihood opportunities through: Establishing Village Knowledge Centers (VKCs)

‘Reaching the unreached’ and ‘voicing the voiceless’. Developing user friendly connectivity Transforming knowledge receivers into knowledge creators.

Generation of need & demand based and user friendly knowledge database.

9Cs of Mission 2007: Connectivity Content Coordination Care & Management Capacity building Conducive Policy Coalition of the Concerned

Convergence of Resources

Community champions

Civil Society Organizations (94) like MSSRF, OWSA, NASSCOM, etc. Government Organizations (22) like BSNL, TRAI, DoIT, etc. Private Sector (34) like Microsoft, HP Labs, HCL, etc. International Funding Agencies (20) like DFID, IDRC, WB, etc. Academia (18) like IGNOU, MIT, IIT, etc. Grassroots/Community

Vision and mission, research & development, capacity building & managing and implementing programs at the grassroots level. Appropriate ICT policy enactments, regulations and policy changes to facilitate the use of ICT4D. Provision of appropriate ICT tools, development of user-friendly software, IT training. Funding Research and development, distance learning programs. Program implementation, operation, care and management of VKCs

Source: Shipra Sharma, GKP-FDC workshop on MSPs, Brisbane, Australia, 2005.

M S Swaminathan

THE MANMany people, who know Professor Swaminathan as a

person, would testify with me. Whenever I asked him a question, his response has always been “why not?” With those two words, he has always made the impossible, possible. The next thing that struck me the most was his humble suggestion to the Press that often asked for his quote that they should talk to the grassroots knowledge workers if they needed to learn anything about the Mission or about rural India, and not from him or others who happen to lead the movement. That proves how much he believes in the power of common people, and his trust in their ability to change the world. Often, people see only his professional side. But, as a grandfather to five grandchildren, and as a family-oriented person, having lost his own father at the age of 11, Professor Swaminathan is not to be mistaken as the father of green revolution alone, but is a father-figure to me, and to many, who believe in humanity. Rightly expressed by R D Iyer, the writer of the book titled, Scientist and Humanist: M S Swaminathan, the Professor is a humanist first and a scientist next.


VAfter I made my presentation at the launch of the International Support Group of Mission

2007 in October 2004 where I highlighted Professor M S Swaminathan’s vision for Mission 2007 that developed as early as 1992, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia had the following words to say, “While the whole world never thought about the role that information technology could play in the lives of common people even in recent times, Dr Swaminathan had the vision to foresee its role in 1992. This sets him apart from many of us.” Professor Swaminathan envisions solutions to human problems, at least a decade ahead of many others, and today, he calls for human solutions to human problems, especially in his vision for the second ‘green revolution’, which he terms as the ‘evergreen revolution’.

The Visionary


LThe Leader Leaders are born, and not made. This is true for Professor Swaminathan, who is a natural leader- one who leads by example. His vision for leading the ‘Team India’ for solving human

problems by harnessing the potentials of ICTs is a great testimony to his leadership qualities. He has led the movement that has had followers like the former and present Presidents of India, the senior leadership cutting across governments and political parties, and the chain of command up to the person at the last mile. He possesses the charisma to attract a small child, an elderly, an ordinary citizen in a remote part of India as well as the global leaders that matter today. He is placed in the league of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore by the Time Magazine that chronicled him as one of the top 20 leaders of the century that the Asian continent has ever produced. He is also recognised as one by the common people, especially the ultra-poor living in the hamlets of India.

What I admire about Professor Swaminathan is the fact that he is as much a visionary as an implementer. It is a rare combination to look for in the same person. But, Professor

Swaminathan has inherent and compelling qualities to be an implementer; taking you to the drawing board even to the extent of project planning as comfortably as he envisions a hunger-free India. Mission 2007 has benefitted from his vision for ‘every village a knowledge centre’ movement. Mission 2007 has benefitted from the ecosystem he conceived in his 5C formula. Mission 2007 has benefitted from his leadership qualities for convening high powered policy discourses on each of the 5Cs he narrated. And, Mission 2007 has also benefitted from his abilities to lead ‘Team India’ for realising the power of partnerships. I vividly remember him mentioning at the first convention, “The Mission will be implemented based on the principles of social inclusion, social relevance and gender equality. Transaction costs will be kept low and a sense of ownership will be created by fostering the growth of an ICT-SHG movement.” This speaks volumes about the man, the visionary and the leader, who has his own low-cost implementation methodology.

IThe Implementer

MMessiah of the Poor In his speech in 1992, Professor Swaminathan mentioned, “The most effective pathway

by which technological and information empowerment can reach the unreached, is the one that Mahatma Gandhi described over 60 years ago as ‘attention to the poorest person’. He wanted all those involved in formulating development policies and strategies to adopt a bottom-up approach. He said that antyodaya will help to promote a Sarvodaya society, charecterized by high social synergy, where one individual’s economic advancement is not at the cost of another’s opportunity.” By quoting this and living a life in this belief, I believe, Professor M S Swaminathan is a living Gandhi and the messiah of the poor, constantly advocating for a sustainable present and future for all mankind.


Mission to Movement

In August 2007, the moment had arrived and the whole world was asking- what’s next? Having achieved a part of the targets set out in Mission 2007, even I was wondering if

Professor Swaminathan would extend the duration of the Mission. But, he had some other brilliant ideas. He saw it as the transition from one phase to another and very appropriately, he graduated the Mission into a Movement called, Grameen Gyaan Abhiyan (GGA) or the Village Knowledge Movement. Launched on the 3rd of August 2007 by the then Union Minister for Rural Development, Professor Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the GGA continues the tradition of Mission 2007 by being a multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to address the knowledge gap that still exists in rural areas, and the divide between the so-called ‘Shining Urban India’ and the ‘Suffering Rural Bharat’. The GGA is an attempt to overlay the much-required knowledge infrastructure on to the physical infrastructure created under the flagship Bharat Nirman programme with investments worth over USD 40 billion (Rs. 175,000 Cr.)



Objectives of Grameen Gyan Abhiyan

At the launch, as I had imagined, synthesizing the lessons learnt from the first phase (Mission 2007), Professor Swaminathan narrated the main objectives of the second phase

(Grameen Gyan Abhiyan) as:

n Making a paradigm shift from resource-intensive agricultural practices to knowledge-led movement for rural prosperity by making two-way knowledge linkages between the families living in rural areas and their service providers.

n Developing a knowledge-led rural society as the backbone to enhance national productivity and growth in an inclusive and sustainable manner.

n Guiding the functioning of village knowledge centres established through public-private partnership under the National eGovernance Plan and other schemes of Goernment of India.

n Helping to develop appropriate services, content and solutions towards rural entrepreneurship, thus enhancing the rural GDP and rural prosperity in a sustainable manner.

n Operating as an ally as well as a watchdog to monitor the progress and implementation of various government flagship programmes in rural areas in health, education, nutrition, livelihood, finance, enterprise and agriculture sector.

n Helping to achieve Gram Swaraj as a pathway to Poorna Swaraj.


The Unfinished Agenda of Grameen Gyan Abhiyan

ESTABLISHMENT OF A MECHANISM FOR CONVERGENCE WITHIN GOI’S FLAGSHIP INITIATIVES – in order to work in close coordination with other missions of the Indian government, such as the Rural Health Mission, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the National Horticultural Mission, the National Employment Guarantee scheme, and above all, the Bharat Nirman programme. The GGA calls for a coordination mechanism that aims to bring convergence amongst all the missions of national importance.

The success of Mission 2007 could be substantiated through the commitment made by the Indian Government under the Bharat Nirman Common Service Centres programme.

However, the programme will require the support of Grameen Gyan Abhiyan for fulfilling the unfinished agenda. This includes:

ESTABLISHMENT OF RURAL CONTENT AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FUND – in order to address the structural deficiency in the Bharat Nirman Common Service Centre programme for both capacity building of grassroots village knowledge workers to become the torch-bearers of the rural knowledge movement and towards establishing content hubs at village levels in formats and languages that are accessible, usable and actionable by rural communities. Else, the commendable efforts of the government will remain infrastructure related with no vibrancy and added-value.

EMPHASIS ON KNOWLEDGE CONNECTIVITY IN THE BHARAT NIRMAN COMMON SERVICE CENTRES - so that the information provided by well-trained women and men at these centres are dynamic, location specific, and available in local languages. And, the Centres should cover all aspects of rural life-agriculture, commerce, weather, health and education. While the green revolution helped to improve the productivity and production of wheat, rice, maize and other crops, the rural knowledge revolution would help to enhance human productivity in all its dimensions. What is significant is that the torch bearers of the rural knowledge revolution are rural women and men.


telecentre.org ecosystem: informed by Mission 2007

I find it befitting to highlight the telecentre.org ecosystem here, which has been adopted by about 40 odd nations around the world, and has served as the unique selling point for

rejuvenating the telecentre movement. The entire telecentre.org ecosystem resonates the ethos of Mission 2007, which is why the replication of Mission has been possible in various nations, such as, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Chile, Bangladesh and Nepal.

telecentreecosystem

support

socialinvestment

(cash + services)

financing

networks

telecentres

services

training

telecentre.org ecosystem developed in 2005


Identify the important role village knowledge centres play in the lives of common people, especially among the marginalized and poor sections of the society. Synthesize lessons and aggregate learning, both positive and negative.

Convene a meeting of all telecentre operators to consider the challenges and the potentials of telecentre enterprise, especially the opportunities for creating a knowledge movement in rural areas. Think big and turn the small projects and pockets of excellence into a national movement.

Identify a focal point for networking telecentre stakeholders and develop a multi-stakeholder partnership to support the movement. Consider six main actors in this partnership: all forms of government and government agencies; relevant private sector entities; civil society organizations; the academia and the research community; the media; and, most importantly the grassroots champions.

Ten Steps to Replicate the Mission

Identify a charismatic leader to lead the movement; appoint task forces to explore ways to strengthen the telecentre ecosystem, spelt out in the 5C formula of Mission 2007: Connectivity and Access devices; Content and Services; Coordination of linkages; Capacity Building of stakeholders; and, Care and Management by the community itself.

Develop a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) plan for a dynamic village knowledge centre movement and launch the programme in the presence of all stakeholders. The programme would advocate for a bottom-up approach for a just and equitable knowledge society with an inclusive agenda.

Lobby for policy change in order to stimulate the village knowledge movement and demand investment, primarily from the State while encouraging the Private Sector to innovate new business and operational models. Demonstrate how the state could benefit from investing in a knowledge society programme.

Develop a strong content development programme with the help of civil society entities, and research organisations. Apply the principles of locale-specific, demand-driven and appropriate content in local languages and formats that are accessible by all people, especially the most marginalised sections of the society.

Develop a strong capacity building plan, first to help build skills among telecentre operators, and then, through them, that of the community members. Consider soft skills as important as IT and hard skills for managing village knowledge centres. Capacity building is not a one-off event, it is a continual process. Develop a continuous professional development plan for the village knowledge workers.

Celebrate the success of village knowledge centre operators. Ask the highest office of your government to recognize their achievements. Motivate them to motivate others. Remember, they are the celebration of the core competencies that exist in your nation.

Keep monitoring your progress. Document every success and inform all stakeholders of the unfinished agenda. Keep working until you achieve your target. Motivate your stakeholders by citing Indian and other successful examples.

0102

0304 05 06 07

08

09 10


Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s support for Mission 2007 (GGA)

P Chidambaram’s budget speech on Mission 2007 (GGA)

telecentre.org is a global community of people and organizations committed to increasing the social and economic impact of grassroots telecentres. Working together, we provide the resources that telecentres need to succeed: locally relevant content and services, support and learning opportunities, and networks that help telecentre activists connect to each other. With these things in hand, tens of thousands of telecentres will be in a better position to enrich the communities they serve. Our founding investors include Canada’s International Development Research Centre, Microsoft, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Visit www.telecentre.org to learn more.

The International Development Research Centre is a public corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970 to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems they face.

Basheerhamad Shadrach [email protected]

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology leader committed to innovation and broadening digital inclusion through its Unlimited Potential program, which enhances technology skills of underserved young people and adults through community telecentres.

Tim [email protected]

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation is Switzerland’s international cooperation agency responsible for overall coordination of development activities and cooperation with Eastern Europe, as well as humanitarian aid.

Patrick [email protected]

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) was registered in 1988 as a non-profit Trust. MSSRF has been working for 20 years in the areas of Coastal Systems Research, Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Ecotechnology, Food Security and Information, Education and Communication. The basic mandate of the MSSRF is development of a strategy of sustainable, ecology centered economic growth with an orientation towards the pro-poor, pro-nature, pro-women and pro-livelihood use of science and technology. Essentially it links the livelihood security of the rural women and men with the ecological security of their regions.

S Senthilkumaran [email protected]

It was not difficult to take the ethos of Mission 2007 to other countries, especially where the climate for investment was ripe. The Mission replicated itself in Bangladesh in

the name of Mission 2011 with exactly a similar mandate. Ananya Raihan, the Secretary General of the Bangladesh Telecentre Network, joined by Abdul Muyeed Chaudhary, the Chair raised this slogan at the launch of Mission 2011, “every village a knowledge centre in each of the 40000 villages in Bangladesh as a gift to the nation for her 40th anniversary of independence.”

In Nepal, Mission 2007 found its avatar in Mission Swaabhimaan, spearheaded by the High Level Commission on IT and the Forum on Information Technology. Mission’s snowball effect reached the Philippines in its roadmap for establishing a community e-centre in each of the 4500 municipalities; and in Africa with quest to scale-up. In Latin America, recognizing the power of Mission 2007, the Chilean President has already forged partnerships between her government and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation for similar attempts there.


Mission in other countries

S Senthilkumaran [email protected]

Ganga [email protected]

Grameen Gyan Abhiyan Secretariatc/o M S Swaminathan Research FoundationTaramani Institutional AreaChennai 600113

Basheerhamad Shadrach [email protected]

Reema [email protected]

telecentre.orgc/o International Development Research Centre, CanadaOffice of South Asia and China208, JorbaghNew Delhi 110003

Mission to Movement 20.02.10 - Ningapi.ning.com/files/STRP1-VVJm18Yn*ZANMdsqwaLWKIFW... ·...

Documents

Transcript of Mission to Movement 20.02.10 - Ningapi.ning.com/files/STRP1-VVJm18Yn*ZANMdsqwaLWKIFW... ·...