Gyandoot: Community-Owned Rural Internet Kiosks

Abstract

In awarding the the Gyandoot project the Stockholm Challenge IT Award 2000 in the Public Service and Democracy category the jury described it as "a unique government-to-citizen Intranet project ... with numerous benefits to the region, including a people-based self-reliant sustainable strategy. 'Gyandoot' is recognised as a breakthrough in e-government, demonstrating a paradigm shift which gives marginalised tribal citizens their first ever chance to access knowledge, with minimum investment." The project also was awarded the CSI-TCS National Award for Best IT Usage for the year 2000.

Application Context

The Dhar district in central India has a population of 1.7 million; 60% live below the poverty line. The goal of the Gyandoot project has been to establish community-owned, technologically innovative and sustainable information kiosks in a poverty-stricken, tribal dominated rural area of Madhya Pradesh. During the design phase of the project, meetings were held with villagers to gather their input. Among the concerns highlighted by villagers was the absence of information about prevailing agriculture produce auction centre rates. Consequently, farmers were unable to get the best price for their agricultural produce. Copies of land records also were difficult to obtain. A villager had to go out in search of the patwari (village functionary who maintains all land records), who often was difficult to get hold of as his duties include extensive travel. To file complaints or submit applications, people had to go to district headquarters (which could be 100 miles away), resulting in a loss of wages/earnings.

A New Approach

The Gyandoot project was launched on January 1, 2000 with the installation of a low cost rural Intranet covering 20 village information kiosks in five Blocks of the district. Later, 11 more kiosks were set up. Villages that function as Block headquarters or hold the weekly markets in tribal areas or are located on major roads (e.g., bus stops) were chosen for establishing the kiosks. Seven centers are located in towns (urban areas), 8 in large villages with a population of 5,000-6,000, another 7 in medium sized villages with a poulation of 1,000-4,000, and the rest are in small villages with population less than 500. Each kiosk caters to about 25 to 30 villages. The entire network of 31 kiosks covers 311 Panchayats (village committees), over 600 villages and a population of around half a million (nearly 50% of the entire district).

Kiosks have been established in the village Panchayat buildings. Information kiosks have dial-up connectivity through local exchanges on optical fibre or UHF links. The server hub is a Remote Access Server housed in the computer room in the District Panchayat.

User fees are charged at the kiosks for the services provided. Local rural youth act as entrepreneurs, running these information kiosks along commercial lines. At the inception of the project it was decided that further expansion of kiosk centres will take place only when local youth come forward to start new centres as private enterprises.

A local person with a 10-year schooling (matriculate) can be selected as a operator. He/she needs only maintenance, limited typing (software is menu driven) and numeric data entry skills. For the initial kiosks, village committees each selected three candidates to receive training at the District Council. At the end of the training, the best trainees were selected to run a kiosk.

The following services are now offered at the kiosks:

1. Agriculture Produce Auction Centres Rates: Prevailing rates of prominent crops at the local and other recognized auction centres around the country are available on-line for a nominal charge of Rs. 5. The volume of incoming agricultural produce, previous rates, etc., are also provided on demand.
2. Copies of Land Records: Documents relating to land records including khasra (record of rights) are provided on the spot at a charge of Rs. 15. All of the banks in the district have agreed to accept these kiosk documents. Approximately 0.2 million farmers require these extracts at every cropping season to obtain loans from banks for purchasing seeds and fertilisers.
3. On-line Registration of Applications: Villagers had to make several visits to the local revenue court to file applications for obtaining income/caste/ domicile certificates. Now, they may send the application from a kiosk at a cost of only Rs. 10. Within 10 days, notification about the readiness of the certificate is sent via e-mail to the relevant kiosk. Only one trip is needed -- to collect the certificate.
4. On-line Public Grievance Redress: A complaint can be filed and a reply received within 7 days for a cost of Rs 10. These can include complaints regarding drinking water, quality of seed/fertilizer, scholarship sanction/disbursement, employee establishment matters, functioning of schools or village committees, etc.
5. Village auction site: This facility began in July 2000. It makes auction facilities available to farmers and villagers for land, agricultural machinery, equipment, and other durable commodities. One can put one's commodity on sale for a charge of Rs. 25/- for three months. The list of salable commodities can be browsed for Rs. 10/-.
6. Transparency in government: Updated information regarding beneficiaries of social security pension, beneficiaries of rural development schemes, information regarding government grants given to village committees, public distributions, data on families below the poverty line, etc. are all available on the Intranet, which makes the government functioning more transparent.

Other services offered at the kiosks include on-line matrimonial advertisements, information regarding government programs, a forum for school children to ask questions, ask an expert, e-mail (free for information on child labor, child marriage, illegal possession of land belonging to Scheduled Tribes, etc.). Some kiosks also have added photocopy machines, STD PCO, and horoscope services. In January 2000, the first month of operation, the kiosk network was accessed 1,200 times for a variety of services. That number reached nearly 9,000 in July. During the first 11 months, the 31 Gyandoot kiosks were used nearly 55,000 times.

Twice each day, the person managing the server prints the complaints, applications, and e-mails that have been received and sends them to the appropriate authority. The collector responds to certain queries and complaints. If a complaint cannot be addressed, a reply is forwarded to the kiosk manager. The action necessary to address the problem in the field is expected to be taken within 7-10 days. A reply is received at the server room, which is forwarded to the kiosk manager. The district is in the process of putting up a LAN connecting major departments (health, education, tribal development, revenue, food, agriculture, public health engineering, District Council and District Magistrate) to the Gyandoot server. This will eliminate the manual handling of papers.

Implementation Challenges

In the initial phase, there were reliability problems with the dial up connection. Most of the local rural telephone exchanges (LRTE) did not operate with optical fiber cable. Now the telecommunications department has upgraded the connections of all LRTEs to which Gyandoot kiosks are connected. Poor or no-connectivity reduces the economic viability of the kiosk and decreases the motivation level of the kiosk manager to be partner in the project. Telephones have not reached many parts of the hinterland, and expansion of the project to these locales may require other technologies such as wireless.

Senior politicians have been convinced of the merits of the Gyandoot Project through demonstration of the facilities provided. The Member of Parliament from the district allocated 25% of the developmental funds (Rs 20 million) at his disposal for an e-education project in the district. However, small-time politicians and the lower level bureaucracy have attempted to scuttle the program, as they perceive a loss of power when the delivery system bypasses them. The success of the project depends on the motivation of the kiosk manager, which has been mantained at a high level through regular contact/training.

Although complaint filing has been structured through a menu, numerous complaints are sent using the e-mail facility in local languages, which make them difficult or impossible to address.

To enhance the economic viability of kiosks, they are being given licenses to vend government judicial stamps, and delegated powers to write petitions. In addition, a public awareness campaign has been launched in the district to promote the kiosks. From the funds available with Gyandoot, two scholarships of Rs. 1,000/- each will be awarded each month for 5 years. Only those students of the district who motivate 10 or more villagers to use Gyandoot facilities during a specified time window will be eligible. School students of the senior class are being taken to the nearest kiosk on study tours. Gyandoot Computer Clubs are being established in major high schools and higher secondary schools of the district. Special gramsabhas (meeting of all villagers) also have been initiated to discuss Gyandoot and its services. Incentives in the form of cash awards (Rs 2,000-5,000) are being offered twice a year to three best performing kiosks, with certificate of appreciation given to the head of the village committee.

Benefits and Costs

The entire expenditure for the Gyandoot network has been borne by Panchayats and the community with no expenditure burden for the state or national government. The network has been set up at a total cost of Rs. 2.5 million (1 US$= roughly 50 rupees). The average cost incurred by the village committee and the community in establishing a single kiosk was Rs. 75,000.

The funds for the Gyandoot network have come from existing untied funds available to the village committee, private investment, annual State Finance Commission share of revenues, and the National Social Aid Programme allotment available to the District Council. The district level co-ordination committee of bankers has approved a loan scheme for setting of kiosks under the Government of India self-employment scheme. Three loans have already been sanctioned.

Each kiosk has a computer, modem, a printer, UPS (4-hour rating), furniture and stationary. The first 20 kiosks established by the village Panchayat have been turned over to a manager/owner of the kiosk after executing an initial agreement for one year. The village Panchayat maintains the building and the fixtures while the manager is responsible for all the operational expenses and revenue collection. The manager does not receive any salary. He pays 10% of income as commission to the District Council for maintaining the net. For the 11 centres started as private enterprise, the owner pays $100 as a license fee for one year to district council.

Each kiosk was expected to earn a gross income of Rs. 4,000 per month (50% from Gyandoot services, 25% from training, and the remainder from job work like typing). The operational costs are Rs 1,000 per month. Net income of Rs 3,000 must cover investments and provide a profit to the entrepreneur. In practice, the gross income has ranged between Rs. 1,000-5,000 per month; depending upon the skill and zeal of the manager.

Agricultural produce rates, land records and grievance services are the most popular features of the kiosks, accounting for 95% of the usage. A few examples can underscore the benefits of the kiosks to the rural population:

1. A complaint costing Rs. 10 brought drinking water to a tribal hamlet of 39 households: The villagers' previous complaint to local authorities had not yielded results for six months. To the surprise of the villagers, their complaint filed through the kiosk brought a hand pump mechanic to the hamlet within two days, and he repaired the hand pump within three hours.
2. A cow for 3,000 rupees: Kalsingh, a milk farmer wanted to sell his cow. He registered with the auction facility of Gyandoot (which enables trading of commodities like milch animals, cultivable land, tractors, agricultural tools etc.). He received four trade enquiries and finally sold his cow to the highest bidder for $ 65.
3. 256 milch animals vaccinated in one day: Upon receiving an e-mail from a kiosk that an epidemic had broken out amongst the milch cattle of the village Kot Bhidota, a veterinary rescue team was despatched the same day. The disease haemorrhage septicaemia was detected; the team promptly started curative treatment and vaccinated the rest of the animals against the disease. They also conducted a search in neighbouring villages for signs of the disease and carried out preventive vaccinations. No deaths were reported.
4. Access to market rates leads to better deals: Farmers in Bagadi village were quoted a rate of Rs. 300 per quintal from local traders for their potato crop. The kiosk was used to get the prevailing market rate in a town 100 miles away, which paid 100 rupees more. Consequently, their potato produce was sold in the distant town. The prices paid to farmers have increased approximately 3-5%, keeping about Rs. 200 million from the pockets of middlemen and traders.
5. Greater computer literacy: There has been increased awareness about computers and IT in rural areas. New private computer training institutions have opened and enrolment in these institutions has increased by 60%. Around 120 rural youths are getting trained in the Soochanalayas in the remote areas. Gyandoot also has affected political decision making in resource allocation. The Member of Parliament has allocated Rs 25,00,000 to set up information kiosks in 30 schools to develop a new model of e-education. And after recognising the increased awareness about computers and IT in the district, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has opened a study centre for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on computer applications in its distance education programme. The Government of Madhya Pradesh instituted an annual Gyandoot cash award of Rs. 2,00,000 for the project that best takes IT to the state's poor.

Key Lessons

The Gyandoot system helps in filing complaints not just because a communication system has been installed, but due to improvements at the back end that have made district offices more responsive. The first individual to receive the complaint is a private functionary with an incentive to forward it through the system. However, if the kiosk manager were to collect all petitions in a week and travel to the district, could the same responsiveness be achieved? For information about commodity prices would radio, which has the largest reach in rural areas, be an effective alternative means? The question concerns delivery of local content. Regulations have prevented this from happening through private sector, as the government has guarded against losing control over a powerful media. Some fundamental issues need to be resolved before large-scale investments are made to create more kiosks. These relate to the mix of technologies that can be used and the types of services that truly can be enhanced through the Internet.

The awards that the Gyandoot project has received are one sign of its success. But how can the success of such experiments be measured? Will the scheme be viable in the long run? (Currently only a few kiosks are viable.) District administrators are busy people; the collector chairs 60-70 committees. How much energy should be put into technology-based systems? What kind of priority should such projects get in the overall developmental plans of the district? As the district's chief executive officer noted in an email to the author: "How can one talk about computers when the district is facing severe drought!" There are no simple answers. Perhaps a feedback (focus group discussion with users and non users by an external agency) from the people themselves is the best way to assign priority to such projects. Click here to read an Indian newspaper report on the Gyandoot project that provides some useful insight into these issues.

Case study author: Subhash Bhatnagar and Nitesh Vyas
For further information: Please contact Dr. Rajesh Rajora, Collector, district Dhar, MP 454 001 email: rajeshrajora@hotmail.com or rajeshrajora@rediffmail.com; and Nitesh Vyas, chief executive officer, district council, Dhar, Tel: 07292-34709, email: niteshvyas@rediffmail.com.
Date submitted: January 8, 2001