Namaste

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Namaste
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Community Information Center (CIC) Empowering
Women through ICT in rural Orissa
(A Practical Experience from the Field)
Dillip Pattanaik IRMA-India

• WFEO/FMOI International Colloquium
• Empowering Women in Engineering Technology
• Tunis, Tunisia 6 8 June 2007

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IRMA-India

• IRMA-India is actively working on promotion,
  dissemination and application of Information and
  communication Technology (ICT) among the rural
  poor, tribal and isolated women communities for
  their access to information and strengthening
  their livelihood.

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Facts about India

• Area 3.29 million sq.kms
• 7th largest country
• Population 1.027 billion (2001)
• 2.4 per cent of worlds surface area
• 16.7 percent of worlds population
• 75 percent of population live in rural areas
• 6,60,000 villages
• Literacy rate 65 percent
• Woman literacy rate 51 percent
• 27 percent of rural population below poverty-line
  
• (less than 1 dollar per day)
• Percentage of Tribal (ST) population 8.08

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Orissa at a Glance

• Area 1,55,000 Sq. kms.
• Population 37 million (2001)
• No. of Districts 30
• No. of Blocks 314 (sub-district)
• No. of Gram Panchayats 6234 (local govt. unit)
• No. of villages 50,000
• Rural population 85 percent
• Poverty Rate 47 (63 percent in rural areas)

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Scenario of Tribals in Orissa

• Tribal population 8 million
• No. of Tribal Communities 62
• Percentage of Tribal Population 22
•  Literacy rate among tribals 22 Percent
  
• (10 percent for tribal women)

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• Tribal habitations only in highland, hilly and
  remote areas
• Close dependency on forest for shifting
  cultivation, collection of minor forest produce
  and hunting
• Tribal economy primarily subsistence oriented and
  based upon primitive agriculture, forestry
• Collection of Minor Forest Produce forms main
  livelihood source
• Poverty level among tribals is too high and
  inaccessibility is a major contributing factor of
  poverty

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• With support from Practical Action South
  Asia, IRMA-India has established 6 Community
  Information Center (CIC) at Chadeyapalli Gram
  Panchayat of Daspalla Block in Orissa State.

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CIC is an answer to
How can Information Communication
Technologies (ICTs) contribute towards
improving the lives of Rural Areas?
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Community Development through Information Centre
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Project Area

• District Nayagarh
• Block Daspalla
• Gram Panchayat Chadeyapalli
• Distance from Block Hqrs. 40 kms.
• Distance from District Hqrs. 80 kms
• Distance from State Hqrs. 160 kms

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Our Project Villages
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Benefiting Population

• No. of villages 47
• Households 5517
• Population 25044
• Percentage of illiterates 85.22
• Percentage of families below poverty line 90
• (less than 1 income per day)

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Gram Panchayat

• Population 2,000 to 10,000
• Cluster of villages
• Democratic local body with elected functionaries
• 33 seats reserved for women
• Reserved seats for marginalized community
• Mandate Plan and implement programmes for
  economic development and social justice

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Key Activities

• Partnership building and collaboration/
  cooperation from key stakeholders
• Social mobilization
• Community capacity building through various
  economic development trainings
• Management and operation of Community Information
  Centers (CICs)
• Content development and dissemination

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Key principles of CICs

• It is a people-centred programme based on
  community ownership
• It must take into account the local context and
  the information needs of the local people and
  provide useful demand-driven services. Although
  we may use a variety of technologies in gathering
  and reaching the information, the program is not
  meant to demonstrate the power of technology.
  Usefulness is more important than the use of
  latest technology.

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Community Information Center Focus

• Creation and updation of relevant content suiting
  local needs
• Information provided to be demand-driven
• Relevant to day to day life and work of rural
  communities
• Women and social excluded community groups to
  have priority focus

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Special attention towards

• Bridging the Digital Divide
• Knowledge Empowerment
• Women Empowerment
• Community Development
• Child Education
• Functional Literacy
• Transparency In Governance

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Services offered in CIC

• Agriculture
• HealthCare
• Education Self Development
• Animal Husbandry (veterinary)
• Law Order
• E-governance
• Meteorological Data
• Water resource

• Entertainment
• Small Scale Industry(arts and crafts)
• Rural Schemes
• Services
• E-business
• Travels and Transport
• Fisheries

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Agri-Experts Talk to Farmers on Video-Conferencing
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Health-Experts talk to Villagers on
Video-Conferencing
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Villagers Consulting Lady Doctor
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Rural Children create computer drawings for
greeting cards
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District Magistrate Talk to Villagers on
Video-Conferencing
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Community Information Center Design

• Empowering rural families with new knowledge and
  skills
• Focus to touch the poorest and unprivileged
  groups like women, disables and tribals
• Ownership by local communities / Gram Panchayat

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Management, Monitoring Evaluation

• Active association of local women communities and
  local organizations
• PRIs and local Gram Panchayat
• Self-help Groups and community based
  organizations
• Potential volunteers

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Convergence of other development programmes

• Health awareness campaign through street play
  by Commit to Partnership, a student based
  organization of University of Munich, Germany

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• Next Step

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• IRMA-India has entered into a partnership with
  ConnectKentucky, an USA based organization for
  establishing 26 more Community Information Centre
  covering 157 villages and a population of
  1,55,000 in Khallikote Block in Orissa State.

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DfID
IRMA-India has entered into a partnership
with DfID, UK for establishing 5 Community
Resource Centre for covering 29 villages in
Nuagaon Block of Nayagarh District with a
population of about22,000.
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Intel
Intel Corporation in India has donated us
last week 20 Laptop computers to use in our
centres and in other technology camps in the
project area. And also promised us to provide few
more in coming days for extensive use in our
community information centres.
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• Lets work together for full participation of
  women and girls of these isolated communities
  into this ICT process .
• Write us and support us dillip_at_irma-india.o
  rg
• Thanks so much for paying attention

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Thank You