The Hindu Business Line : Community technology learning centres to impart IT skills

Microsoft and the Delhi-based Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals — a not-for-profit organisation that undertakes livelihood promotion activities for the rural community — have kicked off an innovative project that will see community technology learning centres (CTLCs) being set up at 350 villages to impart training in IT skills to the rural populace as a way of empowering them to earn a livelihood.

Technology Training

Being undertaken as part of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Programme, the company will provide software and partial financial help to implementing agency ISAP to take technology training to villages in the Parbhani, Aurangabad, Jalna, Sangli, Beed, Latur and Jalgaon villages among others over the next three years, Mr P.V. Thomas, Chairman, ISAP, told presspersons here.

ISAP trainers have already kicked off such training in 60 such centres where educated unemployed youth, women, marginalised farmers and children are already working with trainers from their own villages, who are demystifying the world of technology for them in return for a nominal fee of Rs 150. The participants in the three-month training course learn the basics of operating the computer and what it can do for them in the future. Some of these villages do not even have Internet connectivity yet, once it is connected, the villagers — who depend on agriculture for their livelihood — can leverage the computer for a gamut of information related to their world such as market price, weather conditions, best practices for growing various agriculture produce, Mr Thomas said.

Ambitious Project

The project itself is an ambitious one, which if successful, will ensure that an estimated 60,000 people from these villages will be IT literate in three years from now and take on the mantle of entrepreneurship, even operating computer kiosks, which villagers can use to get information relevant to them at a nominal cost.

Much of the success of the project and the speed with which it rolls out, will depend on the speed with which the villages get computers, say Mr Pradeep Lokhande, an entrepreneur who has worked towards getting used computers from cities at free of cost for village schools. The project needs at least 350 computers to begin with from donors with the condition being that they have to be at least Pentium 2 configuration, says Mr Lokhande, who has placed some 400 computers in schools till date.

Donating Computers

"The idea behind the project is that the grassroot citizen of this country should be able to leverage the e-governance that is being rolled out by the Government and use it to better his life and that can only happen if he is computer literate," adds Mr Lokhande

Corporate houses are already responding with Motorola and ICICI donating 40 computers. At the event to announce the project, the Baramati based Vidya Pratishthan's Institute of Information Technology Director, Dr Amol Goje, announced a donation of 25 computers and ISAP is hoping that individual donors also help out with more computers to speed up the process.

The total project cost is being estimated at Rs 4.5 crore excluding the cost of the computers — of which Microsoft is contributing Rs 1.5 crore — the syllabus for the course, and certification to participants at the end of their training.

More Stories on : IT Training | Rural Development | Maharashtra

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