The Hindu Business Line : One big leap!

Okay, this leap's for womankind. Women living below the poverty line in Kerala are using technology to earn their livelihood. No towering offices, no stock options, no hefty pay packets, they got logged on for just plain sustenance. Now that's truly crossing the divide.

BRAVING sweltering heat and rising humidity, a group of five women work on assembled desktops from a small room in the Municipal Building at Kaloor, Kochi. They are building a digital database of those below the poverty line (BPL) in Kerala, a list in which these very women will figure. No stock options, no hefty pay packets, and no backlash against their work anywhere, these women are happy to be the kind of IT entrepreneurs they are. Earning just about Rs 2,000 a month, that is. But they keep smiling and are proud to say that they have paid off three-fourth of their loan of about Rs 1.50 lakh.

Meet a new bunch of IT entrepreneurs from Kerala: the `Kudumbashree' IT units.

"We do data entry, DTP (desk top publishing) work and we also provide some computer training," says Nimmy, who runs one of the 61 Kudumbashree IT units functioning across Kerala. She is among the 600-odd women who decided to battle poverty and build a life by logging on to a computer. "We take home Rs 2,000 a month after paying towards the loan, electricity charges, rent and phone bills," she says, quick to point out that they also make investments in their `Techno World IT Centre.'

"We started with five computers, a laser printer and a scanner. Today, we have 10 machines, a dot-matrix printer and a new Malayalam software running on all PCs," says Shamla, Nimmy's friend.

The IT units under the Kudumbashree project of the Kerala Government prove that bridging the digital divide means eradicating poverty. What started as a pilot project in June 1999 has now spread across the State. Today, the 61 such IT units functioning in Kerala give direct employment to over 600 women, who otherwise had no means of livelihood.

"I would have never worked with computers but for this project," says Radhika who works with another unit in Ernakulam district. Her unit is bigger with 14 PCs and 10 members. This unit has managed to pay off its loan and now provides Rs 2,500 per month to its members.

The work is the same: data entry, DTP work and training.

The Kudumbashree project was conceived by the State to empower women, especially from the weaker sections of society. Neighbourhood Groups or NHGs were formed in each locality by bringing together 15 to 40 families. With the goal of eradicating poverty, local entrepreneurship was encouraged under the project. Entrepreneurial ideas were given to groups — varying from tender-coconut business to canteens to bag-making units.

Hitting on the idea

It was during one such exercise that the idea of setting up IT units came up quite accidentally, recalls Kabir, an official with the Kudumbashree project. And there were takers.

"We found that there were computer-literate people in the BPL families. And we decided to start IT units bringing such people together," Kabir says.

Most of those selected for setting up the IT units were graduates with some basic learning in computers. Once the teams of 10 members were ready, Kudumbashree project officials started training them. Initially, the unit members were asked to key in from newspapers in order to improve their keyboard skills. In the meantime, about 50 such units sprang up across the State. "With each unit having 10 computers or so, we could boast of 500 machines which can be run in three shifts. This gave us confidence to approach the State Government for data entry projects," he says.

The Kerala Government had also realised that it would have to make substantial investments if it were to set up a centralised unit for doing its massive data entry work.

When the Kudumbashree units together showed their strength of 500 machines, the Government was only too willing to give them work. The first project was data entry of voters' list in municipalities. Then came the Government's plan to digitise data pertaining to ration cards.

Kudumbashree units pitched for it, quoted the lowest rate and executed the work within the stipulated timeframe.

Till date, the units have executed much data entry work for the State Government.

"Most of the units have paid off their loans. We find only three among them to be weak, but they too are surviving," says Kabir. The Government offered a subsidy of Rs 1.25 lakh for the units. The rest of the money was mobilised through loans and some pooling in of resources by the members. For instance, in Nimmy's unit, each member brought in Rs 1,500 as her share. The units are set up as partnerships.

Going forward, Kudumbashree plans to network the IT units. Most of the centres are already connected through e-mail so that data entered into the computers can be sent immediately to the respective offices.

Computer hardware units have also come up that assemble computers and take up maintenance. The existing units will now buy computers and give their annual maintenance contract to these units, fuelling their growth.

New units have also come in association with the Kerala Government's IT@School project, running from varying schools in the State.

Meanwhile, Nimmy and Shamla have joined a new course that will teach them Java and C++. They hope to take up Web designing and small programming jobs once they master such skills.

"But we don't get time to attend the classes as our workload has increased and there's more work to do," they say, grinning. `Moving up the value chain' is something they can afford to ignore for now.

Picture by Shaju John

vipin@thehindu.co.in

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