IT project for social development to be extended

CHENNAI Aug. 1. A pilot project now being implemented in rural Madurai, to help villagers harness the power of the Internet for social development, wealth creation and job generation, will be extended to 10 more districts.

The Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project was started in the Melur taluk in Madurai over a year ago. It aimed at bridging the `digital divide' between rural and urban areas, establish rural connectivity, facilitate dissemination of information on all fronts of social development to the villagers, at a low cost.

With the involvement of the MIT Media Lab, US, the TeNet group, the IIT Madras, the Centre for International Development of the Harvard University and the I-Gyan Foundation, the SARI initiative has been successful in four-way interaction between the Government, an educational institution, corporates and a research group.

Recently, the Government issued orders stating that in view of the successful achievement of its objectives, the project would be extended to 10 more districts: Maduari, Cuddalore, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram, Theni, Tirunelveli, Salem, Nagapattinam, Erode and Tiruvallur.

It has also been decided that the `SARI' project would be re-named ``RASI'' (Rural Access to Services through Internet). Officials and NGOs involved in the project note that the ``success of the Melur experiment'' can be gauged by some of the recent instances. For example, a young woman from one of the 40 villages that are virtually connected by the SARI used a webcam in a local Internet kiosk to communicate with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University researchers to diagnose the cause of a white spot in lady's finger crop.

In another instance, a young woman alerted through the Internet, the district and State authorities, about a potential chickenpox outbreak in her area. The health officers were able to intervene on time and stop the spread of the disease. The Madurai-based Aravind Eye Hospital has been regularly using telemedicine to treat rural patients, who come to the Internet kiosks.

``From SARI (or now RASI), the concept of using IT to the masses and use it as a self-sustaining model to create wealth and jobs has been proven. It empowers the people with information, reduces their need to go and stand in queues at Collectorates or revenue offices, but ensures delivery of services faster in a more efficient way,'' says a senior official who has been involved in IT planning for the State Government. More than the technology used, the concept of enabling more people to access information and use it for social development is now a proven factor. It has also hastened the advent of the Internet PCO model.