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Working with the NASSCOM Foundation, HP is helping village residents in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu access important community services through IT.
The NASSCOM Foundation is the not-for-profit entity of NASSCOM, the National Association of Software and Services Companies, and represents the IT industry's commitment to using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to empower and transform the lives of the underprivileged. The Foundation's member companies, including HP, endeavor to use their knowledge and experience in ICT to help solve the needs of the larger community in India.
The NASSCOM Foundation's "Mission 2007" initiative is an ambitious social development project aimed at establishing up to 100,000 Village Knowledge Centers (VKC) across India. A Village Knowledge Center is a community resource center offering various services and skills programs including basic computer classes, e learning programs and information services, enabling villagers to access government and agency websites. The target date for establishing these VKCs is August 2007.
To-date four communities in Tamil Nadu have received HP technology to help establish VKCs. Tamil Nadu has a population of over 62 million. School participation among primary students is 93 per cent and overall literacy levels are at 73 per cent. The state is fast catching up with Bangalore (in the state of Karnataka - home to India's Silicon Valley) as an alternative location for technology companies in order to meet the increasing demand for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT services.
One of the four communities in Tamil Nadu to receive HP's help is Alambarakuppam. With 300 families, the village's main industry is fishing and small agricultural enterprises and the average wage of a fisherman is approximately USD$80 per month.
An interview with an Alambarakuppam village elder provided an insight into the vital role of a VKC and the importance of HP's contribution. The village elder said his vision for the center was to break the cycle of poverty in the village. Given Alambarakuppam is a fishing village it is vulnerable to geographic and economic variables and the village elder saw the VKC as a solution to accessing new information and exposing the youth of the village to new skills. He used the example of the tsunami where the VKC would have been a valuable resource. He recounted that NGOs and the government were distributing aid and resources to villages in the area and information regarding the amount of funds and resources available to communities was listed on government websites. However because his community did not have the technology they did not know these resources were available and could not access them.
The Village Knowledge Center concept will bring great value to a specific target group who could be considered the future of these communities. This target group is primarily the youth who come from the more empowered members within the community. These youth, aged between nine and 15, attend school, are literate and will adapt more easily to technology provided within the centers.
NASSCOM Foundation's Mission 2007 project highlights the successful partnership of corporate organisations and NGOs. Managing the day to day operations of the centers is the NGO, Student Partnerships Worldwide India (SPW), which brings together volunteers from overseas and locally to develop capacity building projects in rural communities. SPW's role in the VKC project is to conduct on the ground socialization including meeting with village leaders, interest groups and various stakeholders. In collaboration with the community, SPW identifies the physical structure to host the center and provides the internal infrastructure such as tables, chairs and connectivity. SPW also provides the staff and identifies the curriculum and resources to be uploaded to the servers.
International agencies such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have contributed curriculum, which will be enhanced to be available online for capacity building as well as healthcare information such as HIV/AIDS awareness programs.
In addition to HP's support, other corporations such as Microsoft have provided software and training and XANSA, a local Indian company, has provided resources and funds for teacher and volunteer training.
The NASSCOM Foundation's VKC project is vital to helping break the poverty cycle in rural India. The capacity for HP to assist these underprivileged communities access vital community resources, while successfully working in partnership with other corporates and NGOs makes this project extremely worthwhile and a valuable component of our CSR program.
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