( Excerpted from papers distributed in the round table meeting with potential national/local partners held at Gandhinagar, May 19-20, 1998. )

Introduction

The efficiency of, often inadequate, public services in remote areas, such as education and health care, could be greatly enhanced by the use of modern information and communication technologies. Access to computer networks would enable people to benefit from the rapidly growing wealth of online information and knowledge resources and to contribute to these resources.

Entrepreneurs in remote areas need market information, such as current prices and expected demand for their products and services, e.g. agriculture products, fish and seafood, handicrafts, natural resources, tourism and transport and to reach out with information about these products. Easy access to government information, such as records of property ownership and transactions, and information about taxes and subsidies, would help business to develop in rural areas. Good data communication facilities would enable city-based enterprises to establish virtual offices for tele-workers in remote areas. Community-owned networks, using computer mediated conferences and bulletin boards, provide powerful tools for generating and sustaining local business and social initiatives. All of this will contribute to reversing the current trend of urbanization, and to reducing pollution.

Computers and advanced telecommunication services for people in rural areas, who live the way their ancestors have for generations and often lack basic education, may appear inappropriate. However, for rural communities to compete in attractiveness with cities, they must have access to the same services at the same costs as those provided to the urban population. Arguably, rural communities need even better services to compensate for their geographical isolation.

Multipurpose Community Telecentres (MCT) : A Concept

The objective of the MCTs pilot projects proposed by the International Tele- communications Union (ITU) is to develop and test models for provision of access to modern information and communication services for the development of rural areas. MCTs and associated telecommunications access networks will be established in partnership with local, national and international stakeholders.

Telecentres, which employ Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are a relatively recent phenomena. The first ones were built in Denmark and Sweden in 1983-85. The idea has been taken up quite widely in Europe, notably in the UK where at the last count there were some 200 telecentres.

Services typically offered by telecentres include access to telephone and fax machines, typing, photocopiers, printing equipment, training in the basics of PCs, word processing, spreadsheets, desk-top publishing and e-mail and electronic networking.

Telecentres may be located in a range of facilities plus community centres, converted farm buildings, parts of school premises, additions to post offices or facilities built specifically for the purpose of a telecentre. Such facilities are called virtual village halls, tele-learning centres, and tele-cottages, among others. Telecentres in some countries, depending on location and demand, add applications such as tele-medicine, formal distance education and non-formal tele-training programmes in addition to access to equipment.

Telecentres in Rural Development

The services offered by telecentres form a part of the solution to problems which rural communities and partner organizations aim to solve. Through telecentres, communities can access accurate, timely information, which is a crucial ingredient for success of development efforts. Information can have an important multiplier effect on the effectiveness and efficiency with which resources are used.

Telecentres offer opportunities to :

• Reduce the isolation and marginalisation of rural communities;

• Facilitate dialogue between rural communities and those who influence their communities, such as government (at a number of levels), planners, development agencies, researchers, technical experts, educators, etc.;

• Encourage participation of rural communities in decision making which impacts their lives;

• Co-ordinate development efforts in local regions for increased efficiency and effectiveness;

• Share experience, knowledge and lesson learned with other rural communities to address issues with local contexts;

• Provide information, training resources and programmes when needed in a responsive, flexible manner;

• Facilitate ongoing development initiatives aimed at solving a variety of problems; and

• Improve communication among stakeholders, thus overcoming the physical and financial barriers that often prevent researchers, extension workers, farmers, and others from sharing knowledge and competence.

By providing the appropriate tools and support, telecentres make it possible for demand-driven information gathering and distribution to occur. The self-help nature of telecentres makes easier the task of conveying education and training to a target group traditionally hard to reach with educational messages, and can help to ensure that the information delivered to rural communities is information that is required by the recipients.

While demand-driven and responsive to local needs, telecentres can also play a role in education with a development purpose and the promotion of social goals such as AIDS education. Telecentres are a low-cost method of providing library services which can access timely, relevant information in national and world-wide electronic information banks.

Furthermore, and very importantly, telecentres facilitate the development of individuals capacities to participate as active producers of information rather than just passive receivers.

Proposed Pilot Project in Rajkot District

The pilot project involves establishment of 12 MCTs in rural areas of the Rajkot District of Gujarat. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) envisages to include this pilot project in the global Buenos Aires Action Plan Program No. 9 - Integrated Rural Development. The Buenos Aires Action Plan (BAPP) was adopted by the World Telecommunication Development Conference, Buenos Aires 1994 (WTDC-94). Through this and other pilot projects participating in this global programme, sustainable models for provision of access to advanced information and communication services, such as tele-education and tele-health care (tele-medicine) and the Internet, for rural population by means of MCTs will be developed, which could then be replicated at the national level.

Community Telecentre Services

The community telecentre will provide the following set of services :

• Tele-medicine for health care

• Tele-trading for selling agriculture produce

• Tele-administration for implementing the rural development programmes of the state government

• Tele-customer service for telephone bill collection and registration of new connections

• Tele-education and computer education

• Miscellaneous services : Fax, STD, PCO, photocopying, word processing

The Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Rural Housing and Rural Development, Gujarat will implement the project. Partnerships would also be sought from other Central Government Departments, International Organizations, NGOs and the private sector.