A Critical Study on Role of Gyandoot Intranet Project in E-governance in Madhya Pradesh
Dr. Umesh Arya
Twenty first century would be widely acclaimed as the era of Information Technology for India and most of the developing world. This was the time when the Information and Communication Technologies started making inroads into the hitherto unreached countries and regions in a big way. This “third wave”, according to Alvin Toffler, started sweeping the whole world in which India was also an active partner. Toffler analyzed that every society passes through three stages or “waves”. First wave is agriculture, second one being “industrial wave” and the last one is “information wave”. The governments, who are considered relatively slow to adoption of technology, sensed the opportunity to serve its citizens through electronic means. Moreover, the bug of technology has bitten polity and electorate also. A few Prime Ministers such as Thailand’s Thaksin, came to power by claiming to provide an answer to their country’s digital divide.
E-governance is defined as the application of electronic means in
(1) the interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well as
(2) in internal government operations to simplify and improve democratic, government and business aspects of governance (Backus, 2001)1.
The informatics department of Government of India mentions that e-governance is broadly defined as an “application of Information technology to the functioning of the Government “. It could be G2G (govt. to govt.), G2C (govt. to customer), G2B (govt. to business) etc.
The modern nations could only be governed by modern technologies. Manueal Castells2 states, “It is increasingly impossible for organizations – be they large corporations or small businesses – to survive if they are not part of a network”. UN global e-government Survey 20043 mentions that ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) cut across all sectors to bring greater efficiency and opportunities to people. ICTs can fasten the service delivery mechanism in government citizen interface as it does in case of computer-mediated communication. It ensures a direct link between citizens and higher ups in government hierarchy thus bypassing all communication barriers which ensures an unadulterated response free from the biases of information gatekeepers. E-governance provides a wider opportunity for public servants to interact directly with the public in the process of receiving feedback from citizens and responding to their queries and complaints through electronic means (Haque, 2005).4 Good governance is one of the key elements for a country’s growth. The Indian Government also plans to leverage the power of Internet to further social objectives such as promoting e-governance by launching state wide area networks (Maran 2004)5. The government of India announced its National E-governance action plan (2003-07)6 under the aegis of ministry of IT to promote intra departmental, inter departmental and citizen centric e-governance. It has identified 22 mission mode projects including land records and gram panchayats and it intends to establish 1 lac CSC (common services centers) covering entire India.
The present study is intended to measure the effectiveness of ICTs in rural settings. The study will explore the communication aspect in e-governance projects and will enable greater feedback to govt. and development agencies for formulation of enabling strategies. The study is undertaken with the objectives to -
1. Explore the role of Gyandoot intranet project in making the target audience empowered.
2. Analyze the Gyandoot intranet project’s role in enhancement of socio-cultural value system in the area.
3. Find out the potentiality of IT for fulfillment of target audience’s felt needs, work efficiency, enhancement of employment opportunities and economic activity.
4. Do SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the Gyandoot intranet project.
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the IT as a tool of public relations vis a vis public grievances redressal mechanism of district administration.
Theoretical framework of the study is mainly based on Whyte (1999)7 which says that telecenter evaluation should be based on dimensions like, services offered, finances, usage and users of services and perception of benefit by the user. Community informatics framework of Loader, Hague and Eagle (2000)8 has also been adopted. In their opinion, the key element of CI is the ability to build community capacity through connection to electronic tools. CI must be an approach based on the empowerment of individuals in their social networks, it stresses that technologies should be embedded within existing cultural and social relations”.
Operational definitions have been formulated the researcher and standardised by the experts for all terms in objectives e.g. empowerment, need, efficiency, potentiality, grievances etc. The study has some limitations in terms of fulfilment of objectives restricted to the standardisation of operational definition by the experts, possible biased responses of rural people due to caste, religion, income, gender and possibility of certain variables being left out etc.
On January 1, 2000 in Dhar district of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, a unique low cost and self-sustainable e-governance project named Gyandoot (Messenger of Knowledge) was launched with 21 telecenters (soochnalayas) situated in different gram panchayats of 5 blocks of the district. The telecenters were connected through dial up access to the central server placed at the office of Zila Panchayat at District Collectorate. Gradually, Gyandoot spread to all 13 blocks. Gyandoot was an innovative, unique and creative e-governance idea to deliver the citizens’ services from the computers perhaps never tried before in India. Various authors have done studies relevant to the aforesaid objectives.
According to Jafri et al (2002)9, Gyandoot has served as a medium of empowerment by making a direct access to the administration in the tribal dominated area of Dhar where even the necessities of life are not available. Though the indictors of empowerment have not been mentioned. Sachin Rao (2003)10 found that middlemen have been eliminated and farmers get better price of their produce. Canning and Pedroni (1999)11 reported that telecommunications access contributes positively and significantly to economic growth. Evidences from Botswana and Zimbabwe show that areas lacking telephone access see significantly less entrepreneurial activity than those with access (Kenny 2001)12. Harinaraian Vivek (2004)13 observed that RASI (Rural Access of Services through Internet) resulted in increased efficiency and less paperwork, betterment of economic lives of rural people, lifestyle and standard of living. A similar study by Kumari (2004)14 indicates that 70% of the customers using online payment of bills facility expressed satisfaction at “one stop shop” service, 25% are highly satisfied for all the services. Singhal, Roger (1990)15 reported that in an evaluation survey of the 74 telephones in Kittur village of Karnataka in 1986, the benefits found were - savings in time and money, higher prices for agricultural products, increased sales of farm products, quicker medical attentions, increased social interaction with friends and relatives, better law and order situation and faster information and news flows. Lawlor, Sandel and Peterson (2001)16 revealed Tarahaat’s social impact in terms of more avenues of computer education for girls and women, increased self-confidence among rural children leading to entrepreneurial efforts and better crop price due to readily available mandi rates. Vijayaditya (2002)17 reported that the Warana project has been successful in generating employment opportunities for the local population in Maharashtra. Jafri et. al (2002)9 stated that Gyandoot has provided the rural youth with an opportunity for self-employment and helped in enhancing their entrepreneurial skills. SLOT (strengths, limitations, opportunities and threats) analysis by Jafri et al (2002)9 revealed the strengths in the form of convergence of e-commerce, e-education and e-governance, availability of govt. information at suitable rates, limitations as low literacy level among villager, frequent power cuts etc, opportunities as link of pancyayats with block and district headquarters etc, threats as change in administrative set up and problem of sustainability in the long run. Jafri et al (2002)9 opined that quality of service of complaint redressal is good and people are satisfied that grievances are redressed with in seven days if they fall in the complaint module. However, the time can still be reduced. Bhatnagar (2002)18 observed that 6000 complaints were filed within a year highlighting the inefficiency of various departments. Singh and Sharma (2004)19 outlined that the project is mainly used for redressal of complaints and grievances.
Case study methodology has been adopted for this study. A single, particular project is taken for study as a case and it is investigated threadbare on various parameters.
Sampling
The study employed three different questionnaires for citizens, soochaks and district administration along with a detailed item analysis format for public grievances. Hence, a sample of 50 citizen respondents was chosen. Firstly, random sampling method was adopted in selecting four blocks out of ten where the soochnalayas (telecenters) were situated. The blocks selected were Nalchha, Tirla, Dhar central and Sardarpur. Thirteen operating telecenters were listed operating under these blocks out of the total 28 telecenters running in the entire district. Secondly, under quota sampling method, 4 respondents were allotted to each telecenter (except Dehri sarai, where only 2 respondents were interviewed) and the citizen respondents were interviewed. Incidentally, more than 50% of the total 28 operational telecenters in 10 blocks are present in these four randomly selected blocks. On the face of it, sample of 50 may seem inadequate but considering the extensive range of questions and relative homogeneity of the sample found during the pilot study, it was considered enough to fulfill the objectives. For fulfilling other objectives (except Q. No.5), 13 soochaks of telecenters under study and 10 district officials of Gyandoot Samiti were chosen as sample. For fulfilling the objective of public grievances, every application of complaint was taken as sample, which totaled 337 complaints.
The first objective of the study was to measure the empowerment of target audience by Gyandoot. It is highly difficult to define empowerment in view of various definitions, indicators and parameters prevalent in social science research. The definition adopted by the researcher is “Empowerment refers to increasing the political, social or economic strength of individuals or groups. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.” Hypothesis developed was “Gyandoot has led to the target audience’s economic and social empowerment along with development of confidence in their capacities”. Indicators were developed by studying the World Bank report and a document from www.solidarycenter.org Since empowerment could only be measured by pre and after effects of Gyandoot so data was gathered through pre tested interview schedule, non participatory observation and informal discussion with soochaks (manager of telecenter) and citizens. Simple percentage analysis method was used to measure the data in descriptive form.
The second objective was to analyze the Gyandoot intranet project’s role in enhancement of socio-cultural value system in the area. The researcher found no scale, index etc. from the available literature in social science related to this objective so that enhancement effect could be measured. Quantifying every possible variable associated with this objective would have been a confusing and nearly impossible task. Hence indicators were developed by consulting world value survey, discussions with social scientists, project staff, works of (Dressler, Willis, William, 1969)18. A mini objective of enhancement of economic activity was merged in the next objective, as basic nature of this concept was identical to the objective no. 3. The data was gathered by using pre tested interview schedule, non participatory observation and informal discussions with soochaks, citizens and project staff. Data was analysed by statistical software SPSS for percentage analysis.
The third objective was to find out the potentiality of IT for fulfillment of target audience’s felt needs, work efficiency and enhancement of employment opportunities. The researcher stressed on the role of Gyandoot in delivering the listed govt. services on the parameter of satisfaction, convenience, cost, days, benefit, preference and bribe pre and post Gyandoot. The fresh, potential needs were assessed while short-listing the services provided by other e-governance projects in India so that more updated services could be found for the scaling of the project. Pre tested interview schedule (different for citizens and soochaks) non- participatory observation and informal discussions with citizens, soochaks and Gyandoot staff were employed to collect the data and percentage analysis method was adopted to arrive at the result.
The fourth objective was to do SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the Gyandoot intranet project. It is often called WOTS (weakness first) and widely used by the management experts to deal with an organization’s external and internal environment. These factors were grouped under categories of S, W, O and T and randomly presented to the respondents to mark them as S, W, O or T. The definitions of all these four terms were clearly written before the statements in order to help them. SWOT analysis through survey was planned in consultation with the management experts through the questionnaire (in English for officials and in Hindi for soochaks), informal discussions with citizens, project staff and soochaks and through non participatory observation. Frequency distribution method was used to analyze the data.
The fifth objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of the IT as a tool of public relations vis a vis public grievances redressal mechanism of district administration. Goodwill generation and maintenance is an important aspect of PR. The foremost objective in any public relations programme, therefore, is to improve existing channels of communication and to establish two-way flow of information. The “public grievances and complaints” exclusively deals with sending the grievances through Gyandoot and the govt.’s action thereafter. A total of 337 complaint items were made available to the researcher by the project staff. It was decided to do a census study in the form of quantitative content analysis of the complaints by forming various variables (complaint type, date, month, year, days taken for reply, reply given or not, action taken and name of telecenter). The data was analyzed by percentage analysis of item numbers along with mean, mode and cross tabulations of complaints versus all other variables and action vs. other variables in order to arrive at the full treatment meted out to the grievances.
Majority of the respondents were above poverty line, having 10th to 12th education. They were self employed having Rs 25000 annual income, average land 13 bighas, Hindi speaking and writing enabled, soochaks dependent for Gyandoot services but they possess at least one phone in every 1.4 kms from their homes. The soochaks had good hardware. Ninety four percent (94%) respondents said that IT did not help them reduce indebtedness whereas 46% said that it helped in a better way in promoting a desire among them to migrate to cities, 24% believed that it did not help them in doing so. Total 76% respondents felt that Gyandoot provided better help in formation of desire to earn money from computer related jobs.
Besides, 94% and 96% felt that Gyandoot provided great help to avail the services at reduced cost and saving money respectively. Almost all respondents (98%) believed that Gyandoot failed to help them in securing better price of crop and cattle, 90% said it did not help them in getting loan facility. Enhancement of awareness regarding surrounding was rated as a big help as answered by 94% of respondents. Overall, 84% felt that they got a lot of help in realizing their right of information, 60% answered good help in refusing bribe to govt. Most of the respondents (92%) gave credit to IT for development of a desire to learn and gather more skills for upliftment and 86% said that Gyandoot’s help was significant in their ability to learn computers. The respondents felt increased faith in the importance of computers, science and education 88%, 90% and 92% respectively. Thus, IT can be used to spread and reinforce the technological awareness. Interestingly, 56%, 56% and 66%respondents told that Gyandoot has helped them in a big way in enhancing communal harmony, brotherhood and trust respectively. Ninety four (94%) believed that Gyandoot changed their way of thinking on some particular issues. This finding is supportive of the media effects of IT. Gyandoot provided benefit to all strata of society irrespective of caste, income, status, literacy etc. as told by 94% people. A very heartening finding was that 74% respondents believed that Gyandoot has been successful in removing the malady of female illiteracy and more people were considering education for girl child in the computer age. All respondents (100%) cited no influence of Gyandoot on the cultural practices and rituals like manner of worship, child birth ritual, folk songs and dances. People’s belief in govt. increased as 88% respondents answered in affirmative and they admitted that Gyandoot has tremendously increased their faith in govt. On the parameter of convenience relating to land records (khasra), govt. forms, exam results, e-education, domicile certificates and caste certificates, 100% respondents cited convenience for these services. Govt. information was convenient for 88% respondents and for grievances, it was 78%. E-news (employment news) provided convenience to 77% respondents. Mandi rates information was not at all convenient to get as reported by 100% respondents. People benefited from exam results in a big way (100%). In addition, 69% respondents told big benefit and 28% told medium benefit in case of land records because Gyandoot provides only a copy of land records and not tracer map (which is required to avail the increased limit of loan). Tracer map is given by Patwari where the vicious circle of corruption starts again. Mandi information proved to be a laggard in every aspect. Although the days of information remained the same but surprisingly, the cost factor was enhanced by 8.5 rupees. Gyandoot delivers previous day’s mandi rates in 10 rupees whereas current rates were only one phone call away. Self-employment and credit facility needs were rated very important and its benefits could be significant as told by 100% soochaks. Buying and selling along with agriculture need was also deemed to be of great importance by 46% soochaks with 46% believing its benefit as significant. Reliability, time, cost and overall benefit were rated as excellent for board exam results, below poverty line list (BPL), govt. forms and rural Hindi mail. Optimism in ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) turned out to be significant one as felt by 88% respondents and 94% said that ITES’s scope has increased from Gyandoot. Regarding people’s belief in the information provided by Gyandoot, 58% said that they would believe it subject to the soochak’s endorsement, only 42% respondents, who comprised mainly educated youth, said that they would believe on their own and will not need soochak’s endorsement. It is clear that intermediation in information delivery systems is here to stay, no matter what kind of direct communication channels are provided to the target audience. Direct access to the administration and cost saving were rated as biggest strengths, frequent power cuts and poor connectivity along with bureaucratic mindset of the administration etc were considered weaknesses, scope of employment and linking Gyandoot with other national databases were hailed as opportunities and corruption, villagers’ traditional mindset were rated as biggest threats for the project.
Questions and answers accounted for biggest number (31%) followed by complaints of public facilities like water, aanganwadi, certificates etc. Complaints of officials (10%) and financial matters (9%) came next. It was followed by land related complaints (5%), govt. schemes, medical problems and secret information passing each having 4% shares. School related and “others” accounted for 3% each. As expected, 33% complaints were regarding govt. officials, 22% each for panchayat secretary and other panchayat members, 8% each for sarpanch, soochak, rest 6% regarding excesses and atrocities on weaker sections of the society. It shows that people are mostly dissatisfied with the govt. officials. There lies the potential of e-governance. ‘Sawali Ram se puchhiye’ (ask question from experts) subcategory was most popular with 38% questions; the administration got 25% share; agriculture related questions were 19%; questions & suggestions regarding employment were 14% on various problems and issues. The “secret information passing” category included complaints against encroachment of land complaints (46%) against neighbours, sarpanch, panchayat officials and relatives, against tree felling (23%), child marriages (15%) and others (15%). This category provided chance to whistleblowers or aware citizens to pass on the information without being identified. In this way, the administration was able to stop three child marriages. Gyandoot received maximum number (46%) of complaints during its first year (2000) of operation. It dropped to 36% in 2001 and miserably low (0.3%) in 2002. However, the volume again picked up to 6% in 2003 and 2004. Gyandoot received 2.1% complaints in 2005. Eighty percent of the complaints received were replied. Around one-fourth i.e. 23.2% complaints were answered the very next day and 8.8% complaints were answered after 6 days. Forty-seven percent (47%) complaints received “done” answer. All the complaints of mid day meal scheme in schools were found wrong. It shows the magnitude to which technology was misused. Teachers were appointed in 75% of complaints against lack of teachers in schools. Out of total 17 land related complaints, 50% encroachment cases were solved and the researcher did not find record of rest 50%. In addition, 38% land complaints and 14% land dispute complaints were solved. One child marriage was stopped and another one was referred to concerned official. It was quite relieving to know that 270 complaints (80%) were replied and requisite action was taken.
A 10 Cs characteristic model is proposed consisting of convenience, context, convergence, converse, conviction, control, continuous, content, coordination and completeness as its peripheral members with e-governance in the center.
1. Convenience– E‑governance project lays stress more on actual convenience and not on the perceived one. It should really mean something for the citizens. E.g. exam results
2. Completeness‑ Services are delivered in a complete manner and entirety not requiring ifs and buts.
3. Coordination – Coordination between different stakeholders can greatly maximize the benefits.
4. Content – Relevant not superfluous content makes the difference to the citizens’ lives.
5. Continuous – E‑governance is a continuous process undeterred by socio‑economic, political, cultural and infrastructural factors.
6. Control – Less control and more facilitation has to be there in order to ensure timely action and fixing the responsibility.
7. Conviction – E‑governance must portray and develop strongly held belief in its effectiveness.
8. Convergence – It has to be an amalgamation of different technologies, not computer alone, to achieve the goal.
9. Converse – E‑governance must generate dialogue and debate among citizens, media circles, polity, policy‑makers and academia.
10. Context – E‑governance services must fit in the local circumstances peculiar to a particular area.
Conclusions –
The broad objective of the study was to test the effectiveness of IT in rural setting. Gyandoot intranet project was chosen for this case study. The study arrived at the following conclusions:
1. Hardly any woman was present in the kiosks during the researcher’s visit and only one female respondent could be available. It may be due to of lack of woman specific programme in Gyandoot or due to restriction of woman’s role to the household chores leaving these things for the male members of the society. Women did not turn up even for getting their board exam results and this work was delegated to the members in their family.
2. Most of the respondents (49) were above poverty line and only one was below poverty line. Education wise, people in the literacy bracket of 10‑12 were the maximum users (18) and the postgraduates were the second biggest users. There is a definite relationship between education and ICT usage. Only two illiterate respondents were there in the sample. The unemployed people did not use Gyandoot for any purpose. It points out that even in the rural setting, people require at least a basic level of education, language proficiency, income and employment. Media usage of most of the respondents was quite high which indicates more awareness and hence it translates into more ICT usage.
3. It is a fallacy that ICTs discourage intermediation. The findings tell that 80% users depend upon the soochaks for their routine work whereas literature and photographs available in Gyandoot’s promotional material show the group of people sitting around computer and using it themselves. This is simply not true. Besides, the soochaks do not allow anybody to operate the equipments. ICTs have increased intermediation in Gyandoot’s case as even literate persons had to turn towards soochaks for their work. Roughly half of the respondents are irregular users.
4. ICTs only facilitate and ensure the communication. It depends upon the officials’ commitment and dutifulness to ensure minimum public hardship which can be done even in the ICT’s absence. However, process re‑engineering is the need of the hour to ensure minimum channels and fast delivery of services.
5. The study area has a good facility of telephones, schools and newspapers available at very small distance whereas district headquarters is 63 kms away. It shows the potential of e‑governance in rural areas. Mobile signals are available in interior areas. Electricity is a big problem, which is available for 5 hrs during night and 5.5 hrs in the daytime.
6. The soochaks have a fairly good variety of hardware with electricity backup and internet facilities. Most of this has been used to provide non‑Gyandoot services without which telecenters are not financially viable. It is clear that Gyandoot project has lost its track and people are mostly using it for other services. Further need assessment study should be conducted and changes should be made accordingly in Gyandoot manual of services.
7. On parameters of economic empowerment, Gyandoot was successful in the sense that it inspired people for earning, migrating to cities to earn more, informing them of vacancies, services at reduced cost and time. In social empowerment, it helped them in surrounding’s awareness, increased access to officials, feeling of increased status, realizing education’s need and right to information, along with development of people’s faith in their own capacities. It was successful in developing people’s confidence in their capacities like “can do” attitude and “gathering more skills”. However, in many areas like taking decisions, loan facilities and better price of produce Gyandoot did not help them. It clearly indicates that ICTs have beneficial side effects.
8. Gyandoot was not successful in influencing (neither positively nor negatively) the socio‑ cultural value system of the area as far as the question of customs, rituals, ceremonies and festivals is concerned. This shows the strong cultural fabric of the rural community. However, Gyandoot considerably enhanced the brotherhood, trust, faith in justice & individual dignity, interaction among community, importance of science & computers, new hope in life, etc. Similarly, prostitutes in Mysore were also of the opinion that smart cards issued to them increased the individual dignity. This was the Gyandoot’s intended objective.
9. Although Gyandoot provides eighteen services but copy of land records, exam results and public grievance services are used most frequently. Almost every respondent did use this service at least once since its inception. Some of the services have not been used even once at some of the telecenters visited. Mandi rates were the least used service, since Gyandoot team feeds previous day’s market rates. It has lost its sheen due to advent of mobile phone also. In the fast changing commodity market, now market rates are only a phone call away. Some villages like Kesur even started the commodity trade online but Gyandoot could not take this credit. Satisfaction and convenience level of services was rated quite high. Copy of land records, exam results and grievance redressal services drew a very high level of satisfaction, convenience and benefits. People for these three services were quite upbeat to prefer Gyandoot instead of traditional medium. In some cases e.g. mandi rates and employment news and vacancies, traditional system was preferred over Gyandoot. E‑education has also done some help to the students who have been employed by telecenters and other computer institutes. Need‑assessment of people needs a fresh look, as most of the services have been outdated and sparingly used.
10. Gyandoot contributed to the increased accountability of the officials. Gyandoot contributed to increase in corruption in some services and added one more channel of getting information like land records. The biggest benefit people drew out of Gyandoot is the saving of money and time. Timely disposal of cases was assured initially due to the novel idea and energetic district collector who personally supervised all information flow and timely follow‑up. But later on, bureaucratic procedures took its toll. Almost everybody praised Gyandoot’s initial years.
11. Gyandoot reduced the number of days and cost a work used to take. In all the cases, the process was re‑engineered and simplified which led to saving in indirect cost of wage loss, time, opportunity cost, travel, bribe paid, boarding & lodging etc. As far as copy of land record without tracer map (which increases the loan limit) is concerned, the bribe was reduced to zero from Rs 290. Mandi rates information proved costly and worthless post‑Gyandoot. Computer courses also enabled students to pursue the same at telecenters around them without visiting the city daily, which also led to considerable savings and convenience.
12. Soochaks being the barometer of the people’s expectations and needs of the area were questioned on expected needs, benefits and savings. It was revealed that the whole service manual of Gyandoot needs a complete overhaul. New services included information on agriculture, buying‑selling, self‑employment, loan and credit facility, etc. Villagers outrightly rejected entertainment need. Soochaks opined that villagers were not interested in the flashy hardware and publicity; they were interested to know how computers could help them in daily life. It indicates more rational attitude towards technology. It also explains desperate hope from technology. Aspiration level of people has risen definitely.
13. There was a remarkable similarity between the people’s perception and soochaks’ perception about services. Land records, board exam results, public grievances and govt. information emerged as clear winners vis a vis others. Soochaks used to take print outs of the Govt announcements and paste them in front of telecenters for viewing during offline hours. It would not be wrong to say that people view Gyandoot with a great hope even for non‑Gyandoot matters. Soochaks opinion as community’s opinion leader had been sought on almost all matters and this contributed to their emotional satisfaction. This is the reason why many soochaks do their full time business and run kiosks on part time basis by hiring helpers. Gyandoot has positively contributed to the entrepreneurship development and a good number of people started their own ICT ventures and few persons got the benefit of ITES like data entry, commodity terminal operation etc. Although the number cannot be called a significant one but at least some positive development has taken place which is mostly the result of “spin off” effect. People’s mindset has changed and they talk about opportunities in computers for their kids. However, Gyandoot failed to help the traditional artists and craftsmen.
14. Gyandoot has definitely contributed to socialization in the rural areas. Even informal discussions with people while traveling and sitting in roadside eating outlets evoked much response and a good number of people used to go at length while describing its various positive and negative impacts. E‑governance became a topic of discussion between people. Even the strong critics of Gyandoot admitted that at least people have some kind of benefit irrespective of many shortcomings. Everybody agreed that it should be continued but reformed. Gyandoot failed to follow the principle of “start small, scale fast” of e‑governance. It was immensely popular in the initial year (2000) as it was a novel experiment in India which caught fancy of everybody. Later on, the show was stolen by mobile phones, internet through mobiles, state govt.’s website offering many similar facilities etc. “Janmitra” was started by administration which offered railway reservation and various forms and formalities at a single window. Gyandoot could not evolve accordingly. As a result number of telecenters dwindled.
15. Public grievance redressal facility could be termed as “path breaking”. Maximum number of complaints were solved within a day’s time. Every complaint was given due priority and accountability during initial years but later on, people started using it to settle the personal score. Large number of frivolous and baseless complaints of every nature, whether related to Gyandoot’s manual or not, were sent indiscriminately forcing the administration to stop this facility for almost one year. People were so much eager for participating and communicating with the administration that maximum letters pertained to “questions & suggestions” category. Every possible kind of questions were asked. Mainly students used this facility of sending queries to the team of experts. One farmer sent the technique of getting high yield from Soyabean (prominent crop in the area) to the agricultural department which he learnt in America. He even started this experiment in his fields urging the department to motivate other farmers. People used Gyandoot for whistle‑ blowing and passing secret information, which could not be divulged due to community pressures. As a result, two child marriages were stopped. Many cases of compensation were solved online. However, the euphoria died in the later years (after 2001) and no record of complaint received was made available to the researcher. In 2006, Gyandoot hardly received any complaint. People started sending their complaints to www.mpsamadhan.org, the official website monitored by chief minister office to solve grievances.
16. Despite being successful initially, Gyandoot could not keep pace with the rising aspiration level of people. Its journey was marked by the tremendous usage of few services and no use of some services at all. Many things publicized in media like formation of e‑clubs in schools, disintermediation, Gyandoot scholarships were non‑existent during the researcher’s visit. The power point presentation by Gyandoot had more photographs of chief minister and celebrities inaugurating the events than people. People were of the opinion that excessive media publicity has done more harm to the project, which increased the expectations, and ultimate result was non‑fulfillment. The websites www.gyandoot.nic.in and www.dhar.nic.in have not been updated since their inception.
Recommendations –
The following recommendations may be considered by the concerned agencies:
1. Investment should first be made in electricity, roads and communication networks in the rural areas. If the basic infrastructure is in place, other things like e‑governance and e‑ participation will follow automatically.
2. Public grievance module should be developed into a full‑fledged entity and a separate department should be formed to entertain the complaints. Facility of lodging complaints must be provided through a toll free number.
3. Extensive media campaign with conventional and unconventional means should be carried out in the interior villages.
4. GIS (Global Information System) technique should be introduced and the tracer map should be delivered along with the copy of land records in order to get rid of corrupt patwaris.
5. Redundant services should be discontinued and new ones should be introduced after careful assessment of needs of people. Regular needs assessment surveys should be done.
6. Efforts should be made to provide services in their entirety. The tangible benefits should be taken into account instead of mere automization.
7. NGOs should be roped in to aware people with the need of technology and to serve as vertical and horizontal channel of communication and feedback.
8. Services of Gyandoot should be outsourced and third party involvement with district administration should be encouraged. Highly sensitive e‑governance projects like Transport Authority of Delhi have been outsourced with impeccable security.
9. Since the area has good mobile coverage, shifting from dial‑up system of telephones to mobile technology would be advisable for connecting to Gyandoot servers.
10. Mobile Gyandoot stations should be set up on vehicles, which can traverse the length and breadth of the area and provide the required services through laptops and mobile phones. The government must emphasize the penetration of telecommunication network in the interior areas.
11. Govt should continue to fund or subsidize the rural computerization in order to make the people reach a threshold level of technology usage.
12. Stress should be put on the actual usage and benefits rather than fad and fancies associated with computers.
13. Women should be provided incentives in the form of awards, scholarships, prizes, etc. to learn technology.
14. Simputers should be introduced in the student community of villages.
15. Frequent seminars, workshops, road shows and community meetings should be held regularly in order to develop and sustain the people’s belief in e‑governance and information technology.
16. Process re‑engineering should take place in the departments and number of channels should be reduced by making suitable amendments in the rules and regulations.
17. A MIS should be developed, maintained and updated relating to the project for prompt retrieval of information and fast decision‑making.
References
- Backus Michiel, “E‑governance in Developing Countries: Introduction and Examples”, Research report by IICD (International Institute of Communication and Development), 2001.
- “Creating a Development Dynamic: Final Report of the Digital Opportunity Initiative” available at http://www.opt‑init.org/framework/onepage/onepage.html accessed on 1 April 2004
- UN Global E‑Government Survey 2003” available at www.unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan016066.pdf
- Haque Shamshul M. (2005), “E‑governance in India: its impacts on relations among citizens, politicians and public servants”, available at http://ras.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/68/2/231.pdf accessed on 7 March 2005
- Maran Dayanidhi (2004), Union Minister for Communication and Broadcasting, interviewed by Dixit Sandeep “ Stage set for broadband revolution : Dayanidhi Maran”, The Hindu, 16 October 2004, Delhi edition, p.g.11
- National E‑governance Action Plan (2003‑07) available at http://www.mit.gov.in/actionplan/cmmp.asp accessed on 16 August 2004.
- Whyte, A. (1999), ‘Understanding the Role of Community Telecenters in Development – A Proposed Approach to Evaluation in Telecenter Evaluation – a Global Perspective”. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre).
- Loader et al (2000) quoted by Benjamin Peter, “Telecentres and Universal Capability :A study of the Telecentre Programme of the Universal Service Agency in South Africa, 1996 – 2000 “ (Ph. D. diss., Aalborg University, 2001), 64
- Jafri, Dongre, Tripathi, Aggrawal and Shrivastava (2002), “Information Communication Technologies and Governance: The Gyandoot Experiment in Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh, India” available at http://www.odi.org.uk/Livelihoodoptions/papers/WP160.pdf accessed on 25th May 2005
- Kuttayan Annamalai, Sachin Rao (2003), “What Works : ITC’s e‑choupal and Profitable Rural Transformation; Web‑based Information and Procurement tools for Indian Farmers” available at http://digitaldividend.org/pdf/echoupal_case.pdf accessed on 18 December 2004
- Canning D., P. Pedroni (1999), “Infrastructure and Long Run Economic Growth”, available at: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/cae/infrastructure‑7‑99.pdf accessed on 14 July 2005
- Kenny (2001) quoted by Connor O’ David, Caspary Georg, “Providing Low‑Cost Information Techology Access to Rural Communities in Developing Countries : What Works? What Pays? “available at http://www.developmentgateway.org/download/192492/Rural_ICT_Access.pdf Accessed on 1 April 2004
- Harinaraian Vivek (2004), “A Successful Rural Initiative in E‑governance” Gupta M P ed., Promise of E‑Governance : Operational Challenges (Tata McGraw‑Hill) 2004. 532
- Kumari Radha Ch. (2004), “Impact of E‑Seva in Andhra Pradesh: A Study” Gupta M. P. ed., Promise of E‑Governance : Operational Challenges (Tata McGraw‑Hill) 2004, 419‑426.
- Singhal Arvind, Roger Evernett (1990), “India’s Information and Communication Revolution” Sage India publications 1990, pp 182
- Lawlor,Sandel and Peterson (2001) quoted in “What Works : Tarahaat’s Portal for Rural India”, available at www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/tarahaat.pdf accessed on 13 September 2003
- Richard T. La Piere quoted by David et al, “Sociology”, Alfred A. Knopf Publishing 1969, 43
- Bhatnagar (2002) “Gyandoot project: ICT initiative in the district of Dhar, Madhya Pradesh” available at http://poverty2.forumone.com/files/14649_Gyandoot‑web.pdf empowerment study on Gyandoot by bhatnagar accessed on 15 May 2005
- Singh Jeet Amar, Sharma Kumar Mahinder (2004), “District Level E‑Governance Initiatives – A Case of Lokmitra in Himachal Pradesh” Gupta M. P. ed., Promise of E‑Governance : Operational Challenges (Tata McGraw‑Hill) 2004, 499‑508.
