The Hindu Business Line : Folk tales that make a difference

Technology is transforming our lives for the better, say villagers in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu. And among enthusiastic users is a 65-year-old illiterate grandmother.

Rural women from Kannivadi running the information centre. (Picture by the author)

APPROPRIATE technology was a popular term in rural development discussions during the 1980s. It meant that the use of appropriate low to medium technology interventions was better than using inappropriate hi-tech.

The term was part of the other jargon in the development vocabulary: `target group' and `beneficiaries'. Though never stated explicitly, in combination, this terminology created an `us' and `them' divide between the urban do-gooder and the rural recipient.

The fall in the price of personal computers, and its ability to handle innumerable applications had, in recent years, brought this hi-tech product available for rural development. However, the slip between the cup and the lip was the belief that this equipment could be handled only by young professionals trained in the urban-based institutions.

Working in the villages of Reddiarchatram taluk of Dindigul district in Tamil Nadu, two non-Governmental organisations - the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and Reddiarchatram Seed Growers Association (RSGA) - have disproved that computers are only for the young and educated urbanites.

At the literacy class in Pudupatti village, supported financially by the Commonwealth of Learning, Pazhaniammal is the most enthusiastic student. She states her age around 65 years, but looks older, which probably she is, since the concept of age is usually rather fuzzy for many of the older people in villages.

Pazhaniammal is a neo-literate. But she did not start her education writing on a slate but on a touch-screen based computer. Instead of recording her learning in a note book — like how all new students do — Pazhaniammal has created a CD for herself.

An illiterate till recently, she vowed to learn to read and write when she had taken a wrong bus and was dropped off miles away from home on a summer day. In her enthusiasm she not only learnt the language skills, but also computer skills that could be the envy of a younger urbanite.

"We have been modifying computers that are discarded by corporates and setting them up in the villages where we have our information centres and literacy activities," says Dr K. Balasubramanian, Director of the JRD Tata Ecotechnology Centre at MSSRF.

Using similar computers, the MSSRF-RSGA combine has been able to set up an information centre at Kannivadi village. The machines at the centre are used to train youngsters and children from the village on the use of computer programmes. The trainers: unemployed men and women from Kannivadi itself.

The Internet connection at the information centre is used to browse and download any information of significance. When this writer visited the centre, it was the season for examination results. Young boys and girls from Kannivadi and nearby villages were accessing their marks by paying a Rs 10 fee.

However, the Internet connection is not used only for downloading. The farmer-members of RSGA, assisted by MSSRF, have their own Web site at www.oddanchatrammarket.com, to which they upload the daily auction rates of vegetables and fruits at the market at Oddanchatram.

Being the largest market in the region, it draws produce grown on the Kodai hills and the plains around the hills. More than 1,000 tonnes of vegetables and fruits are transported from this market daily to the urban markets in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and even Maharashtra.

The portal lists the vegetables and fruits that are available in the market, the auction price of the various grades, and also the traders who have the stock. Thus, a wholesale dealer from Mumbai interested in buying drumstick can access the portal and know at what price the vegetable was traded the previous evening, the quantity in tonnes available in the market, and the traders who can be contacted to place an order. Even good ideas have problems, though. While in the early days of the portal the stock available with individual traders was listed, this practice was later stopped. Traders complained that they were being stalked by income-tax officials using this information.

In the larger picture, the traders do see benefit from the portal, since they have offered to pay a small fee for its upkeep, and also get involved with its running along with RSGA within a year when MSSRF would withdraw.

"We are hoping that new markets will get to know about our stock through the portal," says V. Arumugham, Secretary of the Oddanchatram Gandhi Market Association. "There have already been some telephonic enquiries from North India. We could not respond to them effectively due to language problems. Now we have got a person proficient in Hindi to answer such calls."

The farmer-members of RSGA are also happy with their gains. "We have been able to pick up knowledge about market behaviour," says R.T. Shanmughanathan, President of RSGA. "We also learnt about vegetable grading, so we can now work to grow better quality produce." In fact, there are others who are waiting to get onboard. Around 300 families in the Reddiarchatram taluk have been making and exporting curd chillies. According to M. Balakrishnan, the leader of the village group involved in this business, getting a reference to their product in the portal could mean business enquiries from new importers. At present all their exports is through one exporter. And this is not something that this group is very comfortable with.

According to Dr Balasubramanian, getting computers for all these rural development activities is not difficult. With high obsolescence rates and almost no resale value, there are many corporates who are willing to part with their old machines for the project. The value addition, however, is in developing the social capital in the village to use these machines. And through this small change driver, an entire series of development activities are triggered off.

"For us it is not just a portal but an instrument to study how different stakeholders respond to information", he observes.

Whether the farmers and traders have an interest in running it will be known when MSSRF withdraws. And if it succeeds, then it can certainly be a model for farmers and traders of other markets.

warrier@thehindu.co.in

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