VENGAD, Kannur, 29 March 2008 — Coconut tree climber, cook, plumber, milkman or driver — any service you want, it’s just a mouse click away in these cyber-savvy villages in the northern Kerala district.
Log on to http: //vengad.web4all.in, the website of Ente Gramam (My village), and click on the “labor bank,” you will find names and mobile numbers of casual labors engaged in 40-odd jobs who will be at your doorsteps the very next morning.
These villages are reaping the benefits of the information technology revolution slowly taking place in rural Kerala thanks to Akshaya — Bridging the Digital Divide project launched in Malappuram district five years back.
Within a year, the district became India’s first fully e-literate district where at least one member of a family had training in basic computer skills and each family has an e-mail ID. The Malappuram experience encouraged the state government to roll out the project throughout the state a year later.
Vengad is among the first panchayats to put its entire available workforce on Internet with the help of the district Akshaya Kendra. Rajeev, Shiju, Rajan, Babu, all are online waiting for your call.
The portal has solution for almost everything you require; even if you are running short of people for presenting Theyyam, the colorful folklore ritual of north Kerala. Domestic helps, gardeners, tree cutters, agricultural workers and even mobile repairers have all registered with the portal.
The portal in Malayalam is designed for nine villages in the district initially as part of the project aided by UNESCO. At present workers are available in all these panchayats at the click of a mouse.
“The project to create content in local language using free and open software for the local communities has proved a big hit and we are planning to spread the benefits of Internet in more areas,” Vengad Panchayat President C.K. Rama said.
The websites are currently running on a trial basis and it would soon be shifted to a new domain. “Only the domain name is going to change. There will be more services offered online,” C. Bhaskaran, assistant district coordinator of Akshaya, said.
“At the click of the mouse or through a phone call, the citizens of the district will be able to access all kinds of local information. Anything from the sale of a cow, job vacancies or even find brides and grooms,” he said.
The portals will also contain history of the local community, organizations, eminent personalities, places of interest, different services and schemes offered by the local self-government, agriculture, business, products, job vacancies, education and health, legal rights, local events, interactive forums and e-newsletters providing information on new trends in technology and innovations.
Contents are produced by community reporters or facilitators appointed in each of the panchayats under the active leadership of Akshaya entrepreneurs who run the Internet kiosks under the project.
Besides the Google’s ad program, these sites also accept local advertisements and offer web-based yellow pages and e-business at the local level to sustain itself. “Initially the project is being introduced at the district and blocks level selecting one panchayat each from the nine block panchayats. It will cover all the 81 panchayats in the next phase,” Bhaskaran said.
As part of Finding a Voice project, Ethnographic Action Research (EAR) methodology is being used to understand issues and information needs of the target communities. It is envisaged that research will be able to strengthen the community portal initiative and adapt it to a scalable model.
“Local citizens do not have access to a portal where they can easily explore appropriate jobs and sell their products. Kerala in general is yet not familiar with e-business and to make this new portal accessible and useful to the community, there will be sufficient amount of local content on an ongoing basis,” Bhaskaran said.
Kerala is expected to become India’s first e-literate state by the yearend when the remaining seven more districts achieve total e-literacy.
Responsible Tourism Meet
Adopts Kerala Declaration
The second International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations concluded here on Monday adopting the Kerala Declaration that demanded strict compliance of the Global Code of Ethics of the UN World Tourism Organization by all stakeholders to “create better places for people to live in and for people to visit.”
The four-day conference drew 503 delegates and speakers from 29 countries including hoteliers, tour operators, officials from government agencies, NGOs, academia, media, industry and local governments to discuss the best responsible tourism practices. The first edition of the RT conference was held in Cape Town in 2002.
“RT is not a product; it is an approach that can be used by travelers and holidaymakers, tour operators, accommodation and transport providers, planning authorities and national, regional and local governments,” the declaration said.
The conference called for minimizing negative economic, environmental and social impacts, generating greater economic benefits for local people and involving them in decisions that affect their lives and life chances and making destinations accessible to the physically challenged.
The conference urged stakeholders to strive for making destinations zero-carbon zones of the world. “We accept that reducing carbon pollution is a priority and urge governments, tourism businesses, the airlines and other forms of transport and consumers to prioritize carbon reduction, reducing the consumption of fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy,” the Kerala Declaration said. Kerala Tourism Secretary Dr. Venu V., one of the signatories of the declaration, said the RT practices were crucial for the state given the growth of the industry in Kerala.
