Open eNRICH: Tools for the underprivileged

Knowledge is power as the popular saying goes and in today's world, this power can be attained through the access of information. Information, with technology as its medium, holds the key to development which contributes to the betterment of the human society. However development remains largely insignificant and incomplete unless it touches the society at the grass root level and the progress of any nation is determined by the progress of its villages and rural communities.

In a country like India or any developing nation for that matter, rural communities severely lack resources that enable them to get on to the road of development. Technology here acts as a balancing factor and helps to leverage the underprivileged.

Open eNRICH is one such project that has been leveraging rural communities and villages by the use of technology. It was started by National Informatics Center (NIC), Delhi, Government of India and UNESCO (Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for communication and information) as a part of the cross cutting theme on the eradication of poverty. The project has been innovating and researching social and technological strategies to put ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) to work in the hands of the poor in order to change their circumstances. The focus of the project is not so much on technology itself, but on its innovative use to empower the poor with tools.

Technically speaking, it is an Open Source Content Management Software which clubs Tomcat and SQL together and uses Jsp ( Java based). It is comprised of two main components viz. Desk Manager User Interface or DMUI ( a browser-based site administration and analysis tool for Managers and researchers) and Community Browser User Interface or CBUI ( an interface that is used by the community members)which lend re-usability to the entire solution framework. DMUI, the back end interface, acts as Site Manager, Content Publisher, Content Organiser & Analyser (for researchers). The Community Browser, the front end on the other hand faithfully displays what it receives from DMUI. The software also has its own autonomous spaces for community people to post content and interact among each other.

The software is installed at a community center or tele-centre (a center with a few computers) where rural communities can use the software for exchanging and accessing information. The personnel from the tele-centre (desk manager) is trained on how to use eNRICH and the community center takes the responsibility of getting the community to use the software. The desk manager guides this community to the software whenever they need relevant local information and the community center works with established community based organizations like Self Help Groups to make it easier to ensure community participation. The software is also compatible with WAN, LAN and the Internet and allows for communities to independently upload, download, print and share any information that is of use to them.

Ramnath Bhat, a researcher with UNESCO says, "Open eNRICH is an excellent medium to store and exchange information on various categories like agriculture, health care, trade or basically any other category that is relevant to that community. This works particularly well in communities that have a unique problem. For example, the people in Budikote village in the Bangarpet Taluk frequently suffer from eye ailments. By using Open eNRICH as a medium, we have uploaded information on eye ailments on various multimedia formats like photographs and videos which has helped a lot villagers in identifying their ailments and helped them in taking measures for prevention and cure.

Rajkumar, a former desk manager for Namma Dhwani Community Multimedia Center in Budikote says,  "In the earlier days, if villagers had to buy or sell something like livestock, it would mostly be through middle men or via information from their relatives or friends who were staying in other villages. But today, if a villager from Kolar wants to sell his cow, he can access eNRICH and upload the information for other people to see. A  potential buyer residing in Mandya can access this information and contact the villager in Kolar and complete the deal if he is satisfied with the price."

However in spite of its success and user-friendliness, the project is not free from issues that hamper the enthusiasm of the community user. The software is unable to work in places where computers are equipped with Windows 98 since eNRICH works mainly with UNICODE fonts, and Windows 98 doesn't support them. There are also other factors like bugs in the software and a 2 MB upload limit  (for any file format like text, audio, video, image, etc) that makes things very difficult for  the community user and prevents him from making the maximum use of this facility.

Ramnath from UNESCO says " Currently our focus is on removing  the bugs from the software and there is  still a long way to go as this is a very young project. Another thing is that  the general community is used to the Windows platform and this is in conflict with the Open Source movement that we support. But  this project has achieved great success in terms of community participation and has encouraged several community groups to come to community centers and use ICTs for their needs."

The possibility of utilizing this content management system in innovative ways is rather large and the effect it has on the rural communities is very significant. Trading commodities between communities, who so far had large physical distances between them, could be accommodated as this technology can gap these distances. This alone would lead to a massive change in the structure of the agricultural markets where the distance between the producer and the consumer would greatly lessen. Middlemen would become a thing of the past, thus enabling the producer to not only get his worth for the commodities, but it would also end up reducing prices to a large extent.

The software could also be extensively used for gathering public opinion, which would bring more relevancies in getting first-hand data from the rural sector. On the other hand, since the software could also be used to gather opinions, it could altogether garner support for a transparent system in governance.

Sivakumar.C, an official with the NIC Headquarters in Delhi says,  "As of now Open eNRICH has now gone through more than 500 valid downloads from our web site in 59 different countries including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and countries in Africa.  This alone shows the response that the project is getting from all parts of the world."

Open eNRICH offers tremendous potential that is waiting to be tapped and exploited for the benefit of one and all and more so for the underprivileged. The true challenge lies in identifying the most suitable and cost effective technologies that address the local needs and challenges of the rural masses and
only by initiating more ICTs and projects, can the government and individuals truly usher in  a revolution at the grass root level. 

Sandesh Shenoy- Marcomm Specialist S7 Software Solutions, likes to write and blog.

Issue BG66 Sept06

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