If nurtured with a regular organic feed of educational and informational content via the internet, rural India can be digitally-empowered
Nandanam village in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district never experienced internet connectivity for decades. But thanks to Babu Reddy, a village-level entrepreneur of the Common Service Centre (CSC) who is now providing high-speed ‘Fibre To The Home’ (FTTH) connections to citizens utilising BharatNet, this idyllic village surrounded by hills is experiencing change.“The FTTH connections are transforming the villagers, especially the youth. For them, it is a dream come true”, says Reddy.
In July 2019, CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, was tasked to enable last-mile internet connectivity along with the operation and maintenance of BharatNet Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) and First Line Maintenance (FLM) of equipment installed in phase one of the BharatNet project of the Department of Telecommunications aimed at providing high-speed broadband connection to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats.
The SPV took over the operation and maintenance of BharatNet OFC and FLM equipment from July 1, 2019, when only around 22,000 Gram Panchayats were functional and there were no dedicated OFC restoration teams to look after maintenance of this project of national importance in rural areas. After the SPV took over, around 2,000 dedicated Fibre Restoration Teams consisting of more than 10,000 local youths were trained and mobilised for BharatNet maintenance. CSC village-level entrepreneurs were engaged to provide custody and first line maintenance of the equipment installed in more than one lakh Gram Panchayats, which were otherwise unattended.
Neelam Singh, a champion entrepreneur from Block Dadraul, Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh was tasked with the operation and maintenance of the BharatNet OFC, connecting 63 Gram Panchayats. When she took over the activity in August, 2019 only two Gram Panchayats were functional with no last-mile internet connectivity for citizens. By November 2019, Singh and her team had installed internet services in all 63 Gram Panchayats, with more than 300 FTTH users availing of the internet. Out of these there were over 50 Government institutions and schools.
Now, with close to one lakh functional Gram Panchayats, the CSC SPV has accelerated the last-mile internet connectivity drive in rural areas through the CSC’s Wi-Fi choupal programme. This initiative encapsulates enabling of internet services in over one lakh Gram Panchayats by deploying effective infrastructure. It is thereby delivering services at an affordable price and ensuring reliable access to the internet through village-level entrepreneurs.
In March, more than 3,00,000 subscribers registered for a FTTH connection from BharatNet in panchayats which are managed and operated by the CSC SPV. This shows the desire of rural households to get a reliable broadband internet facility at an affordable cost. The CSC’s Wi-Fi choupal also has more than 12-lakh Wi-Fi registered subscribers who use this as a supplement to their mobile connection. This is also borne out by the fact that data consumption in these BharatNet panchayats increased to 150 TB per month in May from about 55 TB during January, a three-fold jump in just five months. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in high data consumption by rural populations, optimising the usage of the BharatNet infrastructure as envisaged by the Government.
A best example of how this initiative improves governance and lives can be found in the transformation of Pancheswar Police Station in Uttarakhand’s Champawat district. Just four kilometres from the Nepal border, the police station had no internet connectivity and all records were manually maintained by the officials.
In fact, non-availability of internet in the hill town deprived Government institutions and citizens of the advantages of digital connectivity. However, things changed for the better when village-level entrepreneur Deepak Nath started delivering internet service in the area through BharatNet. He not only provided the much-needed internet connectivity to the police station but also to 19 other Government institutions and over 30 families. This was of immense use, especially during the lockdown enforced by the pandemic. Through the CSCs Wi-Fi choupal programme, 63 such non-feasible police stations in remote areas of the country got connected to the internet and eventually to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), thus improving their efficiency in handling crimes.
The CSC’s Wi-Fi Choupal provides the requisite framework for facilitating internet services by integrating them with BharatNet end-point at Gram Panchayats to enable last-mile connectivity. Once the remaining panchayats are connected through BharatNet, it will transform rural India and fulfill the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Gram Swaraj’. The digital divide will be substantially reduced and citizens will be truly empowered to actively participate in nation-building.
The high appetite for internet data usage in rural areas, now and in the future, can be pivotal in bridging the digital divide in the country. And, if nurtured with a regular organic feed of educational and informational content, rural India can be digitally-empowered and transformed into a Gram Swaraj.
(The writer is CEO, Common Service Centre)
