Not just jubilation, but a sense of pride followed as the news of Internet connectivity in the tiny village of Punavali Kalan facilitated by DA drew wide applause from national and international media. The use of Information technology is slowly trickling down into this non-descript village located 19 kilometres away from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, North India. Best of all, the use of computers is taught by three local college graduate girls for a fee that the villagers could afford and in a milieu the local populace is comfortable with. The other TARAKendras at Lalitpur, Datia and Dabra in the Bundelkhand region are equally popular in fulfilling local aspirations and opening new avenues of employment generation in the local community.

TARAkendras don’t have any of the frills that are common with majority of the computer training centres in big cities. As the Kendras look like any neighbouring house, it helps the students to settle down quickly and learn without any inhibition. Though satellite based Internet links are down, the TARAKendras are operational — one with a slow dial-up service using public service telephone network and others offering only offline services such as computer training. The Internet connectivity that had been discontinued after the expiry of the experimental phase would be restarted soon. Talks are on with various connectivity service providers, both in India and the US.

TARAhaat’s journey in rural India began last year with experimental Internet connectivity at Punavali, the village that first came into the spotlight in 1993 for its perennial water shortage. DA intervened by constructing a check dam, marking the beginning of its march towards progress. The franchisee in this tiny hamlet is subsidised by TARAhaat as a pilot project to demonstrate the Internet connectivity facility as a capability model in the use of Internet for a very remote location. The infrastructure including the cost of PCs, printers, scanners, generators, UPSs, CVTs and the satellite dish were paid by TARAhaat. The franchisees need to invest in infrastructure development like grouting, some ditches for earthing, etc. The operating expenses include the salary for the instructor/operator and diesel expenses for the generator. The main challenge is the supply of electricity, which is always unpredictable. The daily use of generator sometimes causes breakdowns that take more than a day to repair.

The other franchises were selected proactively, and initial enlisting was through visits to local PCO owners and members of the Nehru Yuva Kendra. TARAhaat interviewed the applicants to appoint the Lalitpur, Datia and Dabra franchises. The franchisee at Datia has recently graduated from a college with fair fluency in English and has failed to secure a government job. The location of the Kendra is in a commercial center. He is eager to make a business of providing Internet connectivity and facilitating learning about computers and other areas.

At Datia the infrastructure is much better. The town has an ISP service provider and a cellular phone servic. The TARAKendra owner has competition too. Datia has two cyber-cafes in addition to the TARAKendra. As the present connectivity is slow, the franchisee plans to go for a satellite connection to gain an access speed advantage over his competitor. While there is computer education available locally, TARAhaat’s focus is to provide relevant cost-effective education that is comparable.

Of all visitors to any of these TARAKendras, about 10-15 per cent had prior exposure to Internet. The common usage of Internet access is for e-mails, chats and to visit general interest websites. The majority of the chat sessions involved relatives and friends in distant locations. Internet enabled chat is a big draw because it is seen as a cheaper substitute to a phone call. In some cases, a phone is not as easily accessible as a TARAKendra. The average customer surfing sessions last about 30 minutes. Younger customers were more inclined to get on the computer and use the Internet themselves; while older surfers (ages 30 and above) were more inclined to group-viewing with someone showing them general interest websites.

While the rural customer is curious to learn about the computer, using the mouse is the biggest initial hurdle. Keyboard skills are relatively easier since most users are familiar with the English alphabet, even though they cannot form full sentences in English. A significant number of users memorize the menu system for popular programs such as MS-Word since they don’t understand the menu commands. For example, they know that the fourth item in the left drop down menu in MS-Word is to be used to save their file. A large number can write letters or participate in chats with phonetic Hindi fonts. A pamphlet has been made for them to understand how the keystrokes map to Hindi alphabets and how to form Hindi words. Among school going children and young adults, MS-Excel and PowerPoint have been very popular. Some school children have experimented their schoolwork using Excel since it helps to make small tables in a neater fashion. Once the Internet connection is restored, the TARAKendra expects farmers to stop by for Mandi prices.

TARAKendras have the potential to have alternate sources of revenue. The franchisee in Datia acts as a distributor for TARABricks. A local farmer who wants to sell his oilseeds at the best possible price has also approached him. The farmer would like TARAKendra to use their access to the Internet to locate the best price and is willing to pay a fee for the service. In Dabra, a local lawyer uses TARAKendra for e-mail, as it is cheaper than fax or phone for long distance interaction. Sharing the generator for captive electric power with neighbouring shops is also a good option to utilize the capacity of the generator as well as earn some revenue. TARAhaat hopes to see more innovative models to generate revenue as the numbers of franchisees increase over the coming months. q