A goal of Digital Partners India’s "Applying Digital Technology for Poverty Alleviation" strategy is to spawn initiatives that are most capable of triggering changes in market forces so that they address the needs of the have-nots. Therefore, the aim is not to move quickly to embrace any project, but to go through a process of looking before leaping.

Our aim is to find the specific initiatives that will trigger further public and private resources and, ultimately, will influence market forces so that the needs of the have-nots will be fulfilled without further intervention. Part of the challenge is to build on the best of what organizations from various sectors are already doing to close the Digital Divide.

We believe successful poverty-alleviation initiatives will be Internet-focused, scalable, catalytic, bottom-up and collaborative. These five criteria are discussed in greater detail below and will be used to determine which initiatives will be showcased on this site.

Some of the case studies are currently showcased that meet our criteria and point to the ways that technology and markets can work together to effectively alleviate poverty: TARAhaat.com intends to be an Internet portal to connect rural India to the Global Village; Grameen Bank is leveraging the community of micro-entrepreneurs to launch Village Phone, Village Email/Internet and Village Energy; Madhya Pradesh State is linking remote rural villages with an Intranet computer network .

Know of a project that might be of interest to us. Please let us know.

Our Five Criteria

Internet-Focused: We want initiatives that employ the Internet itself in a creative way. The aim is to leverage the Internet's openness, its use as an operational tool and as a device for promoting bottoms-up involvement, collaboration and feedback.

Scalable: Though projects may begin small, sometimes their concepts can be either replicated or enlarged to serve much bigger constituencies.

Catalytic: We are looking projects that elicit private or public investments.

Bottom-up: A new breed of projects is emerging that are grassroots in nature, create benefits that are broadly shared, and trigger innovations even in localities that lack broadband telecommunications infrastructures and advanced educational systems.

Collaborative: Though the projects may be the personal vision of a single social entrepreneur, their potential expands to the extent to which they foster collaborations with organizations from various sectors that could help leverage their impact. Specifically, commercial and noncommercial institutions should be working closely together. An example is Grameen Bank and its various subsidiaries, such as Grameen Phone, inspired by Bangladeshi Muhammad Yunus. Though the initiatives are designed to generate grassroots markets for tiny businesses in remote areas, they are financed and implemented through a cluster of public and private investors and intergovernmental agencies that skillfully complement each other.

Model Initiatives

TARAhaat.com
Internet Portal to Connect Rural India to the Global Village

(Excerpts from TARAhaat publications)
Development Alternatives is launching a new service that will bring the world right into the villages of India: TARAhaat.com. Starting 1st June 2000, TARAhaat goes into its beta phase in a dozen villages around Jhansi in the rugged Bundelkhand area of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. TARAhaat will be the first major mother portal designed right from the ground up for the needs of village users. TARAhaat promises to open the windows of the village to all the world's information resources, and to provide a stepping-stone to a better life. It connects the user to information services, government agencies and, above all, to all kinds of markets.

The operation of TARAhaat is very simple. Even small children, village housewives and illiterate people can use it from day one. The computer displays information in the local language (in Bundelkhand, Hindi), in pictures and with self-explanatory animated icons. If you can't read, it speaks to you. Soon, it will be able to receive simple instructions by voice too.

The fact that there are no computers in most village homes today is no handicap for TARAhaat. Local businesses will be able to set up a TARA kiosk (locally called "TARAdhaba") where everyone in the village can come and get connected - just like a PCO, the telephone booth one can now find throughout India.

Information is not all that you can get at the TARAdhaba. You can also get access to education and entertainment. Press "IGNOU", and you will get connected to the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Press the button labeled "Doctor" and you will get advice on the best medical facility available in the neighboring region for your child's sickness. Press "Music" and it will play the latest musical hits.
Above all, TARAhaat is the ultimate super bazaar, providing immediate access to all kinds of products and services needed by rural households, farmers and industries. Rural producers and manufacturers can also sell to far away clients through the hyper linked sister portal, TARAbazaar.com.

The goods you order will be delivered by a TARAvan ("TARArath"). The products you wish to send to clients in other villages or in the city will be picked up at the same time. So will the TARAmail ("TARAdak"), which you send to your daughter in the city or your son posted on the front in Ladakh.

TARAvans, like TARAdhabas, will be independent franchises, providing jobs for local business people and numerous employees. TARAcards will be issued to regular customers, enabling them to order goods and services through TARAhaat on credit, without paying in advance. This photo ID will also be a valuable identification for many other purposes.

TARAhaat will create jobs - lakhs of jobs - for people working in TARAdhabas, TARAvans and the TARAvendors (TARAdukan). It will also create new jobs and purchasing power for people to buy the goods they need through the TARAhaat system. Most important, it will open the windows of the village homes to the large world outside, bringing in news - on politics, business, sports and development. Every citizen in India can become an enlightened voter, a shareholder, and a participant in the nation-building process.

Villages that have no phone lines will be able to connect to the Internet through the TARAdish satellite connections. If they have no electricity, a solar or DESI Power facility will supply the power needed. If they have no road, the TARAporter will deliver by foot. The motto of TARAhaat is "Every village is our Market". Within five years, it will reach 250,000 communities, covering half the villages of India.

The Revenue Streams
Revenues to TARAhaat come from payments received for services, commissions on sales, fees for advertising and entertainment, royalties and other sources of earnings. All these are structured to maximize the incentives for each participant in the TARAhaat network: the user, the TARAdhaba, the TARAvan, the TARAscout, the TARAguru and, of course, TARAhaat.com and its shareholders. Overseas franchises and consultancies in other developing countries will provide additional revenues in the future.

Grameen Bank
A Family of Technology-based Companies to Alleviate Poverty:

Village Phone Village Internet Village Email Village Energy

"We have started believing the unbelievable, namely that the elimination of poverty is feasible and that there is no reason whatsoever why anyone should remain poor on this planet." Mohammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank and the Micro-credit Movement

Grameen Bank gave birth to the micro-credit movement in 1976 by giving the poorest of the poor access to small loans without the requirement of collateral. The Bank is credited for unleashing the entrepreneurial and empowering potential of millions of the (previously) poor. Currently, Grameen is the largest rural finance institution in Bangladesh. It has more than 2.3 million borrowers, 94 percent of who are women. With 1,128 branches, it provides services in 38,951 villages, covering more than half of the total villages in Bangladesh. The repayment of its loans, which averages US $ 160, is over 95%.

Grameen Bank's positive impact on the poor has been documented in many independent studies carried out by external agencies including the World Bank, the International Food Research Policy Institute (IFPRI) and the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Its success has inspired people and institutions throughout the world with its success in poverty alleviation. A total of 223 Grameen replication programs in 58 countries have been established during the last decade. Taken together, they have reached several hundred thousand poor borrowers with credit around the world.

The Bank has now turned its attention to unleashing the potential of the new technologies of the Digital Age to benefit the poor. The banks four technology-and-market based efforts are described as merely the first steps in working to "unleash the potential of everyone everywhere."

Village Phone is Grameen's unique method of bringing the information revolution to the rural people of Bangladesh. There are currently 1425 Village Phones in operation. The goal is to provide the first phone service to 100 million rural inhabitants in 68,000 villages by 2007.

This visionary goal will be achieved one village at a time by giving micro-credit loans- usually to poor women- to create 68,000 new entrepreneurs known as "phone ladies." Building on past relationships with Grameen Bank, customers with a good credit history are allowed to borrow about $350 from the Bank and purchases a cell phone in order to provide telephone services to the villagers, making a good living and paying off the loan. It creates a self-employment opportunity in each village and provides access to telephones to all.
Each of the Village Phone operators earns more than twice the country's annual per-capita of less than $350. Besides the obvious economic benefit to the "phone lady," studies consistently show that the whole village is economically benefited. With access to accurate information about prices, farmers get more for their products and pay less for their supplies. Yields have increased because of timely weather and pest information. Healthcare is improved. Family connections are maintained - most families have at least one member living abroad to earn money. In fact even exchange rates on remittances sent home are higher in villages with phones. The point is that information is empowering, and the middlemen are losing their monopoly.

By bringing electronic connectivity to rural Bangladesh, Village Phone is bringing the digital revolution to the doorsteps of the rural poor and unconnected. By being able to connect to urban areas or even to foreign countries, a whole new world of opportunities is opening up for the villagers in Bangladesh. Thus, the telephone becomes a weapon against poverty.

"The people of Bangladesh are a good investment in the future. If you look at Grameen Bank, it has 2.4 million borrowers in 39,000 villages. Ninety-four percent of the borrowers are women. Ninety-eight percent of the loans are repaid. And now, with loans for people to buy cell phones, entire villages are being brought into the Information Age. I want people throughout the world to know this story."
President Clinton

Village Email and Village Internet are two new programs that promote development through information access, use and exchange. Village Internet will seek poverty alleviation by reducing migration from villages to cities through creating IT related job opportunities for the rural poor. An effort is also planned to introduce full Internet services to educational institutions and social organizations in Bangladesh on a sustainable basis. Village Email will provide early warning of disasters.

Village Energy (Grameen Shakti) is a not-for-profit rural power company whose purpose is to supply renewable energy to un-electrified villages in Bangladesh. The expectation is not only to supply renewable energy services, but also to create employment and income-generating opportunities in rural Bangladesh. GS will focus on supply, marketing, sales, testing and development of renewable energy systems such as solar PV, biogas and wind turbines on a sustainable commercial basis to serve poor rural areas.
For more information: http://www.grameen-info.org/

Madhya Pradesh State Initiative
Computers in India Raise the Fortune of Poor Farmers
For hundreds of years, farmers in India 's central tribal belt were locked in a battle against three seemingly invincible enemies: drought, poverty and corrupt middlemen. Now, they are on their way to bypassing the third evil, embodied in the figure of the patwari, the despised land records man. And they are better equipped to combat the other two. On Jan. 1, 2000 the government of central Madhya Pradesh State launched an experimental Intranet computer network in a remote farming district. In contrast to many government-sponsored initiatives, this effort is more entrepreneurial and market-driven.

Within six months of launching the program, 22 villages have purchased a computer, a modem, a printer and a battery for $1,500 with money their own money and agreed to provide a small booth to house the setup. The operation is then franchised to a local person who charges fees of 10 to 35 cents for government records and other services available at the click of a mouse. For another small fee, villagers can report broken pumps, lost pension checks or a sick teacher - and the state guarantees a reply within a week. The operators, who receive no salary, keep most of the money but give a portion back to the village and state governments.

The system gives villagers access to everything from copies of land titles - a must for securing yearly bank loans - to rural water supply schemes, all for a modest 10-cent fee. The pilot project covers 600 villages in Dhar district, one of dozens of dirt-poor tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. The system is part of a push by the state's reformist chief minister, Digvijay Singh, to find low-cost ways of overcoming the state's lack of infrastructure and improving conditions in rural areas.

Previously, farmers were hostage to the infamously corrupt patwari, a government bureaucrat first employed during the British era who was chosen more for his surveying skills than his scruples. He would often charge as much as $100 - two months' earnings for farmers - for a copy of a land record, or else revoke land ownership with the flick of his pen, according to local farmers. "It's been that way for hundreds of years, but everyone was too afraid to complain" for fear that they would lose their land, said Verma, who owns a five-acre farm eight miles outside of Bagdi. "It's a wonderful thing," said Kaluram Verma, a farmer from nearby Nawasa village. He was clutching a computerized blueprint of his farm that will allow him to secure a loan for a well, which he hopes will tide his family over during droughts.

The town, where bottled water is an unheard of luxury and roads are passable only by jeep or ox carts, is home to one of 21 intranet centers that service the surrounding areas. The system also has reduced farmers' reliance on agricultural traders, who would quote them rates far below market prices and then pocket the difference. Now they can pay 5 rupees to find out which market is offering the highest rate for their produce and take it themselves. The financial gains are enormous. Last month, farmers who could afford it chose to truck their crops 400 miles to Bombay, to take advantage of 40 percent higher prices for garlic and wheat, the staple crops of the area.

"Millions of Indians are connected to the Internet, but millions more are not yet connected to fresh water. India's IT industry is expected to expand exponentially in the next eight years, with projected growth in software exports going from the current $5.7 billion a year to $40 billion. However, unless many such projects are launched, nurtured and allowed to proliferate using market-based principles India 's IT boom will further widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is important to note that while India supplies 35 percent of the world's software engineers, it also accounts for 25 percent of the world's poor."

Back To Top