|
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER TO RURAL COMMUNITIES – A UGC sponsored project
This is a project sponsored and funded by University Grants
Commission (UGC). Principle investigator is Dr. Shahida, Reader,
Dept of Women Education, Moulana Azad national Urdu University,
Hyderabad and co-principal investigator is Dr. Lalitha K Sami,
Reader, Dept of Library & Information Science, Gulbarga University,
Gulbarga.
This project aims at creating a knowledge and information link
between the universities and rural areas using IT as the
communication link. With India forging ahead as a knowledge economy,
it is imperative that rural areas where 70 percent of India’s
populations resides be made a part of the knowledge economy. This
project aims at creating a dynamic link between the university as a
knowledge repository and the end user – the rural community.
With the advent of Information technology, a new divide has been
added - the Digital divide which overlaps the urban — rural divide.
Being remote and dispersed, the rural people do not have easy access
to information and hence access to various opportunities. The
urban-rural divide can be bridged by ensuring equitable access to
information through computers and the Internet. Empowering the
rural populace, specially women, through information would help them
in making proper economic decisions and also utilizing social
services effectively.
Rural areas require information about more productive
agricultural practices, alternative crops, animal husbandry,
potential for value addition, information about preventive health
care, facilities and services made available by the government and
other agencies etc. Internet and computers can ensure that rural
populace has an equal access to information about services and
opportunities and hence development of rural areas can proceed at a
much faster rate. Providing easy access to information on services
and technologies will help the rural residents, regardless of their
occupation or economic status, make informed decisions.
The Project
This project aims at creating a knowledge center at the University
for accumulation of relevant knowledge, translation into local
dialects, communication to village communities using internet and
providing a feedback mechanism for providing immediate response to
local problems and querries.
For the pilot phase three villages in Andhra Pradesh have been
chosen for the establishment of community knowledge centers . These
are :
1. Qutbullapur
2. Gowralli
3. Taramatipet
Panchdhara
Initially five areas are intended to be covered. These areas were
chosen based on a baseline survey of the information needs of
village communities (women, men and youth). These are:
1. Women and child development
2. Health and Nutrition
3. Agriculture, Animal husbandry and allied areas
4. Education
5. Economic opportunities - for youth, supplementary income
generation for women etc.
Role of the University
The universities are going to provide the institutional framework
for the mission of building an informational network for fulfilling
the information needs of the rural communities. The role of the
Universities can be in the areas of content preparation (including
continuous updation based on latest developments and also based on
feedback received from the field), content transmission, facility
for the target audience posting queries / feedback from the
respondents and responses to the queries.
Universities can design the training and learning packages as
off-line packages, which the respondents can use at their
convenience and whenever necessary send their querries or feedback
through the internet.
Universities have specialist faculties such as Agricultural
colleges, Veterinary colleges, medical colleges etc which would form
the nodes for preparation of specialist contents.
But wherever the data is dynamic, such as market prices for
commodities, the information would be made available through
internet. The university would be hosting a portal containing all
the materials. The university would ensure that the dynamic data
(such as prices of different commodities at the local markets) is
updated regularly.
Final aim of the project is to explore the role Universities in
providing an institutional framework as a specialist body involved
in knowledge and content development for satisfying the information
needs of rural communities. Universities will also benefit from this
initiative. The faculty will become more attuned to the needs and
conditions in the adjoining rural areas and this helps them in their
research. With the interactive nature of this programme, valuable
feedback will be available from the rural areas, which will help the
different faculties.
Convergence
This project has also aimed at convergence of institutions
with women and child development, rural development etc as
their focus, concerned government agencies and local NGOs.
Currently a number of institutions are involved with this
project in the areas of knowledge availability. Some of
these are :
|
