“Impact of ICT facilities to uplift Rural Education in backward Regions of Maharashtra (With Special Reference to Families under Below Poverty Line).”

Summary:

The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and India is projected to become the second largest telecom market globally. According to Business India’s “mobile revolution” is still mainly seen in the cities, but the real prize for phone companies is the vast rural market, where nearly 70 percent of the 1.1-billion-strong populations live. In India, the advent of ICT has been viewed with immense optimism. ICT is being prescribed as the solution for an excess of problems faced by India such as unemployment, lack of growth, technological backwardness etc. Nowadays apart from Anna (Food), Vastra (Clothes) and Nivara (Shelter), a fourth dimension that is “Mobile Phone or MOBILE INTERNET DEVICE (MID)” has been added into the lives of villagers. It is found that Villagers do not get basic information related to Agriculture, Education and Health which is required for their day to day activities. There are various issues related to growth of telecom services in rural areas. The fundamental question comes why it is necessary to have this growth.

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The present work attempts to reason it out with the followings:

  1. There is need to promote technologies which are best suited for the rural India. For example to bridge the gap of digital divide in its real sense there is need to increase Mobile penetration. The reason is very simple; mobiles are cheaper, more portal and can be solar battery life suited to regions where access to electricity is lacking or non-existent.
  2. The main barrier in Indian rural society is the fact that people do not associate the benefits of the Internet and other communication technologies with their personal needs, believing that “computers are not for them”. As a result they behave very passively towards the ICTs.
  3. There is need to develop innovative strategies to address constraints the world’s women face in their access to and use of ICTs. For women, content is directly linked to use. If women are to be able to make use of the Internet for income generation, education or advocacy, there must be more relevant content. Linguistic issues are of major policy importance in India, given the dominance of English language in software and Internet.

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The researcher’s main objective is to provide MOBILE INTERNET DEVICE (MID)s (3G Enabled) in each village. MID can act as a mobile as well as pc. With ease of internet connectivity through ICT Enabled Equipments (MID and 3G Technology) broadcasting real time programmes related to educational, agricultural and health will be a boon to the villagers and will make a paradigm shift in rural India.

The study is proposed to cover Marathwada and Vidarbha - backward regions of Maharashtra State in India. This study is restricted to four districts falling within these regions which shall be studied. Each taluka from these districts shall be covered under this study. From each taluka of Marathwada region, 2-3 villages and from one taluka of Vidarbha region, 2-3 villages shall be targeted on random sampling basis for the purpose of the present study. Structured questionnaire shall be used to survey the villages (Below Poverty Line Families) in various aspects related to agriculture, health, education and banking.