Community Technology Centres in Youth Skill-Building and Empowerment-A digital opportunity project for youth in low and moderate income Indian communities

I.The Issue
Computer and telecommunications technologies are omnipresent in our society today. Computer usage-mail and internet use, and home purchases of computers are growing rapidly (Benton Foundation 1996a, Gonzalez 1995, Katz and Aspden 1997, Miringhoff and Carvalho 1996. At the same time, not everyone has adequate opportunities to learn about and use computer and information technologies. A large and growing gap remains between the technology "haves" and "have-nots." Differences in access to computer and communications technology exist by household income, educational attainment, race and ethnicity, age, and gender, with the greatest inequities occurring for those with the lowest income and the fewest educational opportunities (Anderson et al. 1995). The gap in computer ownership between the rich and the poor is widening (Katz and Aspden 1997, Williams 1996). As computers become integral to business, education, and other areas of life, these inequities result in greater implications for individuals' access to employment, knowledge, learning, and participation in our society.

Community access centres such as schools, colleges, libraries and other public access points are particularly well used by those groups who lack access at home or at work. Breeden et al (1998) surveyed a number of community technology programs for low income residents and confirmed that tech access is in high demand, with both parents and children recognizing that computer proficiency results in academic and employment success. Bradley A. Corbett & Douglas Willms (2002) in their study have reported that 9 out of every 10(88%) of Canadian students have a computer at home, and 8 of every 10(81%) use a computer at home nearly every day. However Canadian students from low socioeconomic families were less likely to have access to computers and a link to the Internet at home. Further, it was reported that the students used computers mainly for accessing information on the internet, communication, word processing, and games. Less than one-third of students who used computers reported that they used them to help them learn.

Indeed there has been a rapid growth and improvement in the diffusion of technologies that have been designed to handle information and aid communication. In general, children and young adults in the developed countries have more opportunities to have access to and use of Information and Communication Technology. In this information age while children and young adults are increasingly using new technologies in their schools, colleges, libraries, homes and communities, there is a high proportion of them in a developing country like India do not have access to these opportunities for acquiring computer skills, which are important to educational process nor can the parents afford a computer in the home.

Both children and youth in low and moderate income communities in rural and backward areas in urban pockets in and around the city of Madurai district, in the State of Tamilnadu, South India, are virtually shut out from accessing computers. Obviously enough, they are denied opportunities to learn to use computers and online communications at home or schools and colleges or in the community.

The Goodwill social work centre conceived the idea to establish Community Technology Centres in response to concern about the growing gap between children and young adults of high socioeconomic status families and those who do not have due to low socioeconomic backgrounds. In the context of the project, a Community Technology Centre is defined as ‘a community service, social action, and/or educational facility where computers and related communications technologies are available to children and youth who otherwise might have little or no opportunity to use or learn to use these technologies’.

Though there are numerous web browsing Centres and Internet Cafes in Madurai and its surrounding sub urban areas, which are run on a commercial basis, a Community Technology Centre that could cater to needs of children and young people especially those from the disadvantaged circumstance in low and moderate income families has not yet been established. This is a community based ICT project which aims at empowering children and youth of low and moderate income families with technology skills and usage in a community based setting keeping in view the following objectives:

II.Objectives

1. Empowering children and young women in low and moderate-income communities in villages with technology skills and usage in a community based setting.

2.Providing them with intensive hands-on computer literacy training based on real life exercises using MS Office 2000 and help them with computer skills to advance economically and compete professionally in today’s digital economy and

3. Offering them career guidance and information and assisting them for gainful employment in ICT related fields.

III.Use of Information Technology in the CTC project:

The Community Technology centres make use of appropriate information and communication technology to address the problem of unemployment and help the target groups advance economically through job placement and also creating of income generation opportunities for the poor girls and young women. The participants in the application of computer skills gain intensive “hands on” experience. The participants use information technology in the following areas namely 1.Data entry work 2. Word processing and DTP 3.Visiting/greeting/invitation cards, brochures, booklets etc 4.Data base preparation 5.Office management 6.Online data entry and formatting work 7.Use of internet. The Community Technology Centres adopt open learning methodologies in the computer literacy training for the target groups. The target groups include 1. Children and young adults who belong to low socioeconomic status families. 2. Children and young men and women who belong to Dalit communities (socially excluded classes in India) 3. Children and young men and women whose parents work in unorganised sectors, including agriculture.4. Young people in dysfunctional families (Female headed families, Single parent families etc 5. School and college going youth 6. Working youth in organised, semi-organised and unorganised sectors

VI.GOODWILL, INDIA-Winner of the Panda IT Aid award,2006
Goodwill social work centre, an Indian NGO based at Madurai,India has been declared as one of the four winners of “Panda IT Aid”, Panda Software International, Spain(www.pandasoftware.com). The other organisations are Save the Children (with a pan-European project),Spain, Fundación Braille (Uruguay) and Paideia (Paraguay). These four winning projects were selected from 15 finalists through a vote held among all the employees of the Panda Group across 56 countries. In a previous phase, the selection committee had selected the fifteen finalist initiatives from the more than 130 projects presented in this first edition of Panda IT Aid. GOODWILL has received a cash award and Panda Software solutions for the Community Technology centres created in Madurai,India
The award has been given to GOODWILL for setting up Community Technology Centres for children and young women in low and middle income families in and around Madurai, India. The aim of the project is to create Community Technology centres in Madurai, India, to teach women and children in low to middle income families about new information technologies. It aims to train young women and children, so that they can be incorporated in the labor market in local organizations or even set up new businesses and computer centres. Around 900 children and young women will benefit from the project within a span of THREE years. The Centre has established two Community Technology centres in two locations within the project areas catering to the needs of many poor and disadvantaged rural children and young women in Madurai East and West village Panchayat union blocks,Madurai,Tamilnadu,South India. In the first phase, 300 children and young women have successfully completed their digital training in two Rural Community Technology centres .You can view my web album containing the photos on CTC activities at http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc/GOODWILLPANDAITAIDPROJECT2006

This is a multi-stakeholder partnership involving three actors namely business, nonprofit and government. The business partnership is offered by Panda Software through the award of grants, monitoring and evaluation of the project while the govt partnership is provided by Jan Shikshan Sansthan{Madurai},Ministry of Human resources development, Government of India through accreditation and certification of the digital learning courses, performance management and award of certificates to successful candidates. Nonprofit partnership involves GOODWILL’s role in project implementation, performance management, reporting and documentation

V.Impact

Both male and female in the age group of 15-35 in low and moderate income communities in villages are empowered with technology skills and usage in a community based setting. The intensive hands-on computer literacy training based on real life exercises using MS Office 2000 enable them to acquire applicable technology skills to advance economically and compete professionally in today’s digital economy.

VI.Project sustainability

The Community Technology Centre will offer special educational courses and programmes to children, youth and adults who could afford to pay fees. Various ICT courses namely 1.Language Master 1 & 2, 2.Office Automation Manager 3.MS-Office, 4.Interactive Multimedia 5.Basic computer knowledge 6. Short term Courses on Visual Basic 6, MS-Access, Front page 2000, HTML, C,C++, Java, Web Design & Development, Desk Top Publishing and Certificate in design and Animation will be conducted on a regular basis to generate income to meet administrative and maintenance costs of the centre. Nominal fees will be charged for each course and programme.

The Goodwill social work centre proposes to create more community Technology Centres in unreached villages, towns and backward areas within the city in Madurai district, Tamilnadu, South India. GOOWILL is looking for funds, which will be utilized for basic infrastructure requirements such as computer systems and accessories, internet connection, furniture, rent, electricity, books and computer learning materials, salary to staff etc. I invite you to join us in this innovative project and partner with us.

Contact person:

Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel, M.A., Ph.D (social work)
Executive Director
Goodwill Social Work Centre
No: 5,South street Extension
Singarayar colony, MADURAI-625002
INDIA
Email: chriskan@satyam.net.in