E-Community Centre & Skill Development

India has seen a rapid growth in urbanisation in post-independence era. Maharashtra has experienced much higher growth in urbanisation with over 45% of the population in the state living in cities today. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) itself constitutes 30% of Maharashtra’s population. To it’s contrast, these two regions constitute less than 5% of Maharashtra’s land. Urbanisation has its pros and cons. Any mega-city at some time attains a peak beyond which the cons supersede the pros and reversal of urbanisation or ruralisation begins. It is long overdue for Maharashtra to initiate the process of de-urbanisation. Rural Maharashtra is blessed with great resource of brilliant manpower which can moulded to have greater participation in the development of the state.

To bring the change, organised human development program needs to be undertaken starting from small villages. It is necessary to impart skills in the villages to plan and implement village development. Our country is blessed with experts in various aspects of village development. It is necessary to build dialog between these experts and the village leaders. It may neo be possible for the experts to reach each and every village to provide guidance. On the other hand it is not feasible for the village leaders to attend skill development workshops being conducted mainly in larger cities. It is possible to resolve this issue with the help of latest digital technology.

Concept of E-Community centre has risen out of the above concern in village development. It is proposed to set up E-community centre in multiple villages equipped with latest digital technology equipment. Through cloud meetings, E workshops, and cloud sessions for discussions on various relevant topics could be organized to impart knowledge and skills to the villages. Topics ranging from education, health, agriculture, small businesses etc could be considered for skill development. The villagers could opt for subjects of their choice and attend the sessions. Concept of E-Community centre promotes learning in groups which will help the village leaders to ponder on the subjects and find a direction for village development with consensus.

E-Community centre needs to be implemented in two phases: 1. Setting up of E-Community Centre, 2. Organizing skill development sessions.

Setting up of E-Community Centre

E-community centre should be set up in a community hall adequate to house audience of about 15 to 20. The equipment required in the E-Community Centre shall typically include: 1. Computer of latest generation, 2. Necessary Software, 3. UPS with 4 hour backup or generator set, 4. Digital Camera, 5. Overhead projector, 6. Broadband connection or 4G network with booster, 7. Printer & scanner. Cost of these equipment works out to about Rs. 1.5 lakh.

Skill Development Program

Prabhakar Foundation will assist the villages to organize skill development sessions primarily in areas of concern including: 1. Education, 2. Health, 3. Life-Style & Commerce, 4. Social Development.

Sessions on Education will typically include: 1. School infrastructure, 2. Quality of Education, 3. Overall skill development of students, 4. Training of Teachers, 5. Adult Education, 6. Vocational Skills, 7. Digital Literacy

Sessions on Health will typically include: 1. Water & Sanitation, 2. Primary Health Care 3. Malnourishment & Child Mortality, 4. Women’s health

Sessions on Life-Style & Commerce will typically include: 1. Agriculture, 2. Water conservation & environment, 3. Businesses associated with Agriculture, 4. Self-Employment & Small Businesses, 5. Digital Technology, 6. Banking & Commerce

Sessions of Social Development will typically include: 1. Gender & Cast Discrimination, 2. Alcohol & Drug Abuse, 3. Child Abuse & Child Marriages, 4. Domestic Violence

The training Sessions could be organized twice a month, each of about 40 to 50 min.