ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS

REPORT ON ICT AND SLUM AREA

DEVELOPMENT

SUBMITTED TO:Dr. MANOJ KUMAR DASHASSISSTANT PROFESSOR

SUBMITTED BY:RAGHUVEER PRASAD MUKKU2009IPG-54

GROUP NUMBER: 04

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION2. PROBLEMS IN THE SLUM OR RURAL AREAS3. EFFECT OF INTRODUCTION OF ICT INTO SLUM AREA

DEVELOPMENT Infrastructure Development Education Communication and Transport Employment Opportunities Execution of Work Monitoring Grievance Redressal System Other solutions: SMS based Fund Transfer Using Rural ATMs Using Biometrics

4. CONCLUSION

ICT AND SLUM AREA DEVELOPMENT

Introduction:

Globalization and technological change—processes that have accelerated in tandem over the

past fifteen years—have created a new global economy “powered by technology, fueled by

information and driven by knowledge.” The ICT sector had a significant growth in the last few

decades. Its role has been increasingly helpful in each and every sector of the society. ICT stresses

the role of Unified Communication and the integration of Telecommunications with Information

Technology. ICT along with IT consists of telephony, integrated media services, and transmission of

data from one work place to the other and also networking services. It is basically used in almost all

the sectors now-a-days. ICT is often used in the context of “ICT Road map” to indicate the path that

an organization will take with their ICT needs. This helps the various organizations actually know

what their goal is, using the latest ICTs. And also, the tag of ICT has spurred the growth of many

organizations around the world. Lots of new technologies in the networking side have been

developed for a better and faster way of communication. As of now the 3G introduction is the most

important achievement by the Telecom companies in India.

Many other countries look to India as a model for global outsourcing and try to imitate elements

of this in their own strategies. Success at a particular period of time does not, of course, guarantee its

continuation and commentators have expressed concerns such as rising wage rates and skills shortages of

ICT professionals, and increasing competition from countries such as China. It is likely, however, that

India will remain a major player in the ICT industry for years to come and thus its global image as an

ICT success story will continue.

Problems in the Slum or Rural Areas:

“Slums are products of the failed policies, bad governance, corruption, inappropriate regulations and dysfunction land markets, unresponsive financial systems and a fundamental lack of political wall.”

In a country like India, about 70% of its population lives in slums and rural areas. The per

capita income of almost many families is very low. As per various surveys conducted in the recent

years, it was found that the people living in the slums generally fall below the poverty line . The

people in slum areas are mostly illiterate. Very few people in the slums have fair knowledge of the recent

technologies introduced in the market. The people living in the slums even do not have proper houses, nor

there are health care centres. The surroundings in the slums are not at all maintained which makes the people

suffer from various deadly diseases. The water they drink and the food they eat are all polluted. Sometimes

due to unavailability of food people in the slums eat stale food. No health care is taken of these people. They

are just left to their destiny by almost all the sectors of the society.

The people here even do not have proper ways of communication. The people are very

unskilled and they generally have got the habit to live their life without doing any work. This is all

because they are completely neglected in every work. The people do not have a proper exposure to

the government policies and so they get least benefitted in the society. The middle and the upper

class people take the toll of this and exploit the dearness allowed by the government and get

benefitted. The literate people in these slums also do not know how actually a particular government

scheme works and its beneficiaries to them. The government and the private sectors take this as

granted and exploit these people to get their work done. The people living in slum areas generally do

cheap labour works. The characteristics and politics associated with slums vary from place to place.

Slums are usually characterized by urban decay, high rates of poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment.

They are commonly seen as "breeding grounds" for social problems such as crime, drug addiction,

alcoholism, high rates of mental illness, and suicide. In many poor countries they exhibit high rates

of disease due to unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and lack of basic health care.

The slum inhabitants are often promised all kinds of support and improvements in return of

political allegiance, but their trust is regularly abused. The governing bodies in the rural areas also

are lot corrupted these days and their functioning is too worst. The heads for the governing bodies

are elected on the basis that he/she is a little educated than the others in that place and also if he/she

is financially sound. So this won’t actually serve their purpose. The heads also just work actively

only before and after the elections. This indirectly implies that these people just work to have their

position in the society. So, these people are the least preferred in any official matters except in a case

where cheap labour has to be done. Due to all this, domestic violence also increases in these areas.

The people here are lured by the prospect of oblivion through drugs or alcohol abuse. Having such

habits adds up to their poverty even more.

The children living in the slum areas start working at a very young age. They have least

education facilities. So they forcefully go to work at those ages when all the people of their age go

on to get some excellent knowledge. And even the children who attend the school don’t properly

attend the classes due to their poor health condition.

Effect of introduction of ICT into the slum area development:

The Knowledge Map is designed to answer the following questions: How can the full range

of information and communication technologies (ICTs), appropriately adapted, help improve the

livelihoods of poor individuals, families and communities in rural areas and increase their income

opportunities, thereby improving their chances of escaping from persistent poverty? What do we

know already, both from research and from experience in the field, and what do donor staff and their

country counterparts most urgently need to know about these issues? How should we think about the

role of ICT in enhancing the livelihoods of the rural poor? What elements most urgently require

further research and analysis to lay the basis for informed policy and investment by donors,

governments, and others?

The ICT have lots of positive effects in the rural area development. Here we will list out few

important measures that can be introduced to develop the people’s living standards in the slums.

Infrastructure Development using ICT:

In our country, we have now got a large number of builders who have very sophisticated

building machineries. The government should give the contract to these builders to build houses to

these people and provide them with the most sophisticated drain systems. The electricity department

should also help in providing power to these houses at least for some time on a free basis, so that

these people make use of all the resources provided to them and get their works done. The

improvement in the infrastructure helps to clear of half of the problems of the slums. Proper

drinking water facility is to be provided.

In the recent years, the government has introduced a lot programmes like NREGA (National

Rural Employment Guarantee Act), e-seva centers- where all the payments to the government firs

can be made online, etc….

Education:

Schools and colleges should be set up in these to educate the people here. Experienced

teachers should be employed here in the schools and colleges. To attract them to studies, the schools

and colleges should teach them using some e-teaching methods. Like, using proper presentations

with sound clips and video clips enhances the teaching methods. The people should be exposed to

the internet world as well. This helps them to make all their payments online without going to the

particular vendor to pay the money. The people should be made literate enough to at least know the

discrepancies happening around them.

Communication and Transport:

The Telecom operators have to come up with newer offers and tariffs targeting the lower

level people. They should bring in new products that fall in the affordable range to them. This helps

the Telecom services to gain profits as well as the people to communicate with their family members

and friends and colleagues at very lower costs. The people would buy the mobile phones and always

keep themselves connected with everyone. Some of the ICT interventions that can be possibly used

for communication & mobilization include community radio, television, public address systems,

panchayat websites and the Internet to publicize the NREGA. Information kiosks that have been set

up in some villages are being implemented by the IT Department can be used as focal points in order

to disseminate information.

Employment Opportunities:

i. Creation of a database of durable, productive, labour-intensive works at Panchayat level.

Mapping out socially productive and durable assets/ infrastructure which can be created in the

respective zones/clusters.

ii. Issuing of job cards, digitization of muster rolls, persons employed, their output, wage

rates, working hours etc can also be available for verification by the Panchayats, peers and the

community through the use of ICTs..

iii. The use of Smart Cards/Biometric cards can be introduced to identify and track every

beneficiary in the region.

Execution Of Works:

i. Works Management System with authentic records of the attendance at the worksites with

simultaneous updating of the employment records is necessary. Works identified in a particular

block to be taken up under the scheme must be available for viewing and measurement by all

Panchayats within that block.

ii. Work Flow Automation System may be introduced since the approval of works, allocation

of works to an implementing agency etc. must be sanctioned by the Programme Officer or such local

authority (including the Panchayats at the district, intermediate or village level).

iii. Disbursement of wages and unemployment allowance.

Monitoring:

ICTs provide for ensuring that the members of the designated rural household are only

availing the guarantee of 100 days of employment and their wage employment rights are not being

misused by others. Biometric systems like fingerprint recognition may be used as potential solutions

to address this issue. A fingerprint recognition based time and attendance system at the frontend

backed by a comprehensive computerized MIS at the back-end may be able to address the issue.

Grievance Redressal System:

i. Citizens can register grievances at all Panchayat Levels and in offices of the Programme

Officer and the District Programme Coordinator. This information must be made available online.

ii. Citizens must be able to track their grievances online. The list of issues above is indicative and

not exhaustive in nature.

Solutions Provided in order for further developments:

SMS based fund transfer

To enable speeding up the process of fund transfers an innovative solution using mobile

phones has been suggested. It works as follows:

• Site Asst. E n g i n e e r sends the day’s muster roll of NREGS beneficiaries by SMS

• Village payment Agent receives the SMS

• Village Payment Agent makes payment to NREGS beneficiaries based on muster roll received

• A second SMS about payments made is sent to Panchayati Raj Department’s Banker

• On receiving the SMS the Panchayati Raj Department’s Banker transfers funds to Village Payment

Agent’s bank account.

• SMS database will be integrated with NREGS web portal to generate weekly payment details.

Using Rural ATMs:

The low-cost rural ATM (Gramateller), being developed by Vortex Technologies can be

implemented if the bank account transfer mechanism is put in place. The ATM works with both

used and new notes and has a fingerprint based authentication system. It works on very low power

with a built-in battery back-up and does not require air conditioning.

Using Biometrics:

Reportedly the bio-metric tracking was 100 percent successful, with no failures, using a

standalone biometric device and a 12 volt car battery, as there was no power supply for the whole

day in the entire Mandal. The bio-metric authentication, was not without its own attendant problems,

as some of the women, come directly from work, with cement/lime mortar coating on their fingers.

Some fingers were very rough and a second finger print registration had to be taken. But 100 percent

success rate was achieved, out of which, 80 percent in the very first attempt and 20 percent in the

second attempt. Around 50 percent of the beneficiaries are women.

Conclusion:

The above report on the effect of ICT on the slum area development proves out to be very

useful if the government and all the others sector function hand in hand. The slum area people

should also show minimum interest in all these sectorial development in order to develop

themselves and keep in touch with everything happening around them. Their development indirectly

helps in the overall development of the nation. Introduction ICT into the rural areas spurs their

growth.