Yuvaraj Dhondu from Morane village in Maharashtra is an excited man. He is learning how to make an interactive website, and has to complete the work in the next two to three months.
"The project will help us promote our products and also understand various techniques to resolve our problems," he says.
Sadesh Raje, from an adjoining village, is also working on a similar website. "This will bring about a revolutionary change in the way a village panchayat functions," he says.
Dhondu and Raje are not alone. They are among the 50 village heads from the Pune, Thane, Beed, Satara and Dhule districts of Maharashtra. They have been chosen from 50 gram panchayats to understand and adopt new methodologies for rural development by utilising the power of information and communication technology.
And it is the Delhi-based Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), which is helping them achieve their objectives with its pilot project titled "Towards a Digital Panchayat".
The DEF hopes to have 50 panchayat websites -- all with interactive content, ready within two to three months -- and plans to present this project to the Ministry of Panchayat Raj once completed.
It is doing the project in association with Deshbhakt Balasaheb Bharade Institute of Information Technology and Micro Associates Consultancy, and has selected Maharashtra for the pilot project considering the computer literacy and the Internet penetration in the rural areas of the state.
The DEF held a workshop for the representatives and sarpanchs of these 50 shortlisted villages in Pune recently. The village-heads were taught the basics of Internet browsing and content downloading. The sarpanch of each village and other representatives are being trained to use computers, laptops and Internet along with accessories like CD-ROMs, pen drives and webcams.
DEF Founder Osama Manzar, told Business Standard: "Our aim is to empower village panchayats through the power of IT. The villagers are expected to express their needs and problems through their own website and search for solutions over the Internet." DEF, every year, gives a Manthan award to individuals who produce the best e-content.
People in Maharashtra have received the maximum number of Manthan awards, which prompted DEF to select the state for the pilot project.
"We are trying to introduce and execute the concept of "glocalisation" through this project. "Glocalisation" enables individuals and organisations to think globally and act locally. The project will enable villagers upload, maintain, manage, update and convert their websites into a digital home for all their activities, their grievances, stories, news, needs, business, entrepreneurial opportunities, schemes, health issues and so on," Manzar stated.
Ravi Ghate, a Manthan award winner and founder of mobile content service SMSOne, who organised this workshop stated, "We have asked villagers to collect critical information about their village along with photographs. We will again hold a seminar where we will make them upload this information on a webportal titled www.localareaportal.org.
