ISOC-DEF Visit to Tilonia

WIRELESS IN A RURAL CAMPUS Revisiting campus-wide wireless broadband community network at Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan WIRELESS FOR COMMUNITIES ➤ In developing countries, wireless connectivity has emerged as an inexpensive technology to bridge the connectivity gap in remote areas. This wireless technology has created much interest in the international development community. In India, even with mobile penetration, tele-density in rural areas is still less than 40 per cent. The reason has mostly been issues around last-mile connectivity, which have the potential to resolve the issue of prohibitive cost of deploying conventional wired infrastructure in remotest areas of the country. ➤ Wireless for Communities or W4C is an initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) and the Internet Society (ISOC) that has been supported by various partners over the years. ➤ Launched in 2010, W4C aims to connect marginalised communities in rural, remote and geographically difficult locations of India, where mainstream Internet Service Providers are not willing to provide connectivity as they feel their operations would not be commercially viable. W4C involves line-of-sight and low-cost Wi-Fi equipment, which utilise the unlicensed spectrum bands — 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz — to create community-owned and community-operated wireless networks. BAREFOOT COLLEGE ➤ Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, has demystified technologies and decentralised their use by transferring the access, control, management and ownership of sophisticated technologies to rural men and women, who can barely read and write. The College believes that even uneducated poor have the right to use technologies to improve their life and skills. Barefoot College believes that ‘literacy’ is what one acquires in school but ‘education’ is what one gains from family, traditions, culture, environment and personal experiences. ➤ Barefoot College is, in fact, a perfect example of a completely self-sustainable ‘smart village’, and not just smart in the digital sense but also smart in their approach towards life, education, health and livelihood. What the College has effectively demonstrated is how the combination of traditional knowledge and demystified modern skills can be sustainable when the tools are in the hands of those who are written off by urban society. On November 5, 2016, Internet Society (ISOC) President & CEO Kathy Brown and Regional Bureau Director for Asia Pacific Rajnesh Singh visited Barefoot College in Tilonia, Ajmer district of Rajasthan. They were accompanied by Digital Empowerment Foundation Director Osama Manzar. Wireless for Communities or W4C is an initiative of DEF and ISOC. In the last six years, DEF has connected rural and remote locations in 38 districts across 18 Indian states. One among them is Barefoot College in Tilonia village that is located about 50 kilometres from Ajmer in Rajasthan. Barefoot College campus is spread across an area of 8 acres; and is divided into two campuses — Old and New. Both the campuses are completely Wi-Fi enabled. This means its various departments, staff and on-campus residents are always connected to the Internet. During their visit, the ISOC team got a chance to interact with people from various departments at Barefoot College and witness how access to the Internet and knowledge of the computers is bringing out a change in the lives of rural and marginalised communities in Tilonia village. After a quick traditional lunch on campus, Kathy and Rajnesh made way to the Community Information Resource Centre that runs in one of the rooms of the on-campus primary school. Here, children had queued up in front of computers to get their 10-minutes of time during recess hour. After watching kids practice drawing and painting, the team visited the solar training centre where 31 ‘illiterate’ grandmothers from 12 developing countries are undergoing a six-month training to become solar engineers (Solar Mamas). After the training, these women return home to light up their villages. What is interesting about this training is that neither the trainers nor the trainees know English. They learn through colours, numbers and images. Away from home, culture and language, these Solar Mamas find solace in WhatsApp that helps them stay connected with their families back home. Besides the International Solar Training Centre, there is also a regional training centre where rural women from various states of India come to become Indian Solar Mamas. Besides learning about motherboards and circuits, they also learn to use iPads for photography, editing and video calling. In the New Campus, the ISOC team surveyed the server room and met Lalita ji and her team that manages Neerjaal. Neerjaal is a water quality testing and mapping tool that also allows community members to upload information online and monitor the quality in 200 villages on a quarterly basis. They then met the local community radio jockey Naurat Mal, an enthusiastic content curator; and secondary school students who were learning to type the right way through an online software they had found on their own. Later, they visited the Tilonia Bazaar to buy local handloom & handicraft. Internet provides Tilonia Bazaar with a global customer; students gulp down their lunch to spend more time on computers; and women are doing so much more than household and field work. Further, the Internet provides the community members with access to governments schemes and entitlements. Access to the Internet and knowledge of the computers has helped Tilonia become a smart and sustainable village. It has empowered women, made men more aware and educated children. It has even helped senior citizen access rights. Moreover, it has made communication and access to information instant. An initiative of.

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