沙漠研究 22-1, 157 -161 (2012 )"ICAL 1 / DT X"

Journal of Arid Land Studies－Refereed Paper－

Design and Development of Solar IT Kiosk for Remote Area Developmentin Arid Regions of Bihar, India
Amar Nath PANDEY1,4), Vikash KUMAR2,4), Syed Haneef BALKHI3),
Sangeeta SINHA*4) and Toshinori KOJIMA5)
Abstract: Development is a multidimensional process including economic and intellectual activity. The later should besatisfactory to most of the people at that time and in their social and cultural set up. Development of arid areas and deserts therefore,
must be supplemented by education, health and opportunity to influence the government policies as well as participate in globalization
process. Information technology and its development in arid areas are very important to nurture multidimensional development goals
with individualism. It integrates the rural areas with the global family and provides opportunity to improve skills, education and,health. The Indian telecom revolution in the last decade has provided much needed input to arid area development in terms ofpenetration of telcom technologies. However, the growth rate of internet in arid areas is still lagging due to several reasons, from skill
development, operation and maintenance to reliable sources of power. In this conceptual paper, the role of IT in development of arid
areas of Bihar is presented. It is envisaged that solar energy operated IT kiosks can be used to replace the older STD telephonebooths and creation of library in local language on the basis of local requirement for information dissemination.
Key Words: Arid area, Development, Solar energy, IT kiosk

1. Introduction
Development is ‘a transformation of society, a movementfrom traditional relations, traditional ways of thinking,traditional methods of production, to more modern ways’. It
should be viewed as a multi-dimensional process involving
major changes in social structures, popular attitudes and acondition of life from unsatisfactory to satisfactory.
Alternatively, it can be considered as an improvement ofpeople's lifestyles through improved education, incomes, skills
development and employment i.e., multi-dimensionaldevelopment. It should be sustainable also. Sustainable
development may be defined as “development that meets theneeds of the present generation without compromising theability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The
definition explains how communication and ICTs impact ondevelopment.
ICTs influence this change throughinformation-transfer. ICTs, with their huge capacities toproduce, transmit and store information within countries andacross national borders, also have the capacity to allow people
and organizations to share this wealth of knowledge in thepursuance of development goals.
In any developing region, one of the prime ingredients ofdevelopment is information. Furthermore, how that

information is disseminated between people is also crucial.
One of the most important preconditions for the full andcomprehensive implementation of sustainable development is
the need for a sustainable information society (Servaes andO’Regan, 2005; Servaes, 2003). ICTs, therefore, make itpossible for those people who have access to this technology, toshare information to create a sustainable information society.
To this end, arid areas must establish, develop or upgrade theirinformation and communications infrastructure for theimportant linkages and relationship with the concept ofsustainable development. ICTs provide a platform for‘information-sharing’ and ‘information-storage’ towards thissustainable development. Information is disseminated forvarious purposes; information about new fertilizers, agriculture,land development, public health, education, Govt. policy, newdevelopments in similar regions and so on. The process ofeducation is basically related to information dissemination andICTs, because information educates (or information iseducation), and ICTs disseminate education or information. It
can assist in the development of communications andinformation infrastructures of Low Income Regions (LIR)
providing choices for them. ICTs are part of the informationsociety infrastructure in developing nations, which LIRs should
develop in their own regions towards their own economicdevelopment.

* Corresponding Author: prof.ssinha@gmail.com (Sangeeta Sinha, e-mail)CREER, P.O. Box – 5, Balughat, Muzaffarpur – 842001, Bihar, India
1) Nalanda Open University, Patna, India

3) Project Co-ordinator, J & K Govt., India

5) Department of Materials and Life Science, Seikei University,2) Department of Electronics, B.R.Ambedkar University, Bihar, India

4) Centre for Renewable Energy and Environmental Research, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India

Japan

For those economies that are unable to adapt to the newtechnological systems, their retardation becomes morepronounced. Regions devoid of IT, do not manufacture andshare enough information for their own development.
Furthermore, the ability to move into the Information Agedepends on the capacity of the whole society to be educated,
and to be able to assimilate and process information. And it
relates, as well, to the overall process of cultural development,
including the level of functional literacy, the localization ofcontent of the media (instead of the globalization of the mediacontent), and the diffusion of information within the population
as a whole.
There is a direct correlation between access totelecommunications and socio-economic development. Theformer is no longer the consequence of development, rather it isa necessary precondition for development. This view isshared by various other experts, including Nulens and Van
Audenhove (1999).

2. IT and Development in Arid Areas of Bihar
Bihar province is situated in middle of Upper India India,
sharing boundary with Nepal in the north. It can be divided
into predominantly two parts, North of and South of Ganges
river. Areas, south of the Ganges river, has serious groundwater problem and is dominated by barren mountains. Mostof the area can be broadly termed as arid and semi-arid withlow productivity and few developmental activities. It is oneof the major reasons of poor people being lured to extremism
and rebellion.
The unprivileged citizen in these arid rural areas need to beeducated and provided with skills and knowledge that open up
new possibilities leading to improvement of quality of life.
Nonetheless, the state of IT enabled services in these areas ofBihar is in no way compares with that in urban areas. The
striking disparities are also depicted in IT education. This hascreated a serious "digital divide" between those who haveaccess to ICTs and those who have not. In order to close
information gap, cost-effective, efficient and viable computer
systems should be used in the arid rural areas. Thus, by
focusing IT enabled services supplemented by decentralizedenergy sources in non-electrified rural areas, isolated andmarginalized youth can be included in information revolution.
Given the predominantly poor rural society in the region, thelevel of awareness of the rural people has a paramount impact
on their poverty reduction. Equal access to information canensure significant progress in poverty alleviation initiatives asexperiments in hilly terrains of Nepal shows (Shrestha et al.,2004; Anand et al., 2004).
The information technology sector holds new opportunities,

especially provided by globalization, which is a process toincrease contacts between people across the nationalboundaries - in economy, in technology and in culture. ICT
related industries in India are fastest growing segment offering
huge opportunities in the form of increased investment andemployment. It is, therefore, essential to ensure people’s
accessibility to knowledge-based services. Each individual
may not benefit directly from the use of information andcommunications services. It is rather, through information
disseminated by community leaders and key information
providers such as elders, health care workers, teachers, andcommunity development specialists, that the impact of SRDC
information will benefit the population of entire societies.

3. Solar Based Rural Digital Centre (SRDC)
In the Information Age, the "Digital Library" concept isemerging as a model for information retrieval and storage,
knowledge acquisition and management, and communications
for rural development. The Proposed “Solar based Rural
Digital Centre (SRDC)” can be viewed as a rural multipurpose‘IT Kiosk’ providing the capacity to transform individuals andcommunities, and to alleviate poverty to some extent. It
would be a response to the challenge and the promise of ICT
for rural development - a cornerstone of social development in
the Information Age with the mission to empower ruralcommunities with the requisite technology infrastructure,
financial capacity, and human resources to manage thetransition to the information culture through a locallydetermined process. It is likely to develop as the heart ofsocio-cultural structure in the rural area.
The principal technical goal of the Solar based Rural
Digital Centre is to develop web-based resource network
consisting of at least one electronic Centre with access tointernet to educate the isolated rural people so that the global
knowledge network can bring vast benefits to them. It is thevision of the SRDC to empower local people through local
self-determination and to benefit from access to global
information. Like friendly mobile technology, it should becheap and friendly to be accepted by rural population.
The choice and use of a particular ICT for information
access will naturally dependent on its effectiveness in reaching
the rural people. Undoubtedly, literacy and education incapacity building of the rural communities will not only makepeople able to access information, but also empower them toenlarge their choices and opportunities to improve their income
levels and reduce social deprivation. SRDC could play acatalytic role in developing rural areas that include,(a) Capacity building and training - Building human capacity
begins with basic education and literacy. Citizens musthave the underlying skills to use the technology effectively.
Building human capacity can help break the cycle ofpoverty and deprivation. Well-trained teachers in IT field
having knowledge necessary to train their students would
make easier to disseminate IT education and skills training
to a broader segment of the population.
(b) Creating employment - By creating employment
opportunities in the rural areas by inception of computer
literacy training, software development and tele-centers,
information and communication technologies could help
bridging the gap between urban and rural communities andreduce the rural-urban migration problem. Moreover, byproviding training on computers, those trained may become
small-scale entrepreneurs.
(c) Targeting marginalized groups - Most rural poor people
lack the power to access information. ICTs could benefit
all stakeholders including the civil society, in particular
youth and women. Other disadvantaged groups that could
be targeted include the disabled and subsistence farmers.
(d) Empowering rural communities - ICTs can empower ruralcommunities that permit them to contribute to thedevelopment process. With ICTs, rural communities canacquire the capacity to improve their living conditions andbecome motivated through training and dialogue withothers to a level where they make decisions for their owndevelopment. ICTs have the potential to penetrateunder-serviced areas and enhance education throughdistance learning, facilitate development of relevant local
content and faster delivery of information on technicalassistance and basic human needs such as education,agriculture, and health.

4. Challenges in Use of ICTThere are several challenges in use and diffusion of ICTs
for rural development in India, the major ones are,(i) Electricity: In rural Bihar, the electricity supply is limited toapproximately 20% of the total population. One of thebest means of access to electricity in the unconnected
remote areas is the use of solar Photo Voltaic system.
(ii) Local content and language barrier: Information available
through ICTs is mostly in English, which the majority ofrural communities cannot understand. There is a marked
shortage of relevant material in local languages that respondto their needs. Hindi based operating systems must be
developed - the sooner the better.

5. Outcome of the Knowledge-Based Services
Information is delivered thorough intranet (web or emailaccess) as the web-based information generation is easy andinexpensive.
Rural communities being dependent onagriculture are very much interested in the information which
could improve agriculture. Therefore, horticulture, livestock,vegetables and cash crops as well as their markets, inputs,credits related information will be of interest to them. The
information related to health and education, particularly in caseof sudden outbreak of any disease will be quite useful.
Use of Internet technology requires intermediary to operateand brokerage the information to the rural people due to lowlevel of literacy. This intermediary will need to be trained andwill have to have very good aptitude for brokering information
to the rural community. For this, as far as practicable trainees
from local areas with aptitude and interest in rural development
should be selected for training. In the case of newtechnologies being targeted for transfer, it may be possible toget the local community leaders trained to do this. School
children could also work as intermediary between parents andinformation accessing media. The effectiveness of field staffof service delivery organizations in technology transfer to therural poor is going to be enhanced with availability of
information through ICTs.
The following seven knowledge-based services have been
identified to deliver contents to rural communities:• Governance Information System: The development ofGovernance Information System shall be a response of ourconstitution stating that every citizen has right toinformation. It would bring transparency to local as well
as regional government operations and the government-public interface and improve efficiency and effectivenessof government's service delivery.
• Agriculture Information System: The development of theAgriculture Information System in the agriculture sector
would contribute to expanding markets for agriculture
products; increase in sale of agri-products to the ruralpopulation; provide increased market access for the rural
population eventually leading to increased income for therural population.
• Distance learning: The development of distance learning
program using ICT improves the quality of education andincreases access to education. These programs will befocused especially for unprivileged groups such as
unemployed, females and elders.
• Tele-Medicine: The development of ICT application suchas Tele-medicine could lead to the improvement of qualityof health-care services available to the rural population andincrease their access to health care facilities.
• Productive Economic Activity: Proper mechanism such as
networking for the expansion of the market will lead tovitalization of the local industries leading to increased sales

of products, increased market activities and increased
income for the micro-entrepreneurs. The development ofProductive Economic Activity could be one of the areas
which, if properly expanded, could contribute to rural
poverty reduction.
• Energy and Environment: The knowledge-based service inthe area of energy, environment and natural resource
management would contribute to expanding markets forenvironment-friendly products; lead to improvement inindoor air quality in the rural areas; increase awareness inthe use of alternative resources and environment
conservation; improve understanding of the value of natural
resources and the environment; and increase use of natural
resources in a sustainable manner.
• Natural Disaster: ICT application for disaster management
can provided rural communities with increased information
about disaster prone areas and improves delivery ofemergency services.

6. Methodolgy
Initially ten ‘Gram Panchayats (GP)’ in each district will beselected as target area on the basis of its distance from thenearest towns. More remote areas should be preferred.
GPs with a school building may be preferred initially, whereSRDC can be installed. Two persons from these GPs will beselected for training and use of these ICTs. Once trained,
SRDCs will be installed with their help under supervision ofexperts.
It would be possible to implement the whole program
within one year that would include three months training ofSRDC worker, procurement of devices and installation. Acost benefit analysis of the system indicate that, over all cost is
likely to be 7000 USD, which includes laptop, printer, PV
based power supply, mobile phone and internet charges. One
person can be employed at the site with monetary support of
200 USD per month, which can be generated from the systemitself by charging very small amount from the users.
For example, if one person visits a nearby town to take a
train ticket or fill up a form. It makes him loose one daysalary and cost of traveling besides other indirect costs to thetune of 10 USD. He would be glad to pay one USD for thesame service at the village.
7. Rural Health Policy Evaluation: A Case Study
A case study of rural health assessment was undertaken inremote rural areas of Darbhanga District in Bihar through block
health care centers. In the first phase, it took three years torecord nearly 100 parameters of female health issues. Table 1

Table 1. Rural Health Parameters of Darbhanga District (Bihar).
Description(2010)(%)(2003-7)(%)

Girl's marrying before completing 18 year

41.3

59.8

Female giving births of 3 and more childdren 51.8

57.8

Family planning (all M ethods)

30.4

27.7

M others with at least 3 Anti-natal carevidets during the last pregnancy

28.1

10.4

M others who got at least one TT injection
during pregnancy

71

22.1

Children (12-23 months) fully immunized(BCG, DPT, Polio and M easles)

40.4

17.5

shows some of the important parameters recorded during
2004-2007. Priority sectors were accordingly defined to
improve health care. It took just a few weeks in 2010 tocollect data to assess these parameters again using Informationtechnology. The data immediately highlighted its success andproblems. These data are being used by policy makers forassessment and modification in existing health care policies
and planning. Several health care units are now using
generators to feed and transmit data instantly. Solar IT kiosks
can provide such services from panchayat level rather blocklevel, which is the lowest unit and provides more authenticity
to data for policy formulation.

8. Conclusion
SRDC IT kiosks can also be used for much needed
developmental efforts in rural arid areas. This is very
important from various Govt. data collection for,(a) Sectoral information for priority areas such as rural healthpolicy(b) Priority projection of integration(c) GIS and demographic application(d) poverty eradication program data(e) Surveys and consensus(f) land registration and land health, etc.
Several of these data collection methodology being adopted
are full of flaws and do not necessarily depict the realities on
the ground.
The methodology proposed has double
advantage - development of the rural area and improvement in
inputs for the policy makers and planners.

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