AISECTSpreading IT Awareness in Small Towns and Villages

In 1985, when information technology was just about to become a powerful technological tool in the Indian citieshaving the potential to change peoples lives altogetherfew like-minded people got together to form the Society for Electronics and Computer Technology (SECT) in Bhopal. As the urban Indian population was oblivious to the progress, the team began to explore ideas for designing an appropriate model for rural ICT intervention; a model that would reflect the demand side of communities rather than the supply push perspective of ICT providers and which would not depend too heavily on the government or donor support but could survive on its own. The organization was rechristened the All India Society for Electronics and Computer Technology, or what is now referred to as AISECT in 1997.

Core Objectives

In the initial years, AISECT operated as an education and training network with the mission of spreading IT awareness in small towns and villages of the country. Computer and IT classes for all, irrespective of age and gender were instituted by AISECT. Gradually the network started growing and today there are over 8,500 AISECT centers across 4,069 cities of the country. Traditionally AISECT selected its target market segments in semi-urban and rural India as this was a huge but largely fragmented segment still waiting to be tapped, owing to poor support conditions. With metros witnessing the proliferation of IT training organizations, the segment of youth living in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, district and block level places still had no quality training provider. Multi-Purpose IT Training Center has been the concept adopted by AISECT and till date it has trained over 1 mn students across the country through a host of skill enhancement programs and generated over 10,000 entrepreneurs.

The TiE Entrepreneurship Excellence Award, the Nasscom IT Innovation Award, and the National e-Governance Award winner Santosh Kumar Choubey is the chairman and the founder of AISECT. AISECT has Siddharth Chaturvedi as director, strategy and operations; Pallavi Rao Chaturvedi as director, sales, marketing and HR; Amitabh Saxena as director, academics; Shilpi Varshney as director, AISECT projects and skill development; and Vijay Singh as director, university programs, as the core members of his team.

AISECTs Spread

Since AISECT is headquartered in Bhopal, it has initiated numerous skill development and capacity building projects in Madhya Pradesh with the objective of uplifting the standard of living of the people of that state. However it has over 8,500 franchise centers across 27 states and 3 union territories of India and the cost of availing franchises varies with location and ranges between `3-10 lakh. It has set up Chhattisgarhs first private university, Dr C V Raman University, in the tribal area of Kota-Bilaspur so that students in the surrounding areas have the opportunity to avail higher education at their doorstep. Its e-governance projects are spread over various states including Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand.

All the projects undertaken by AISECT are targeted towards the semi-urban and rural areas of the country at the district, block, and panchayat levels. These projects are aimed at reducing the IT and technological literacy gap between urban and rural India, and propagating effective and sustainable employment solutions for Indias underdeveloped areas. While the fees could vary from anywhere between `3,000 to about `12,000 depending on the course, all the skill development and capacity building projects that AISECT conducts in association with the central and state governments for empowering the economically backward sections of society are free of cost. In turn, AISECT get grants from the government for conducting these programs.

Achievements in Various Verticals

IT in Education (For Rural Development): Till date, AISECT has transformed the lives of over 10 lakh students through a host of skill enhancement programs and generated over 10,000 entrepreneurs in the country. Moreover, lakhs of people from the weaker sections of society including women, BPL youth, human scavengers, and tribal villagers have benefitted through AISECTs IT education initiatives

Panchayat Raj: AISECT is the training partner of Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI), Department of Panchayat and Rural Development, and Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP). Adequate training resources and local manpower at the block level is provided all over the state in 50 districts and 313 development blocks for WALMI.

Pratishtha Yojana: In the year 2009-10, AISECT undertook the updated form of Pratishtha Yojana, entitled SRMS project, in 12 districts of Madhya Pradesh. One thousand three hundred and twenty seven persons were trained under this project in various trades including computer hardware maintenance, mobile repairing, computer data entry, and Tally. Training was conducted for 7,309 students in 198 tribal hostels of Chhattisgarh in 2009-10. Now, AISECT proposes to expand this program to other states

Indira Suchana Shakti Yojana: ISSY has been one of the most prestigious programs of AISECT under which over 1 lakh girls were trained in ICT skills in about 1,297 schools. Conducted in collaboration with Government of Chhattisgarh and Chhattisgarh Information Technology Promotion Society (CHIPS), the program also invited attention of various state governments as well as national and international agencies. Special course material was developed for this program in which 4 books were brought out for 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th standard students in Hindi.

Common Service Center (CSC) Project: AISECT is setting up 2,926 CSCs in Madhya Pradesh and 1,487 in Chhattisgarh. It has already achieved 100% rollout targets in MP and about 85% in Chhattisgarh. In December 2010, AISECT also won the mandate for setting up 585 CSCs across 3 major districts of Punjab.

With a view towards becoming a service aggregator for rural India, AISECT has also partnered with companies in the banking, insurance, telecom, and financial sectors to provide services through its existing centers.

Still More Plans

AISECT was a case study in the 1999 World Bank IIM-A report. This report helped the organization in getting noticed by a lot of people and gave credibility to the organizations business model.

However like any other success story, AISECT had its own share of challenges like lack of power and connectivity, language barrier, lack of funds for marketing and for adequate training. Yet they have been able to take technology education to these remote villages and their vision ahead is to increase the student base, set up eGyanthe online learning portal, implement more projects, and harness the power of information technology for the benefit of the less privileged population in developing nations.

Drishti D Manoah
drishtim@cybermedia.co.in