Space science aids poor in remote villages
Fakruddin Parmar, Farid Mahmood and Mukhtar Mahmood have one thing in common. They all stay in remote villages of Gujarat which are inaccessible by road.
Till about two years ago, an emergency medical situation for them meant gazing skywards and praying to the almighty hoping for a miracle. Not anymore. Hundreds of thousands of the poorest of the poor like Fakruddin and Farid have one more star in the sky to look upwards. The Indian National Satellite System (Insat) launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) help villagers like Fakruddin to get the best medical aid and that too in the shortest time.
"We treat villagers in Bhuj and Kutch districts of Gujarat through a tele-medicine network. Thanks to the Isro and the Village Resource Centres (VRCs)," said Dr Anshul Warman, a dermatologist in a corporate hospital in Ahmedabad. For seven days a month, Dr Warman takes off from her busy schedule and concentrates on people in far flung villages.
Various non-governmental organisations, closely interacting with the villagers, prepare a list of patients with their ailments and email it to Dr Warman. She studies the case history and the next day interacts with the patients who assemble at the VRC, which is more than 300 km away from Ahmedabad. The two-way video system helps doctors like Dr Warman to examine the patients thoroughly, diagnose the ailment and prescribe medicines. "I treat 40 patients per day through this system. There are other doctors making use of this innovation to help patients who may not be able to make it to the city hospitals," said Dr Warman.
Down south, in Sempatti and Tiruvaiyaru in Tamil Nadu, farmers make use of the VRCs to know more about the agriculture crops which are in demand for the coming season so that they can plan well in advance. They get a lot of information, like bio and organic farming, weather forecast, potential fishing zones in the Bay of Bengal, details about bank loans and adult literacy classes. "The advantage with these VRCs is that there is something for all," says Dr Venkataraman Subbaraya Hegde, countrywide programme coordinator, VRC. Dr Hegde describes VRCs as a small step in the right direction to eliminate the digital divide in the country. "Whatever a villager is looking for, be it knowledge, information, livelihood support or healthcare service, they are all available through the VRC," explained Dr Hegde.
Education via satellite is a classic example of the application of space-based services for community outreach. The Isro has set up over 30,000 virtual classrooms across the country under the Edusat Utilisation Programme and 2,700 classrooms out of these are interactive. These classrooms are serviced by a few tens of mini-studios set up in different states. In each state or network, there are hundreds of classrooms. Isro's mission is to help overcome the severe shortage of teachers in the country, said director Bhaskaranarayana, Edusat Utilisation Programme. "One good teacher can meaningfully teach a class of 60 students in real term classroom, but on the virtual mode, the same teacher can simultaneously teach a few thousand students spread across vast distances," said Mr Bhaskaranarayana. Many universities and educational institutions in the country are making use of the satellite service being provided by the Isro.
"It may not be possible for us to bring all the villages in the country under the ambit of VRCs. But we hope to cover 10,000 villages during the 11th Plan itself. We are selecting the most backward villages for setting up VRCs and our approach is for a holistic development of the Indian rural life," said Isro chairman G. Madhavan Nair.
India is emerging as the first country in the world to make use of space science for the comprehensive development of rural areas and the upliftment of the poor.
"This is not a new concept. We had a programme namely Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (Site) way back in 1975," said Dr Nair. The Isro, in association with All-India Radio and an American Application Technology Satellite-6 (ATS-6), held a year long programme in some of the most backward villages of the country which proved very effective.
"During August 1975 to July 31, 1976, 2,500 villages spread across 6 states received TV programmes in their respective regional languages. The programmes produced by the Air focused on fami ly welfare, sound agriculture practices and national integration. That was the primary objective of the programmes," said Dr Hegde.
With the country launching its own communication satellites, Dr Nair asked his team of scientists to make use of the transponders available in the Insat series to help the villagers in a big way. "We found that these satellites offer immense scope in bringing the villagers to the national mainstream," said Dr Hegde.
When institutions, like M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai with its strong network in Tamil Nadu villages, came forward to make use of the satellite technology for development activities, the Isro got a shot in the arm. "We can provide all technical assistance and guidance if somebody comes forward. Since we are hard pressed for men and resources, these things could be taken to the end users only with the help of agencies like MSSRF," said Dr Hegde.
The initiatives by MSSRF has seen more than 100,000 villagers, including farmers, students, fishermen, entrepreneurs making use of nearly 3,000 varieties of programmes through these VRCs.
MSSRF coordinator Sophia is enthusiastic while providing the details about the foundation's activities.
"Watershed management, organic farming, adult literacy, crop insurance, interaction with the authorities are some of the initiatives by our VRCs in the three districts of Tamil Nadu. We offer a lot of packages to villages in Kerala and TN," said Dr Sophia.
Last year, 1,200 matriculates passed out of the long distance vocational training programme offered by Satyabama University near Chennai. "They were all trained as nursing assistants, plumbers, laboratory technicians and electricians. All of them will find jobs in their own districts itself," said Dr Hegde.
Meanwhile, Dr Jeppiar, vice chancellor of the university, has declared that he would set up 300 VRCs in various blocks in Tamil Nadu to bring light to the lives of more villagers.
Asian Age, 20 February 2008
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