Community Information Centres (CICs) Project

Introduction

There are “Six Cs” determining whether the Internet will reach India’s villages and stay.

• Current – Alternative power supply in areas without electricity
• Communication – Landlines/wireless connectivity to internet and online resources
• Content – Information on local specific knowledge and in the local language
• Community – Prioritizing peoples’ needs for their development
• Commerce – Financial sustainability and viability
• Capacity building – Building knowledge or skills resources among the community

World Corps India focuses on the aspect of capacity building.

Information poverty and rural to urban migration

In a country of 1 billion and more in India, the poor people of the rural areas are the last to get priority information on various subjects, which would enable better access to basic needs, educational and financial resources. Moreover, migration of young people from rural to urban areas in search of opportunities deprives the rural communities of the energies and brain resources of such young people. WCI adapts a two-pronged strategy, which provides information to the rural communities while providing gainful employment to rural unemployed youth who own, operate and manage “Community Information Centres" (CICs) which provides sustainable and affordable ways of getting information to poor communities that are very critical to both an individual’s and a community’s development. Access to information resources also represents new opportunities for agriculture, economic development, education, health and environmental protection in the rural areas.

To achieve this, the CIC projects focuses on:-

• Training promising young leaders from rural areas – World Corps Professionals (WCPs) - in Computers & Internet, Developmental English, Community Outreach and Development skills, Entrepreneurship Development, Business Management, Marketing and Communication skills, Personality Enhancement and Value Education.
• Launching WCPs into community-based businesses called as Community Information Centres (CICs) providing information, communications and other allied services.
• Partnering WCPs with existing government agencies, private businesses and community based organizations for effective application of ICTs in underserved communities.
• Replicating the CIC model throughout India to reach a larger number of unemployed rural men and women.

Kuppam CIC Project

World Corps India’s (WCI’s) experience in its project in Kuppam, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh provided important lessons for exploring the potentials ICT has for generating employment in the rural areas of India. The model that WCI attempted focused on capacity building of the youth, which enabled them to create a micro-enterprise - “Community Information Centres” for their economic sustenance, while meeting the communication and information needs of the communities in small towns, villages and habitations. The Community Information Centre is a hybrid model combining the provision of G2C – Government to Citizen services, B2C – Business to Citizen services and C2C – Civil Society Organizations to Citizen services and information and communication services all under one roof. The CIC functions both on behalf of the community, the government and the private agencies in providing information services that caters to the underserved communities by using IT-enabled Communication Technologies. Apart from taking the benefits of ICT to the underserved communities, this project has created an opportunity for sustainable and meaningful employment for the unemployed youth of rural areas. Empowering the youth with the necessary knowledge, skills and awareness has also enabled them to take leadership roles to bring in other value additions to their communities.