The Hindu : National : India sponsors rural tele-centres in Sri Lanka

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Friday, Jul 27, 2007
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India sponsors rural tele-centres in Sri Lanka

Anand Parthasarathy

Opening up communication-challenged areas

Rs.6-million package initiative to create 20 Internet ‘Nenasalas’ in the island nation
Part of plan to create 1,000 centres by 2008

— Photos: Special Arrangement

HELPING HAND: Alok Prasad, High Commissioner to Sri Lanka (third left) and Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to Sri Lankan President, arrive for the inauguration of the India-sponsored Nenasala at Tissamaharama, Sri Lanka. (Below) Experiencing the wonder of the Internet for the first time.

BANGALORE: The problems posed by domestic strife has not distracted Sri Lankans from trying to bridge their own ‘digital divide’ — and opening up the more communication-challenged districts of the island-state to the advantages of the Internet.

Their goal of creating over 1,000 ‘Nenasalas’ — rural knowledge centres, all equipped with Internet-enabled computers — by 2008, received a minor boost recently when the Indian Government pitched in with a Rs.6-million package to sponsor 20 of these tele-centres “carefully selected to ensure maximum coverage.”

Inauguration

High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Alok Prasad was on hand, recently — with the Lankan President’s Secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, and the Minister of Irrigation, Ports and Aviation, Chamal Rajapaksa — to inaugurate the first of these Nenasalas at Tissamaharama in the southern district of Hambantota.

In a special communication to The Hindu, S. Gavashkar, Project Manager with the Information and Communication Technology Authority of Sri Lanka (ICTA) — the nodal agency for the island’s initiatives in harnessing IT for development — explained that each Nenasala provides two to four PCs, with printers, web cameras and scanners.

Connectivity

Connectivity to the Internet is 128 kilobits per second or better — and where no other communication is available, a Very Small Aperture Satellite Terminal is used.

The motto emblazoned in each centre is: Vishwa denuma gamata in Sinhala and Ulaga arivu grammathirku in Tamil — “global knowledge to the village.”

“Nearly 400 of these centres are already in operation. Most of them function in local temples, while local entrepreneurs are encouraged to create others,” Mr. Gavashkar added.

E-nabling interior areas

About two years ago Sri Lanka took up a crash mission to e-nable the interior districts, particularly in the South and North East, through the Internet and satellite technology.

It has partnered with global agencies such as Telecentre.org and the Open Knowledge Network — and also benefited from the multi-pronged initiatives of Sri Lanka’s largest non-governmental voluntary agency, Sarvodaya. In many aspects, the Nenasala concept is quite similar to Kerala’s Akshaya e-kendra scheme for e-literacy and rural e-commerce.

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