Other States - Orissa   

Microsoft reaches out to rural areas

A view of the Gyana o Soochana Kendra.

BHUBANESWAR: At a time when basic knowledge of using a computer is becoming a must for people, Microsoft India has opened as many as 25 Gyana o Soochana Kendras or community technology learning centres (CTLCs) in rural parts of Orissa.

The programme is focused on empowering unemployed youth, marginalised women and rural communities by imparting IT skills training or basic computer literacy and enabling them to explore employment and sustainable livelihood options.

The CTLC is a free or low-cost friendly place (in a community centre, housing facility or other convenient public location) where people of all ages and abilities can come to learn about computers, use the Internet, explore new careers, further their education and awareness, participate in community activities or develop technology skills.

In Orissa, the CLTCs have been opened in partnership with Forum for Integrated Development & Research (FIDR), a Bhubaneswar-based non-government organisation.

Many of the educated youths, who received training in the Gyana o Soochana Kendras in the rural areas of Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts have been able to get jobs in Bhubaneswar and other places.

The existing 25 CLTCs in Orissa are spread over Koraput, Ganjam, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Jajpur, Balasore, Kendrapara, Puri and Kandhamal districts.

The Community Affairs programme at Microsoft India is also considering a proposal from FIDR to open 15 more CLTCs in the backward Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region of the State.

Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential -- Community Technology Skills Programme -- was launched in the country in August 2004 as Project Jyoti. As a part of this initiative, Microsoft partnered with non-government organisations to support various programmes aimed at empowering underserved individuals through the use of Information Technology.

Till date, a total of 879 CTLCs have been established across the country and around 1,07,000 persons trained in IT skills based on the unlimited potential curriculum.

“A wide range of beneficiaries have been impacted through IT skills training, including marginalised women, unemployed youth from urban slums, farmers, fishermen, other members of the village community, victims of human trafficking and communities vulnerable to trafficking, rural self-help groups, and rural kiosk entrepreneurs,” according to Vikas Goswami of Microsoft India’s Corporate Social Responsibility wing.

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