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
any more. 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 family 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.
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