It
is quite surprising that the UPA government is planning a Rs 7,000 crore scheme
to dole out one mobile phone to every family living ‘below poverty line’ (BPL).
(‘Every BPL family may get a mobile’, TOI, August 8, 2012). The ‘Har Hath Mein
Phone’ Scheme is a ‘phony’ calling-card for the 2014 general elections. It’s a
blatant squandering of public funds. ‘Har Hath Mein Phone’ sounds more like the
marketing strategy of a telecommunications company; a conspicuous misfit in the
arena of a government that is grappling with myriad problems. In these
difficult times, our country’s Prime Minister has generously pledged $10
billion to G-20 and Indian cabinet has okayed a Rs 450 crore Mars probe to
catapult the Indian Space programme. This newest measure is yet another lavish
Santa Claus-like gesture on the Indian government’s part; of course, closer
home- inside our country!
‘Har
Hath Mein Phone’ is an ambitious project…another one in the illustrious
long-list the UPA government can boast of in full-page print-ads in leading
national and local newspapers when it goes for the polls. Impressing the voters
with such lofty offers and promises is one thing and delivering the basic
amenities is quite another. What are the steps the government is taking to
alleviate the 6 million BPL families? Is providing phones the responsibility of
the government? If yes, is it the panacea to the ills plaguing the BPL
families?
Fact
is, millions do not have access to ‘Roti,
Kapda & Makaan’ (food, clothing & shelter) apart from clean water,
toilets, electricity, transportation etc. Millions of families have to
unfortunately survive within the daily consumption expenditure of Rs. 28.35 and
Rs. 22.42 in urban and rural areas respectively, constituting the BPL category
as per Planning Commission. Giving away freebie mobiles with 200 minutes of
free local talk-time along with Rs 100 monthly expenditure to BPL households
won’t solve their problems. Far from that, it will add to their woes. Where
will they go for phone-servicing or defects? How will the monthly maintenance
charge of Rs 100 be issued? How will they charge their cellphone’s battery when
they have no electricity-connection? Even if they are fortunate to be counted
amongst those who do have electricity-access, the erratic power-supply and
frequent unsystematic power-cuts make it an operational nightmare.
But,
no worries! The battery will get exhausted only when the phone is used or can
be used! Cellphone requires a network-connectivity, which is sure to be ‘poor’
in those parts of India where the BPL families live. If we all have faced
issues with call-dropping or disconnection due to network-connectivity-problems
(that too in posh VIP areas), one can well imagine the fate of the not-so-lucky
BPL families. What’s the incentive for Mobile Operators to invest in
infrastructure: to set-up and maintain towers in rural areas? If they do not,
then the beleaguered government telecom companies like BSNL & MTNL have to
step in to do the needful. Also, is the government planning crash-courses to
teach the BPL families how to operate the phone? Imparting education is the
first-step to communication. Can illiterate BPL families converse/understand
the modus-operandi of mobile-phone technology?
One may
optimistically argue that the BPL populace will be empowered with their phone,
just like the indispensable-phone-wielding sabzi-wallahs,
auto-rickshaw drivers, maid-servants, dhobis
etc. Proper communication facilities can empower millions of new subscribers to
say ‘hello’ to the power of technology and speedily cruise on the IT &
communication superhighway. ‘Har Hath
Mein Phone’ scheme can fructify our government’s plans viz. financial inclusion
and reaching the bottom of the pyramid. Linking cellphone numbers with UID can
help in the public distribution network. But, fear exists of a similar fate as
that suffered by earlier schemes: PDS grains or kerosene (people for whom it’s
intended do not receive their due or beneficiaries sell-off rations for money).
What if the BPL families do not receive the phone at all (as it’s siphoned off
along the way) or receive it and barter their phone for essentials or sell their
phone for cash? The whole idea gets defeated.
If
the telecom department’s universal service obligation (USO) funds are plush
enough to fund this lofty scheme, how about diverting the same funds to serve
more meaningful purposes rather than ‘providing access to phone services to
people in rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices’? Anyway,
without having good infrastructure viz. network, towers, service operations,
electricity etc., and transparency, the government’s above stated aim cannot be
achieved immediately. Besides, basic-voice-connectivity is already served by
the Local/STD/ISD PCOs across the length and breadth of our country. (Thanks to
Sam Pitroda & ilk’s three-decade-old Telecom Revolution.)
Time for the winds of a new revolution
to capture Indian Telecommunications. Why not pump in the telecom department’s
USO funds for ushering innovation- where India develops the next-generation of Smartphones.
They are smart in two ways. Firstly, they are powered by renewable energy sources;
phones that get charged by inductive power and get all the energy they need
from the environment viz. solar-power, wind-power and alternate energy sources
in the vicinity. Secondly, what I envisage as, ‘Audio-Visual Mate’ (AV Mate)
technology that guides families and answers their voice-queries 24X7 in their
own local language through instant Audio-Visual (AV) responses. Developing this
green-cum-intelligent technology, India can trend, taking over the world’s
imagination. Then, government won’t have to limit ‘Har Hath Mein Phone’
scheme to only basic phone models or depend on cheap ‘Made-in-China’ phones; it
can afford to assign such Smartphones to the BPL families. Imagine suo-motto
communication monitoring for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged families to expand
and improve their quality of life.
Such smartphones can provide
solutions to tackle infant-mortality, ignorance, superstitions, illiteracy, poverty,
unemployment, poor health, malnutrition & poor sanitation. They can be used
to spread mobile-education. Educate a woman and you educate a family. As education is
dependent on the parents, it’s important to train, especially the mother, about
how and what to teach her child. Such smartphones can serve as friend &
philosopher of expecting mothers (right from pregnancy stage), guiding them all throughout their pregnancy, child-birth
and beyond and answering their queries. With
AV Mate’s interactive system, a user just asks and gets an instant Audio-Visual
reply/answer by a simple Voice query of her’s. This smartphone also
communicates with user in her own language. User simply needs to access it, post
voice query in her own language and view relevant search-result- appropriate
'AV Encyclopedia' with visual files that plays automatically answering her
query in her own language. She can also view the next relevant results in the
list by playing related videos that match her query or can initiate a new query
by posting different key-words by following the steps as above. AV Mate serves
as mother and child’s all-in-one progress report – monitoring their overall
health, hygiene, education, nutrition. Each mother’s detailed records are
stored in a database and her mobile number is the code that helps access her
complete info and tracks her activities. Further, age-specific and relevant
audio-visual updates are sent to her mobile automatically so as to benefit both
mother and child. If a mother is planning/has more than 1 child, AV Mate
provides info about all her children, who have unique ids assigned to them, in
turn linked to the mom’s primary id. Illiteracy will no longer be an impediment
to responsible motherhood viz. If ‘boils’ erupt over baby’s body, mom can take
her phone’s help to find answers to questions like- ‘why’ & ‘where’ to
treat it etc. Whether it’s due to heat, chicken-pox etc? Voice updates that –
“Date X is the date for Y vaccination. Take child to Z clinic located at ABC
street.” Or “Be at home today as Nurse N will visit you at hh:mm hours” Once a
mom actually takes her child for the stated health-service (as mentioned
above), her concerned mobile number is ticked off the system; else daily alarms
continue about due-date/other info. Owners must follow smartphone’s advice/instructions;
else the defaulters amongst them are tracked, warned and counselled. Surely,
smartphones envisaged as above can revolutionalise women’s lives.
These smartphones mould the future of
our nation- the children by monitoring their education on a daily basis and
also schedule classroom/students’ meet. It will be tough for anyone to drop-out
as smartphone will track truants! Baby hears classical music from inside the
womb that’s good for brain development. As age progresses, smartphone keeps
record and plays suitable lessons e.g. multiplication tables when child is 5
years old, introducing alphabets, nursery rhymes etc. Children love stories,
cartoons and animation. These enhance creativity. Children learn values through
moral-stories via Audio-visual-lessons- India’s rich literature viz.
Panchatantra, Jataka Tales and Hitopdesha etc. Folk-tales from all over the
world and regional stories provide learning. Attitudes, knowledge and
skills are addressed in separate AV lessons. Linguistic, cognitive and social
skills are imparted. Children can pick up very easily. Their thoughts and
emotions develop as they learn from engaging with the world. Lessons teach
their own mother-tongue and also English simultaneously. Children learn best by
doing what they love and what’s fun- learning through play activities viz. art
and games that inculcate the foundations of decision-making thanks to AV Mate. Applying
colours aids to their creativity, perception and memory. Games aid to their
learning through self-discovery as children get an opportunity to choose and
investigate independently. AV Mate takes care of children’s holistic
development. Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative, Emotional, and Cognitive
development widens their horizons, giving fillip to their imagination &
creative development. AV Mate also schedules regular classroom lessons & or
school meets.
Similarly, men folk will also
progress with info about farming, employment, self-help groups, entrepreneurship
etc. Smartphone counters superstitions and aids literacy, family-planning,
health & hygiene issues and ensures participation and empowerment right at
the grass-roots level. Each family can be tracked with their unique Smartphone
number that can be linked to the Aadhar project. This is a perfect Utopian solution.
But, to implement this Smartphone scheme, we need a Smart government. Till our
government metamorphoses into one, AV Mate can get its beauty sleep.
Meanwhile,
instead of ‘Har Hath Mein Phone’, why doesn’t the government empower its BPL
citizens by the ‘Jagannath Technology’
scheme that reaches all, just like the Rath Yatra! The idea is to impart effective training and efficiently generate
employment for the BPL and other needy sections of our society so that they can
help themselves and then, in turn, uplift others by providing jobs. Then,
someday, when the BPL population rises, divorcing itself from ‘BPL’, each
person can afford his own phone! After all, “Give a man a fish and you feed him
for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Then, we will
have a smart India.
