It's a fascinating real life story. A village in India has own website. If you live in the west then it is not a surprising story but if you have any idea about South Asian villages then you would surely share the same excitement with me. Indian economy may be shining and growing but life for the people in rural areas is still very tough and most of them are poor. That is why; Hansdehar village is so unique in India. This village has its own website and it is the first in India for any village. This village is situated in the Indian state of Haryana.
The Website: http://www.smartvillages.org
This is the website of the project of SmartVillages. At this moment there is just one village, Hansdehar. And the website of this village is:
Go ahead the check the website. You will be amazed, I am sure about it. I could find all kinds of information about this village. In the infrastructure page, I could see that the village does not have health, sewerage, post office or bank. So, you can imagine the level of achievement for these people. You can find information about the major tourist attractions located here. There is also information about the bus routes and bus fares.
I found the People page quite fascinating. Here you can find the following lists:
Citizen Directory (information about all the people in this village)
Voters List
Pensioners List
There is information about ONGOING DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES. I found a very nice report in Reuters about the village and I am quoting from it:
Most of the residents can't yet surf the Hansdehar Web site as the village is not yet connected to the Internet.
But the villagers hope the site -- and their imminent first Internet connection -- will put them in touch with the world beyond the flooded rice fields surrounding Hansdehar, located in a rich agricultural belt in the northern state of Haryana.
"It will be a revolution," said farmer Ajaib Singh.
He and other villagers hope the connection with the outside world will help speed up improvements to Hansdehar's woeful infrastructure and services such as a lack of a dispensary and unreliable electricity. The village has long been neglected by the Indian government, locals complain.
"Now we can put our problems on the Web site, and then the government can't say 'we didn't know'," he said.
So, you can see the main benefit of a website for these villagers. They are now hopeful that this website will contribute in ensuring more accountability for their government. For the young people, Internet has opened a new window of opportunity. They can now get information about higher education and also about employment opportunities.
It is just another example of how Internet can help poor people living in rural areas. These people do not have any health facilities. They even do not have sewerage facilities but now they have their own website. Many people think that Internet is only for the modern people living in modern cities. However, I feel that Internet is even more important for people living in rural areas.
cool stuff... until you realize the popular local rag is the 'Dainik Sher-e-Haryana' - not Wired Mag.
Anyhow - an achievement nonetheless - I will look forward to a hindi version soon. thanks for the info.
Posted by: hairy_D | August 13, 2006 8:49 AM | Permalink to Comment