Community Information Resource Centre (CIRC) – Ratnauli & Mansoorpur: A Report
Thanks to ‘Community Information Resource Centre’ -(CIRC)’s gutsy initiative, the villagers of Ratnauli and Mansoorpur now get the internet connectivity where there is rarely electricity supply, just the odd TV set and no roads to speak of. Moreover, there the people are barely literate, who haven’t been near a computer in the past.
Like other deprived villages in Bihar, Ratnauli of Muzaffarpur and Mansoorpur of Vaishali District are also steeped in poverty. Majority of people there are scheduled caste Paswans Dusadhs, Sahni and Mahtos, who mostly work either in the agricultural field as labourer or run local small business for their livelihood. In comparison, Mansoorpur of Vaishali district is reachable and more developed than of Ratnauli of Muzaffar District. But, despite immense potential for rural internet growth there, the digital literacy has been always been a distant dream for the villagers. With the initiative of DEF, it’s not a dream anymore.
Digital Empowered Foundation (DEF), who is making the dream come true through its gutsy initiative as CIRC across rural India . Through Community Information Resource Centre (CIRC), DEF is working to increase digital literacy and internet awareness to make rural India digitally empowered.
Through CIRC, the rural population (in Ratnauli and Mansoorpur villages) are actually becoming aware of the new technology and realizing its benefits. With the majority of population residing in remote villages being dependent on agriculture the internet has variety of information to provide. It can disseminate information regarding Agriculture, Weather, Village and Panchayat’s development activities, State and Central government’s schemes for rural areas, which is crucial to the farmers. This will certainly help the farmers to prepare better.
To provide digital services like printing, scanning, educational film screening, it is well-equipped to give the villagers a better insight into various problems and address the local issues like unemployment and education. Thus, with the penetration of Internet in rural India through CIRC, we would certainly witness a complete revolution in coming days.