Skip to main content

Gujarat NGO provides wifi, tablets to poor saltpan workers' children of Kutch, official terms it "temporary solution"

By Our Representative
Even before the Gujarat government initiates its well-publicized decision to provide tablets costing Rs 1,000 to four lakh youths, an Ahmedabad-based NGO has begun a major experiment to train poor primary school children of the saltpan workaers in the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) to use tablets as a learning tool with the use of wifi through mobile van.
Spread out in the vast expanse of LRK’s 5,000 sq km, around 8,000 families from the nearby villages come to the LRK post-monsoon for six months to produce salt to earn a livelihood. If earlier NGOs would run make-shift schools across the LRK, now the state government sets up temporary schools for the children of these families for six months.
Organized by Agariya Hit Rakshak Manch (AHRM), which has been working for the welfare of saltpan workers for the last over a decade, the wifi experiment is being supported by Delhi-based Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), which claims to have been working among 80 districts of India for overcoming the digital divide between the rich and the poor.
Talking with Counterview on the sidelines of a function in LRK, where little children were seen using tablets to learn arithmetic, English and Gujarati, DEF’s founding-director Osama Manzar said, “The current speed of wifi is 6 mbps, which we propose to increase to 20 mbps so that children are at ease to connect with the outside world with internet and improve their learning skills.”

Earlier, addressing the function, Manzar said, “Currently, we are providing wifi facilities for tablets donated to schools to the children of seven LRK schools. We plan to take it to 14 temporary schools within six months.. Our mission is to demonstrate that internet is no rocket science, it can be part a child’s play, a part everyday life for the poor.”
At the temporary school, set up in a tent next to the function site, children were seen using voice recognition to reach out to internet, as they do not know typing. Using youtube, one of the children, Anil told Counterview, “See we can learn ABCD on tablet! It’s so simple!” Added Sagar, another child, “All of us know how to use it now. It’s a great friend.”
AHRM director Harinesh Pandya said, “The internet facility will also be used for connecting saltpan workers’ children with the permanent schoolsoperating in the villages surrounding the LRK. With the help of the facility, the teachers could teach English and arithmetic on internet.” He hoped, donors would come forward to provide more wifi vans and tablets.
Added ARRM’s senior activist Pankti Jog, “Tablets connected with wifi to children is, however, not the only aim of providing internet facility in the LRK. We want to create a complete data base of around 8,500 families who come every year to produce salt in the region. They use up just 2.5% of 5,500 sq km area, yet they are harassed and sought to be displaced, as the saltpans operate in the wild ass sanctuary.”
Critical of the NGO experiment, a Gujarat government official of the Sharva Shiksha Abhiyan official, Punabhai Vakatar said, “These are all temporary measures to bring in children to the mainstream. Unfortunately, none of the several NGOs working for the welfare of the saltpan workers’ children have looked for finding a permanent solution provided by us – to make children live in residential schools set up in several of the villages surrounding LRK. It’s all free.”
Contradicting , Jog told Counterview, “What government officials do not recognize is, while children of the upper primary go agree to stay in residential schools set up by the government, the children studying in classes one to five find it difficult to part with their parents. They are therefore brought into LRK by them.”

Comments

TRENDING

'Draconian' Kerala health law follows WHO diktat: Govt readies to take harsh measures

By Dr Maya Valecha*  The Governor of Kerala has signed the Kerala Public Health Bill, which essentially reverses the people’s campaign in healthcare services in Kerala for decentralisation. The campaign had led to relinquishing of state powers in 1996, resulting in improvement of health parameters in Kerala. Instead, now, enforcement of law through the exercise of power, fines, etc., and the implementation of protocol during the pandemic, are considered of prime importance.

Reject WHO's 'draconian' amendments on pandemic: Citizens to Union Health Minister

By Our Representative  Several concerned Indian citizens have written to the Union Health Minister to reject amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted during the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA75) in May 2022, apprehending this will make the signatories surrender their autonomy to the “unelected, unaccountable and the whimsical WHO in case of any future ‘pandemics’.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Bihar rural women entrepreneurs witness 50% surge in awareness about renewal energy

By Mignonne Dsouza*  An endline survey conducted under the Bolega Bihar initiative revealed a significant increase in awareness of renewable energy among women, rising from 25% to 76% in Nalanda and Gaya. Renu Kumari, a 34-year-old entrepreneur from Nalanda, Bihar, operates a village eatery that serves as the primary source of income for her family, including her husband and five children. However, a significant portion of her profits was being directed toward covering monthly electricity expenses that usually reach Rs 2,000. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Work with Rajasthan's camel herders: German scientist wins World Cookbook Award 2023

By Rosamma Thomas*  Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are the only awards for international food culture. This year, German scientist  Ilse Kohler Rollefson , founder of Camel Charisma, the first of India’s camel dairies, in Pali district of Rajasthan, won the award for her work with camel herders in Rajasthan, and for preparing for the UN International Year of Camelids, 2024. 

Why is electricity tariff going up in India? Who is the beneficiary? A random reflection

By Thomas Franco*  Union Ministry of Power has used its power under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to force States to import coal which has led to an increase in the cost of electricity production and every consumer is paying a higher tariff. In India, almost everybody from farmers to MSMEs are consumers of electricity.

'Pro-corporate agenda': Odisha crackdown on tribal slum dwellers fighting for land rights

By Our Representative  The civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as condemning what it calls “brutal repression” on the Adivasi slum dwellers of Salia Sahi in Bhubaneshwar by the Odisha police, has said that the crackdown was against the tribals struggling for land rights in order to “stop the attempts at land-grab by the government.”

Deplorable, influential sections 'still believe' burning coal is essential indefinitely

By Shankar Sharma*  Some of the recent developments in the power sector, as some  recent news items show, should be of massive relevance/ interest to our policy makers in India. Assuming that our authorities are officially mandated/ committed to maintain a holistic approach to the overall welfare of all sections of our society, including the flora, fauna and general environment, these developments/ experiences from different parts of the globe should be clear pointers to the sustainable energy pathways for our people.

Hazrat Aisha’s age was 16, not 6: 'Weak' Hadith responsible for controversy

Sacred chamber where Prophet and Aisha used to live By Dr Mike Ghouse* Muslims must take the responsibility to end the age-old controversy about Hazrat Aisha’s age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet (pbuh) – it was 16, not 6 (minimum was 16, Max 23 per different calculations). The Hadiths published were in good faith, but no one ever checked their authenticity, and they kept passing on from scholar to scholar and book to book.  Thanks to 9/11, Muslims have started questioning and correcting the Hadiths, Seerah, and mistranslations of the Quran. Now, the Ulema have to issue an opinion, also known as Fatwa, to end it and remove those Hadith entries. Mustafa Akyol, a scholar of Islam, implores Muslims to stop deifying “the received traditions” and critically study their religious past, shedding rigid legalism and close-mindedness. Someone else used the phrase “copycat Muslims” to identify scholars who copied what was given to them and passed it on without researching or questioni