Implementation of such solutions must further be guided by the following principles :
(a) The solutions must, as far as possible, proceed from an integrated design approach, but on a modular structure, lending itself to adaptation to a variety of local needs and  priorities.
(b) The modules must enable easy, intuitive and inter-active computer use in the mother tongue by all, young or old, literate or illiterate, able or disabled. They must admit of use of  inexpensive assistive devices to enable use by the disabled, and use by the blind among the disabled implies that the modules must be voice-enabled.
(c) While the modules would each address a single objective, they must be combined appropriately within single programmes, in ways that are seen to be of cumulative value and importance to the people in their daily lives. A literacy module that teaches  how to read and write, along with a health module that teaches the right community and personal health practices for women and children, would make both more effective when combined in a single programme than when presented in separate programmes. Likewise an education module and a skills training module with an income earning potential, would prove more effective in combination than when in separate programmes. This programme enrichment or what may be called a “broad-band” approach, of combining multiple related modules and addressing multiple related objectives, would incidentally mean better returns on the same infrastructure investments.
(d) Training in the use of the modules should be handled by a local facilitator, who should be provided with a computer, with the relevant software modules and also special training in their effective use of both the hardware and software. The role of participants in training programmes must not be limited to passive  observation of screen output,  but should involve their inter-active use of paper-pencil and  keyboard  for their responses. The interaction should thus be three-way, between facilitator, computer and participant.
(e) The facilitator and required facilities should be found from local resources, both governmental and non-governmental. Considering that Governmental structures already have the widest reach among the people in terms of the spread of both facilitators and facilities, it makes sense to invest in low cost enhancement of the effectiveness of both with the new methodology.
(f) This will involve added cost on a computer and training, but in respect of existing Govermnment institutions, this may be only a small marginal and easily manageable addition in relation to existing staff and infrastructure costs, which are often substantial and do not yield commenserate results. All this is also true, though on a much smaller scale, of the non-governmental institutions.  There would also be the possibility that can be actively pursued of getting these items contributed as donations.
(g) What this means is that the large number of cutting edge grass root functionaries – teachers, health workers, welfare workers, volunteers etc must be trained and equipped through the use of the right Information Technology tools  to become far more effective facilitators than they are today, in the delivery of the whole range of educational and social welfare services. The whole concept is tied to the idea that knowledge dissemination and empowering small groups to make the right judgements in respect of their lives, would constitute the central determinant of welfare in society.

    No organisation, governmental or non-governmental, will find it difficult to see and accept  the logic of the foregoing principles. Many organisarions are today working in a small way with a few IT solutions, some of them good,  but are largely “narrow-band” in terms of approach and method.  One critical limitation with all of them is that they have not been able find or develop Indian Language software tools necessary for developing the IT based training modules operating in local languages.

    The objective of this paper is to bring to the notice of all organisations that a complete and significant IT solution, comprised of both the development tools and the training application modules developed with these tools, are available here and now, free for use by anyone for use by any person or organisation committed  to the socio-economic development objectives mentioned at the outset.  The tools are provided in a Multi-lingual Software Package from the Computer Science Department of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras,  and the Application Modules in a software suite  from Vidya Vrikshah, an NGO based in Chennai, as detailed below.

THE MULTI-LINGUAL SOFTWARE  PACKAGE OF THE IIT CHENNAI :

This remarkable Software Package has been consciously designed and developed by the IIT Chennai,  as a National solution to bring  literacy, education, training  and employable skills  for the benefit of all, especially the socially and physically disadvantaged, through the use of Information Technology. At the heart of the package is a multi-lingual editor  which enables anyone, literate  or illiterate, able or disabled,  to quickly and easily  learn to use Computers in the Indian languages (as also English).

The Package provides for :

(a) Input through the common standard PC keyboard on an intuitive common phonetic basis, of text in any Indian language.  (and English, as also ancient scripts like Grantha, and right to left scripts like Urdu, Arabic and Persian).
(b) Output in the language chosen for input, in the following formats :
        (i)  screen display in the normal script and also its braille equivalent;
        (ii)  voice output where input is spoken letter by letter, word by word,
               line by line or  read out as a whole file, as may be desired, along with spoken
               prompts to aid text navigation and editing, by  blind  users;
         (iii) ink print and
         (iv) embossed braille.
(c) Supplementary utilities for disseminating information through the Internet eg email in local languages.
 
    The Package has recived the Award for the Best Technology Solution for the Disabled for 2003 from the Government of India.    The entire Software suite is offered free of cost by the IIT Chennai and can be downloaded (except for the Sound enabled version of the Editor because of its large size) from their website http://acharya.iitm.ac.in  The package rests on a high level of technical and linguistic sophistication in design, which makes it a unique, one of its kind solution in the country or abroad. The package rests on a high level of  technical and linguistic sophistication in design in catering to the syllabic writing system followedby our languages. Yet the simplicity of the user interface which allows total uniformity in operation across all languages, on a variety of computer systems, makes it a unique,one of  its kind solution anywhere,within the country or abroad. It is important to note here that the software will work transparently in the Windows platform, as well as under  Linux, the emergong Open Source Operating System, which hold much promise for the development of localized applications by volunteer groups and students of the country. A vast range of  information on the package and on both technical and linguistic issues in  Indian Language Computing can also be viewed at the IIT’s website.

APPLICATION MODULES DEVELOPED BY VIDYA VRIKSHAH USING THE IIT SOFTWARE PACKAGE  :

    Vidya Vrikshah, is a Voluntary Socio-Cultural Service Non-Profit Organisation, registered as a Charitable Trust, based in Chennai. It is part of a collaboration with the IIT Chennai to develop and implement  a wide range of applications and activities of socio-economic relevance and significance based upon the IIT’s Multilingual Software Package. All this accomplished through the free services of  volunteers drawn mainly from housewives and senior citizens of the community. This  collaborative effort of both the IIT and Vidya Vrikshah arose out of  their shared desire to  demonstrate the feasibility and power of a new and unique concept of social engineering to marry techology to voluntary social effort  to provide solutions to fulfil crying social needs of the common people across the country..
 
    Over the last five years (as of 01-01-2004) Vidya Vrikshah’s volunteer force has grown to over 150 and the following are some the results of their activities conducted under the aegis of its Centre for Disability Research, Development and  Training  :
(a) Nearly 250 persons  from all over the country, including large numbers of  disabled persons (many of them visually impaired) and instructors and teachers from both normal and special schools and training institutions  have been given both the IIT software and training in its use, free of charge.
(b) Development and implementation of  a wide range of hardware and software based projects as listed below and details of which can be seen in their website at www.vidyavrikshah.org.

        Project Akshara  : A Literacy Programme to Learn / Teach alphabets and words in any Indian Language
                                       or English, as represented  in their  Written, Spoken, Sign Language and Braille forms.
        Project Vidya      :  An Education Programme to Learn / Teach any school level subject in any Indian
                                        Language or English, as  represented in their  Written, Spoken,  and Braille forms.
        Project Siksha     :  Special Education / Training Programmes to Acquire / Impart skills through  all Indian
                                         languages  relevant to  training of  persons with any type or degree of disability through
                                         the following component projects :
                                                 Project Upanayan    :  for Mental disabilities 
                                                 Project Dhvani         :  for Hearing and Speech disabilities
                                                 Project Dhrishti        :  for Visual disability
                                                 Project Chaalanam   :  for Locomotor disability
                                                 Project Raksha         :  A Programme to Learn / Teach Health  practices for the
                                                                                       prevention of disease and disability.
 
        Project Pariksha :  To establish a Model Tele-Consultation Service which will enable a mother with a
                                        disabled  child to engage in a free Internet-based face-to-face tele-consultation  with a
                                        Medical or  Rehabilitation Expert or Special  Educator or Trainer in any part of
                                         the country.
 
          Project Vikas     :  To establish a network of Vikas Training Centres to promote  development of women and
                                         children on the integrated approach described above in this paper, by providing
                                         computers, relevant software modules and training in their use to  teachers, health
                                          workers and welfare workers  in  Schools, Anganwadis,  Self-Help Groups etc,
                                          especially  in rural areas.. Three Chennai-based NGOs – Relief Foundation, Mentors,
                                          and Vidya Vrikshah have come together to initiate implementation of this Project in an
                                          organised way. Vikas Training Centres have since been set up in over 12 locations
                                          during the period 01-01-2003 to 31-02-2003 in Chennai, and Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur
                                          and Vellore Districts. More  centres are programmed for the future.
            Project  Pusthak  : To establish a Model Demonstration-cum-Training Centre for production of free Braille
                                          Text books for Visually Impaired students in all Indian languages. An innovative and
                                           inexpensive duplication  process has been developed for this purpose, which can be
                                           widely implemented  on  a cottage industry basis.
             Project  Yantra   :  Adaptation of existing assistive devices or development of  new devices that will enable
                                             persons with different types of disabilities to use computers in Indian languages, eg
                                                (a) a Light-actuated Keyboard ( both Hardware and On-screen models) with
                                                     Spectacle-mounted  Light Pointer that a bi-plegic or quadri-plegic person can use
                                                      to  operate the keyboard ;
                                                 (b) modification of an inexpensive radio-cum-taperecorder to serve additionally as
                                                       a  hearing aid;
                                                 (c) development of Electronic Talking  Text Books in local languagers.
                                                 (d) development  of a new design for a braille slate, for learning to read and
                                                        write in braille.

CALL FOR WIDER COLLABORATION :

         Both the IIT Chennai and Vidya Vrikshah would be glad to share their experiences, solutions and other resources with Individuals and Organisations committed to activities and programmes to contribute to literacy, education, health and skills, especially  to the socially and physically disadvantaged in the country free of cost.

          This could take the form of a  formal joint collaboration with the IIT Chennai and Vidya Vrikshah by Individuals, Governmental and Non-governmental organisations like Social welfare departments and education and training institutions in the country who would like to establish or already have a deep reach of welfare services among the socially and physically disadvantaged in the rural areas, to greatly enhance the effectiveness of their existing services at low or no cost. This could be through establishment of  Central Training Centres and / or  a widespread network of  individual Vikas Training Centres, to be run by existing teachers and volunteers equipped and trained to train  large numbers of socially and physically disadvantaged people  in the proximity of their homes. The enclosed proposal provides a model for a viable and inexpensive implementation methodology  as adapted for being undertaken  typically by large eye hospitals .

Encl : Proposal for Higher Vision Training Centre
 

         Major Eye Hospitals in the country like the Aravind Hospital, Madurai and the L.V.Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, have evolved over years of unremitting effort and dedication into a magnificent systems of comprehensive eye care, covering the entire range of strategies from Prevention to Medical and  Surgical Intervention to Rehabilitation. Springing from a medical institution, these strategies have necessarily proceeded primarily from a medical focus.

Objective :

        This is a proposal for a conscious enlargement of this focus to embrace a socio-economic dimension, by bringing  to the needy, with low vision or no vision, the higher visions that open up through literacy, education, health awareness and employable skills. In fact this is just a small but critical value addition of a socio-economic dimension to the existing superb Rehabilitation strategy.

Approach :

         The Higher Vision Training Centre is envisaged as the institutional mechanism to accomplish this objective, in terms of a two-tier structure :

(a) A Central Training Unit  where persons with low or no vision can be trained to use computers in their mother tongue, using the Vikas Initiative, a Software Package developed by Vidya Vrikshah, which provides powerful content for Training in the areas of Literacy, Education, Disability, Health Awareness and Practices, and IT-based employable Skills; in other words to be trained as facilitators as described in the main concept paper above; and

(b) A network of Single Teacher Training Units based in 5 villages in the first instance, each unit being equipped a Computer and the same software, and to be run by persons trained in the Central Unit.

Equipment requirements :

Each Village Training Unit  will be equipped with :

(a) Hardware  (Minimal) :
        (i) An IBM Compatible PC with a 350 MHz Intel Processor;
        (ii) Standard AT 101 Keyboard
        (iii) 14” Colour VGA Colour Monitor;
        (iv) 32 MB RAM;
        (v) 20 GB Hard Disk;
        (vi) 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive;
        (vii) 24 X CD ROM Disk Drive;
        (viii) Mouse;
        (ix) Sound Card;
        (x) Microphone and Speakers;
        (xi) 80 Column Dot Matrix Printer; (because of low running cost);
        (xii) 500 VA UPS;
        (xiii) 1 Box Floppy Disks;
        (xiv) 10 Standard Braille Slates;

(b) Software :
        (i) Windows-9X and MS-Office; and
        (ii) The complete suite of software packages on a CD including the  Multilingual Editor (Sound and Non-sound
              versions), and Braille and other Utilities of the IIT Chennai; and the Training Packages of Vidya
              Vrikshah, along with public domain programmes for a Screen Magnifier and On-Screen Keyboard.

    The Central Training Unit will be equipped with five sets of the items listed above.

Costs :

The Hardware is estimated to cost Rs 35,000 per set and Windows-9X and MS-Office should come along with the hardware purchase. The Software in item (ii) will be free of cost. With five sets of equipment items  for the five Village Training Units and five sets for the Central Training Unit, the total outlay will  be of the order of Rs 3.5 lakhs. Community support will have to be mobilised for the infrastructure requirements of the Village Units, accomodation, electricity etc.  The host Eye Hospital may provide equipment maintenance support whenever needed, as also the infrastructure for the Central Training Unit.
 
 
Training Schedules :

(a) The standard training course at the Central Unit will be of 6 days duration (Monday through Saturday) with two 3-hour sessions each day (0900 to 1200 and 1400 to 1700 hours). There may be may be a maximum trainee intake of 10 per course (assuming 2 trainees assigned to each of the 5 PCs, and two courses may be programmed per month. The training may be free of charge and the host Eye Hospital may also consider providing free boarding and lodging to poor trainees from the villages for the duration of the course.

(b) The training course at the Village Unit will also be of 6 days duration but will be limited only to one 3-hour session each day (either 0900 to 1200 or 1400 to 1700 hours, as may be locally convenient to the Trainer) Here too, the training will be free of charge. But the Trainer may be compensated by allowing him to use the equipment outside training hours on jobs that will fetch him an income.

Implementation :

         It is critically important that there is no time delay between the completion of the Central Unit course and the starting of the Village Unit courses. Training often becomes futile and wasteful if not put into practice without any loss of time.

         Expansion of training capacity in the Central Unit, extension of Central  Units to other Branch locations of the Hospital, and addition of field Units to more villages may be taken up in due course in the light of experience and demand. Sponsorship by donor agencies may also be sought when the initial results can be demonstrated to be significant and valuable.

         Vidya Vrikshah will be happy to assist in every possible way to secure a smooth and effective implementation of this proposal.
 

Station : Chennai                                                                             N.KRISHNASWAMY

Dated : 01-01-2004                                              MANAGING TRUSTEE, VIDYA VRIKSHAH