“We are planning to expand the helpline to the state level, which is not only important but will also help in bringing about awareness in rural areas. Moreover, keeping in mind the changing times, there is a need to increase the phone lines and start something like a call centre to address to the queries. One of the biggest problems we face today is that the helpline is not accessible through the mobile network,’’ says Chandra.

TN villagers get digital identity

Biometric tracking gives a tamper proof identity to villagers

Jaya Menon - Chennai

Remote Gurrampeta, a tribal hamlet, seemed hardly the ideal place to distribute smart cards after an experiment with sophisticated personal tracking or access control systems. The backward village with 150 families was poverty-stricken and calamity prone. All that the tribals here wanted was a decent livelihood that would give them at least a meal a day. So, when Kris Dev and his IT savvy team from Chennai hit this rural reach of Andhra Pradesh, carrying their ‘access technology’ equipment, comprising a biometric device, a 9” by 6 “equipment weighing barely 500 gms, and a laptop, the villagers did not exactly jump with joy.

‘‘In fact, after setting up the equipment to start their experiment, it suddenly struck us that there was no power supply to Gurrampeta village,’’ says Kris Dev, a management and ICT consultant, specialising in decentralization and e-governance, co-founder of the Life Line 2 Business (LL2B). He recently won the Manthan Award in the category of ‘e-inclusion and livelihood creation.’’ The April 2006 experiment by Kris and his team in three villages of Andhra Pradesh, Gurrampeta (V R Puram Mandal in Khammam District), Mohammedabad and Jakulla Kootha Palli (Amadugur Mandal in Ananthapur district) coming under the National Rural Development Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) for ‘Biometric Tracking of Payments under NREGA and others’ was adjudged the best among 25 states in India.

... contd.