TSunami Updates

Restoring Livelihoods in Tsunami Affected Coastal Areas of
Tamil Nadu: The 22^nd Update

The 21^st update highlighted on rehabilitation initiatives taken for the tsunami affected fringe communities. This update highlights the initiatives of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) for the tsunami affected communities.

Initiatives of the Theme

‘Information & Communication Technologies for Poor’ of

DHAN Foundation

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been the greatest agent of change and promises to play a major role in empowering the communities as well as in poverty alleviation and overall development. In the wake of tsunami, it is now very clear that information system could have saved thousands of lives. The participatory rural appraisal exercises with the affected communities across the state undertaken by our teams ascertained the need for the various ICT applications for their development. With the rich learnings & experience from the ICT initiatives of DHAN at Madurai, the teams have initiated both the Thagavalagalam Community Colleges and Thagavalgam Village Information Centres

1.Thagavalagam Community College

The objective of the ‘Thagavalagam Community College’ is to provide high quality computer education to the poor students of the tsunami affected coastal areas at affordable and low cost so as to improve their career prospects. These are run on a no-profit, no-loss basis. The general courses like Diploma in Computer Applications (DCA) and Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications (PGDCA) are being offered. Besides, they would also offer specialized courses like C, C++, VB etc. This is the hub to the Thagavalagam Village Information Centres in the district. The Thagavalagam associates are trained and constant guidance is provided to them. In addition, this serves as a resource centre with well equipped library (books and e-books). Community based content development is one of the key area of the college. The table 1 below gives an overview across the various districts.

Table 1

S.No	District	Block	Location of Community College	Date of opening	Name of the DHAN Executive
1.	Kancheepuram	Tirukalukundram	Kalpakkam	03.08.2005	Mr.SubaAnand
2.	Pondicherry	Pondicherry	Pondicherry	03.08.2005	Mr.Yuvarajan
3.	Cuddalore	Cuddalore	Cuddalore	21.04.2005	Mr.S.Parthiban
4.	Nagapatinam	Sirkali	Sirkali	21.04.2005	Mr.Rajkumar
5.	Karaikal	Karaikal	Karaikal	04.03.2005	Mr.Manikandan
6.	Nagapatinam	Keelaiyur	Velankanni	05.02.2005	Mr.Senthilnathan
7.	Ramnad	Ramnad	Ramnad	03.08.2005	Mr.N.Venkatesan
8.	Tuticorin	Tiruchendur	Veerapandipatnam	03.08.2005	Mr.Sarathi

Youth from the fishermen as well as agriculture community are being trained at all these colleges and the table 2 highlights about this and is graphically presented in Fig 1.

Table 2

S.No.	Location of Community College	Number of students trained so far
S.No.	Location of Community College	Female	Male	Total	Fishermen	Agriculture	Others
1	Kalpakkam	21	6	27	22	5	0
2	Pondicherry	14	20	34	23	11	0
3	Cuddalore	37	18	55	29	20	6
4	Sirkali	24	6	30	13	17	0
5	Karaikal	30	13	43	21	22	0
6	Velankanni	39	16	55	0	55	0
7	Ramanathapuram	35	3	38	36	2	0
8	Tuticorin	28	1	29	21	5	3

Apart from the Community Colleges, sub centres have been established at the following places namely, Koonimedu, Parangipettai, Thiruvengadu, Vedaranyam, Utchipuli & Sayalkudi.

2. Thagavalagam Village Information Centre

The Thagavalagams are the village information centres and their objective is to provide local, specific and timely information to the communities. The communities use the various kinds of information for their development. The information services of these centres are based on the information needs of the local community assessed through participatory rural appraisal techniques.

The thagavalagam associate is identified from the community and is trained in the community college for a period of 60 days. The training focusses on the technical aspects as well as on community mobilisation. Preference is given to women & youth of the weaker sections.

When one looks back at the community, the following classification can be made as fishermen community (involved in deep sea fishing, involved in fish selling/marketing), agriculture which includes landowners and landless agriculture labourers. Another classification is youth and women. These are the range of communities for whom the ICT services need to be designed. The range of services provided through the Thagavalagams is elaborated below:

Computer education

The objective is to provide computer education to students & youth so that they are competitive in the job market. Since, the trend of youth in learning computers has become a must; the focus of thagavalagam is to provide quality education at low cost with equal weightage on both theory & practical. For the better understanding of the students, the courses are offered in a mix of Tamil & English where it becomes easy for the students/youth to understand easily.

Online Interaction

With the powerful tool called internet it is now possible for people to interact with others. Video conferencing is a powerful method where the communities interact with the resource to discuss the day-to-day and location specific problems and obtain relevant solutions. Presently, the interaction between people and people has been initiated. The interaction between people and officials started recently. As a first step online discussions were held on health aspects. The online interaction for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries are proposed during October 2005. The interaction between teachers and students has been regularized in Karaikal.

Computer aided School Education

Today it is an accepted fact that computer aided learning helps in improving the learning curve of the students. The students in all the villages use the educational kits developed by our teams. Although there are lot of educational kits in the market but the limitation is that it is in English which could be well used in the Urban and not in rural. Our teams have put special efforts on developing school content. Today lot of students in these villages is using the educational kits and this is seen as a tool for coaching themselves. The students use the educational content on general knowledge & moral stories provided by Azim Premji Foundation extensively.


Students in Akkaraivattam Thagavalagam	Students in Mudalaimedu Thagavalagam

Functional literacy

In order to address the literacy issue, focus is given for the illiterate and poor women to make use of the adult literacy animated software (developed by Tata Consultancy Services). These women have started to read and write Tamil. The farming community also uses the bulk offline content on agriculture and animal husbandry. Special attention is given for developing offline content relevant to the fishermen community. The fishermen are using the content developed so far extensively.

Community based Content Development

This is a process of generating and developing content from the communities. The content developed are in local language and interactive. The above said fisheries content were developed both by the community and our staff through a participatory process.

Use of Internet, email and telephone

People have started using email and particularly SMS to the mobile phones. People are also interacting with their relatives in other villagers using video conferencing & chatting.

In the past six months, 39 thagavalagams have been established and another 47 are in the pipeline. The list of the 39 thagavalgams is given in table 3.

Table 3

District	Block	Location of VIC	Date of opening	Name of Associate	Village community
Cuddalore	Cuddalore	Sothikuppam	23.07.2005	Kalaiarasan.S	Fisherman
		Gunduuppalavadi	26.08.2005	Jayanthi.J	Agriculture
		Nanamedu	16.09.2005	Sangeetha	Both
	Kurinjipadi	Andarmullipallam	19.06.2005	Rajalakshmi.R	Agriculture
		Ayyampettai	19.06.2005	Bhuvaneswari.M	Fisherman
		Periyakuppam	19.06.2005	Shalini.V	Fisherman
		Thiruchopuram	23.07.2005	Mathumathi.A	Agriculture
Nagapattinam	Kollidam	Kodiyanpalayam	23.07.2005	Kanimozhi	Fisherman
		Chinnakodaimedu	23.07.2005	Arularasi	Fisherman
		Vettankudi	21.08.2005	Sathyanayagi	Agriculture
	Sirkali	Madathukuppam	23.07.2005	Maheswari	Fisherman
		Poombuhar	25.07.2005	Kayalvizhi	Fisherman
		Vanagiri	28.08.2005	Parvathi	Both
		Perunthodam	05.09.2005	Saritha	Agriculture
		Kilamuvarkurai	25.09.2005	Durga	Fisherman
		Kottayanpattinam	25.09.2005	Gayathiri	Fisherman
Karaikal	Karaikal	Kilinjalmedu	20.04.2005	Devi	Fisherman
		Kottaicherrymedu	20.04.2005	Indra	Fisherman
		Kasakudimedu	18.08.2005	Shyamala	Fisherman
		Mandapathur	27.04.2005	Bhuvaneswari	Fisherman
		Vadakattalai	08.06.2005	Saritha	Fisherman
		Karukalacherry	20.04.2005	Selvakumar	Fisherman
		Keelavanjore	18.06.2005	Bhuvaneswari	Agriculture
		Akkaraivattam	18.06.2005	Rajkumar	Agriculture
		Mudalimedu	18.06.2005	Lakshmanan	Agriculture
		Keelaiyur	20.04.2005	Hayanajmudeen	Agriculture
Nagapattinam	Keelaiyur	P.R. Puram	19.04.2005	Senthamilselvi	Both
		Kameshwaram	28.04.2005	Santhanakumari	Both
		Vilunthamavadi	19.04.2005	Sureshkumar	Both
		Puthupalli	19.04.2005	Balasubramanian	Agriculture
		Vettaikaranirupu	19.04.2005	Senthamilselvan	Agriculture
	Thalainaiyuru	Kovilpathu	28.04.2005	Chandra	Agriculture
		Vellapallam	19.04.2005	Sathya Priya	Both
		Naluvethapathi	17.06.2005	Vanitha	Agriculture
		Pushbavanam	17.06.2005	Rajeshwari	Both
	Vedaranyam	Sembodai	26.06.2005	Malathi	Both
		Periyakuthagai	17.06.2005	Umadevi	Agriculture
		Arkattuthurai	23.07.2005	Sudha	Fisherman
Tuticorin	Tuticorin	Tharuvaikulam	03.08.2005	Uma	Fishermen

Now the entire village communities are using the thagavalagam and the table 4 summarises the data.

Table 4

Thagavalagams	Services through Thagavalagams
	Computer Education	School education	Online & offline contents				Job work
	Computer Education	School education	Agriculture	Fishery	Education	Others	Job work
Cuddalore	111	63	0	0	7	31	68
Sirkali	123	139	0	0	0	48	28
Karaikal	295	205	65	23	56	39	98
Velankanni	343	274	200	5	0	90	0
Total	872	681	365	28	63	208	194


Inauguration of Madathukuppam Thagavalagam	Students in Poombukar Thagavalagam

The percentage of the thagavalagam services is depicted in Fig 2 below.

3.Community based Content Development

In general content is available but the limitation is that it is too general and not in local language. Community based Content Development is one of the major activity of the Community College and the Thagavalagams.
The following are the content developed during the last month – September 2005.

Varieties of Fishes
General Knowledge
Fresh water prawn culture
Varieties of Nets
10^th Standard Optional questions for Science and Social Science
Cattle rearing
Rabbit rearing
Coconut cultivation
Package of practice for paddy
Pulses
Mango tress
Groundnut

4.Proposed Thagavalagams

The table 5 mentions the names of the villages where thagavalagams will be established during the 1^st fortnight of October 2005.

Table 5

Sl. No	District	Block	Location of VIC	Date of opening	Village Community
1.	Kancheepuram	Tirukalukundram	Devaneri	Oct 2005	Fishermen
2.			Venpurasham	Oct 2005	Fishermen
3.			Kokilamedu	Oct 2005	Fishermen
4.			Meyyur kuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
5.			Uyyalikuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
6.			Sadras	Oct 2005	Fishermen
7.	Villupuram	Marakanam	Alagankuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
8.			Chettinagar	Oct 2005	Fishermen
9.			Koonimedukuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
10.			Mudaliarkuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
11.			Anichankuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
12.			Bommiyarpalayam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
13.	Pondicherry	Pondicherry	Vaithikuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
14.	Pondicherry	Pondicherry	Narambai	Oct 2005	Fishermen
15.	Cuddalore	Cuddalore	Singarathope	Oct 2005	Fishermen
16.		Cuddalore	Pachayakuppam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
17.		Parangipettai	Agaram	Oct 2005	Fishermen
18.			Pandagasalai	Oct 2005	Fishermen
19.			C.Pudupet	Oct 2005	Fishermen
20.	Nagapattinam	Kollidam	Thirumullaivasal	Oct 2005	Both
21.			Pudupattinam	Oct 2005	Agriculture
22.			Palayar	Oct 2005	Fishermen
23.	Ramanathapuram	Mandapam	Alagankulam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
24.			Pampan	Oct 2005	Fishermen
25.			Panaikulam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
26.			Utchipuli	Oct 2005	Fishermen
27.			Vedhalai	Oct 2005	Both
28.			Mandapam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
29.		Rameswaram	Rameswaram	Oct 2005	Fishermen
30.		Thiruvadanai	Thirupalaikudi	Oct 2005	Fishermen
31.		Thiruvadanai	Devipatnam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
32.		Thirupullani	Muthupettai	Oct 2005	Fishermen
33.			Periyapatnam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
34.			Sethukarai	Oct 2005	Fishermen
35.			Kilakarai	Oct 2005	Fishermen
36.		Kadaladi	Kannirajapuram	Oct 2005	Fishermen
37.			Naripayoor	Oct 2005	Fishermen
38.			Mariyoor	Oct 2005	Fishermen
39.			Valinokkam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
40.	Tuticorin	Tuticorin	Vembar	Oct 2005	Fishermen
41.			Tharuvaikulam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
42.			Veppaloadai	Oct 2005	Fishermen
43.			Vaipar	Oct 2005	Fishermen
44.		Tiruchendur	Veerapandipatnam	Oct 2005	Fishermen
45.			Aalanthalai	Oct 2005	Fishermen
46.			Kulasekarapatnam	Oct 2005	Both
47.			Periyathalai	Oct 2005	Fishermen

By the mid of this month 47 thagavalagams would be added and by December 2005 another 14 thagavalagams would be added thus making the total to 100.

5. Thagavalagam at a glance

No. of districts	7
No. of development blocks	23
No. of Community Colleges	8
No. of Community Colleges – sub centres	6
No. of Thagavalagams	39
No. of Thagavalagams (Oct 2005)	47

The Thagavalagam Principles

Promoting village level thagavalagam associations & federating them at location/block level. All sections of the poor communities as members of such institutions
Community based Content Development.
Various ICT applications for the development of the poor communities like functional literacy, health care, e-commerce, education, extension in the fields of agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, etc.
Access to Information for the Poor Communities.
Community managed Thagavalagams (at village level) and Community Colleges (at location/block) level.