Kerala has outdone many more prosperous regions of country in providing basic amenities such as public health and education to common masses, in a recent decision, goverment cleared a project of providing high quality free internet to as many as 20 lakh poor families. These days welfare of people and web technology almost appear to be inseparable from each other.
On many occasions southern Indian states stand out
among other parts of country for the excellence it exhibits quite often in one
field or another. State capitals such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and
Thiruvananthapuram are telling symbols of brilliance of Indian growth story and
give a close resemblance to what a modern day India appears like.
For instance, Kerala has outdone many more prosperous
regions of country in providing basic amenities such as public health and
education to common masses even in a scenario where it is known-for-all fact
that our nation, far from being successful, has been crippling in this respect.
Being a coastal region, and with its cosmopolitan identity owing to continual
migration, Kerala state since its inception in 1956 unlike other parts of
country toiled hard to deliver to its people elemental services essential for
human development. Consequences of those early attempts are clearly visible in
its world class universal education numbers— close to 95 per cent.
A recent declaration by Kerala Government to provide
free high speed internet to 20 lakh poor families i.e. almost 10 million people
is another remarkable and next-gen oriented resolution, for the power of web
and digitalisation is already an established fact in bringing good governance
and well-being to people in quite unprecedented manners. Government authorities
taking reins into its own hand to assure quality internet for every citizen
also establishes “the fact of absolute need of internet for all and sundry” for
human development irrespective of their humble backgrounds.
These days welfare of people and web technology almost
appear to be inseparable, for its attributes such as all-inclusiveness, quick
delivery and transparency have replaced old & traditional opaque, always
lagging system that is either completely away from people or selectively
approachable.
The scheme will also connect schools and colleges as well
as all government offices, which are close to 30000 locations in state, which
has the potential to open-up immense number of opportunities for businesses, enterprises
and work-force to engage people in new and better ways. The idea behind
government taking this vital step was an understanding that ‘the entity called internet
is a basic human right and it belongs to everyone’.
The move is sure to enhance the capability of state to
take forward its programme towards improvement of education system in the state
as it has to be more than literacy numbers, in fact a lot remains to be done.
Beyond the basic benefits of internet, digitalisation in school education brings
all sorts of benefits for everyone involved with system—
(a) as it makes administrational processes easy for management
(b)
for teachers & students it helps in
devising more engaging ways to learn
(c)
and further it helps parents and schools
to communicate in real time while keeping a sound record of student performance
Similarly, this assurance of free internet to all amplifies
the chances of quality enhancement of higher education and all other services
and vocations. The programme as envisaged by Kerala Government is worth
emulating, for World Wide Web bears no single discriminatory element in it.