Rural Connect: The Cooperative Way

This article examines trends in, and strategies being developed to address, rural connectivity challenges in India. The author, Mohan Mishra of India's National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), offers his insight in the context of what he describes as "the worsening plight of agriculture dependent population and widening urban-rural disparities." For instance, despite recent telecom growth, rural teledensity remains at 2% (compared to 31% in urban areas). Mishra argues that acknowledgement of the urgent need for rural development has led to a "slew" of information and communication technology (ICT)-based initiatives and announcements from "all quarters" that have, unfortunately, failed to lead to any real substantive work, or results, in the field - despite the trend he describes as "showcasing", or offering an expanding number of conferences and seminars.

Mishra's contention in this article is that a key reason for this failure is that many approaches tend to treat the rural connectivity challenge as primarily a technology issue. The solutions offered, thus, have concerned innovation at the product level, and have ranged from Simputers to the $100 laptop. However, connecting India's villages, he argues, requires an integrated solution, one that is sensitive to the challenge of sustainability - not only economic, but social. The solution, he thinks, has more to do with the ownership-operations model, and less with technical nuances in implementation of rural kiosks and the like. To foster substantive achievements in connecting rural India for real grassroots transformation, the author argues that technology should - and can - be integrated with cooperative linkages.

To illustrate this strategy, Mishra points to a company called Amul (also known as the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. - said to be the largest exporter of dairy products from India). Mishra claims that Amul's manufacturing facilities "are a point of envy for even the western world, and so are its IT-enabled logistics....That is true rural empowerment using ICT." Reflecting on this example, he notes that cooperatives are deeply entwined with the lives of rural people in India, where there are over 5 lakh cooperative societies with membership exceeding 22 crore. He points to the fact that principles of equity are embodied in the basic cooperative structures of these groups. Thus, he feels that the cooperative way is a natural approach for rural development, as well as for reducing disparities in access to technology. When combined with the potential that ICTs offer, cooperatives could, Mishra proposes, continue to play an important role in fostering economic productivity and rural growth, with linkages extending to the grassroots level.

That said, partnership and high-level involvement are also important components of the strategy for bridging India's rural-urban digital divide, Mishra argues. He notes that the government has launched an initiative to set up 100,000 Common Service Centres by 2007. However, he stresses that "the task of rural development requires a concerted cooperative effort and participation from all quarters. Along with the government and the co-operative sector, private industry needs to come forward to contribute substantively towards rural transformation, taking things beyond limited CSR [corporate social responsibility] activities."