Page 181 - ITU Kaleidoscope 2016

ICTs for a Sustainable World

Table 2, which was translated in native language and was  SHG-to-SHG: sharing knowledge and experiences
used in the form of interactive SMSs during the field study. across SHGs
 SHG-to-Government : making government agencies

Table 2: Sample Questions (translated in native language) aware of the needs and wants of SHG in particular and
used for interactive SMS during the field study the community at large
 SHG-to-Bank: Enabling banks to identify financial
requirements of SHGs before executing formal
Q. No. Question in Category: Training
procedure
Are you interested to participate in any type of training
1 program organized by NGO / Gram Panchayat?  SHG-to-market: Enabling SHG members to get
a. Yes b. No market awareness and market linkage directly
What type of training programs is suitable you? bypassing middleman; enabling them to identify
2 a. Agriculture b. Cooking c. Poultry d. Tailoring sources of raw material procurement and channels for
Do you have access to regular training / workshops? finished product selling
3 a. Yes b. No  SHG-to-Advisory Service Provider: enabling the
Do you have previous experience in order to create M.I.P. providers to know the needs of SHGs and act
4 (Micro Investment Plan)?
a. Yes b. No accordingly (mediated by NGOs)
How many people from your team want to be associated  SHG-to-Training Organizations: enabling the
5 with this type of training programs? providers to know the needs of SHGs and act
a. Less than 5 b. Greater than 5 accordingly (mediated by NGOs)
From where do you get product development training?
6 a. From block b. From NGO c. not at all
5.3 Challenges Faced and Possible Solutions
Q. No. Question in Category: Market Linkage
 Most of the SHG members are from indigent
Where do you sell the product?
1 a. City Market b. Cooperatives c. Local Market communities of the village with very low literacy
To whom do you sell the product? skills. They use only low-end feature phones for
2 a. Wholesaler b. Retail c. Co-operative d. Government calling purposes and are not used to SMS.
What is the main problem for selling your products? Additionally, all feature phones do not provide native
3 a. Less Market Price b. Low demand c. Monopoly language support in firmware level. So, we cannot
Business d. Transportation e. Sale price unknown interact with some of them using SMS in the native
How much profit do you earn?
4 a. Good b. Inconsiderable c. No profit language. Some members have difficulties in reading
Did you know the exact market value of your product? native language text also. In future, IVR (Interactive
5 a. Yes b. No Voice Response) [20] service will be incorporated with
From where, raw materials will be collected? NCoRe system, through which NCoRe system will be
6 a. Local market b. City market able to interact with the community members through
voices instead of SMS text. In both cases, community
Q. No. Question in Category: Advisory / Counseling Service training on phone usage will be needed.
What kind of support do you want?
1 a. Health b. Education and training c. Legal  Presently, SMS cost in India is high. It is an
What kind of medical-related supports you want? impediment to communicating with indigent
2 a. Heart b. Pregnant women c. Children d. Mental illness communities through Interactive SMS. At present
e. Cancer f. Addiction treatment Toll-free SMS in India is not possible. But, TRAI
What kind of advice do you want?
3 a. Job b. Higher Education (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) issue
Need legal assistance? licenses [21] to some mobile operators for providing
4 a. Family Violence b. Property Related Issue MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) [22]
Need any type of Vocational Training? service in the India. Under this technique, toll-free
5 a. Yes b. No SMS will be possible and senders need not pay for
their SMSs. This service will be incorporated with
NCoRe in future.

5.2. Data Processing  We are also planning to provide a low-cost smart
phone to a group of SHGs on a trial basis. This
The responses are collated and classified according to scheme is already implemented in some villages of
different categories to document their day to day needs and Tamil Nadu, India. A customized smart phone has
wants. These responses form the basic pointers to the been distributed to 4,626 SHGs in the district under
respective authorities / agencies to take appropriate actions NRLM [23] scheme.
and orient their services in a more customized fashion. The
insights generated in this field trial suggest that NCoRe
will be useful both for purposes of effective program
development and policy design. It promotes interactions
and provides direct connectivity among:

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