| eDost: digital village catalysts standing by the community in the crisis - 22/03/2020 |
| BAIF Development Research Foundation |
| International and Regional Organizations | Asia & Pacific | India |
| Considering the lack of digital services for the remote village community and lack of enterprising livelihoods for millennials especially for the feminine gender, we worked on women-first digital catalyst model called eDost to work towards giving shape to a smart digital village. Our first eDost: Anjali Tai began offering financial services in Pathardi village of Jawhar block in Maharashtra, India in June 2019 which greatly helped the village community by saving their time, money and efforts by avoiding the need to travel to the nearby town to avail these services. With support from APC this model was further scaled up to 15 eDosts offering services such as cash withdrawal, money transfer, mobile recharge, bill payments and other services. During the COVID-19 crisis, there was a strict lockdown which prevented people from venturing out of their homes. The Indian Government also undertook monetary support in terms of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) directly into the bank accounts of community members. This is where the eDosts stepped in to offer Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS) based financial services enabling the community to withdraw money and recharge their mobile phones at their doorsteps. Hence, in a span of 1 month, i.e., from 22 March 2020 to 21 April 2020 about 10 eDosts, offered services amounting to a total of INR 0.63 million to 828 beneficiaries. This was undertaken by eDosts amidst fears to their own lives due to uncertainty posed by COVID-19. This was appreciated by the district authorities and have requested to scale up this model across the district. In this regard, we are working towards expanding the portfolio of digital services offered by the eDosts to include eGovernance and knowledge sharing services. With these involvements, it has reinforced this feeling that a human touch adds great value in Connecting the Unconnected. |
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Source Link Keywords: eDost, digital village catalyst, digital financial services, COVID-19 lockdown, India, BAIF, Gram Marg, APC |