Harisal village is a part of Melghat region of Satpuda Mountain range, remotely located, forest area and inhabited by Korku tribal community. This region is also infamous for the higher prevalence of malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality rates. The region is administratively difficult due to a lack of road, power, mobile connectivity, and meagre public infrastructure. Digital Village Harisal Programme is an initiative of the Chief Minister Office for Development of Melghat region and providing online services to the citizens of Harisal. The programme is being implemented by the Government of Maharashtra in collaboration with Microsoft, HP, NIC, TCS, BSNL, and other Organizations to provide Health, Education, Agriculture, and other services. Under Digital Village Harisal Programme following services are being provided: • Health care- Telemedicine, Eye Care • Education- Digital Classroom, e-Learning • Citizen-Centric Services- ASSK • Agriculture Services- Training, Weather, Market-related advice • Mobile and Internet Connectivity- Wi-Fi • Public Distribution System- ePDS and Smart card • Banking Services- Mobile Banking, Digital Payment • Skill Development- Dress Designing, ICT • Access to various Government Programmes Implementation of Projects Technology enablement activities took a big leap at Harisal village from March 2016. Since then, several organizations have partnered in initiatives to address gaps in the progressive path. Many more joined the path of transformation from mere digital technologies to smart technologies. Technology clubbed with modern infrastructural establishment augmented the transformation of Harisal into an ideal village. This strengthened the capacity building of the community to initiate other projects facilitating self-employment. Many ICT intensive projects are being implemented by various departments and agencies with the active support of NIC. Following are some of them: Health care: Telemedicine Telemedicine is to delivery of Hospitals where distance is a critical factor by all healthcare professionals, using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease and injuries. HP Enterprise India Ltd. deployed eHealth Centre (eHC) at PHC, Harisal for telemedicine with other Health services equipped with all necessary medical instruments. The Telemedicine facility installed in the village is operational three days a week. Patients can avail themselves of advanced healthcare from specialists in urology, pediatrics, gynecology, plastic surgery, psychiatry, etc. Backend operation has also been ensured by connecting with doctors across three district hospitals in Amravati. About 438 sessions of Telemedicine have been conducted so far-reaching over 1205 patients in Harisal and surrounding villages. Health: Eye care To address the high rates of eye problems in the region, L.V. Prasad Eye Hospital has set up a facility and has trained technicians. A new building is built as an exclusive eye centre with advanced Eye care equipment. An ophthalmologist conducts outpatient eye care every Wednesday at the PHC which, being bazaar day, is attended by several people. Besides, five eye camps, which have reached over 990 people, were conducted in the facility. Special camps were conducted for students of 29 schools and 3115 students were examined for eye problems. Education: Digital Classroom HP Enterprise Limited provided Digital classroom solutions that support learner-centric pedagogies, integrated curriculum, and multiple assessment approaches. It allows for an interactive and stimulating learning experience through collaborative and personal learning settings in virtual and physical learning spaces. HPE installed Container with 16 Desktops and all ICT equipment at ZP school Harisal to provide ICT training to youth and Students of Harisal village. Dayalbagh Educational Institute, a vocational training partner has initiated an IT education course in the Digital classroom. The classes are conducted three days a week in the mornings from 8 to 10 am and are currently attended by 20 students. Currently, a Tally Course of 15 students is being conducted. Education: e-learning Technology is changing the face of education in Harisal. Anganwadis and schools alike are enabled with Computers that allow for computer-aided classes with content provided by Chaitanya Technologies. In two Anganwadis, pre-primary educational material such as nursery rhymes and times tables are delivered to children through video content in both English and Marathi. Anganwadi workers say that the video content is attractive to the children and has helped with attendance and retention. In one ZP school and two ashram schools, primary and secondary instruction is aided through video content that has both instruction and practice exercises. Children were seen engaging with the content by reading sentences aloud and solving math problems. Chaitanya Technologies has also provided each school with five tablets each to promote e-Learning. 54 Aganwadi students and 665 ZP school students are benefited from e-Learning. Connectivity: Internet and Mobile Internet Connectivity is provided by BSNL and Air Jaldi. Connectivity is now being provided to the entire village through Wi-Fi using four hotspot devices located at strategic points. Internet usage has been steadily increasing with the purchase of smartphones and the use of internet services. Examples include people submitting online job applications and using internet banking, particularly during the peak of demonetization. The Indus tower provides connectivity to the Idea network. This is the first reliable telecom provision in the village since the previous Reliance tower was often shut down. The tower is since benefiting Harisal as well as surrounding villages that fall within its range. Agriculture Service In Agriculture, two Technical partners namely m-Krishi by Tata Consultancy Services and Virtual Agri Services are working in the village. TCS Trained 39 farmers for sericulture production. VAS has also conducted multiple visits and has conducted needs assessments with farmers. They trained the farmers in partnership with KVIC. 50 Women have been trained for Self-help group procedures and methodologies. Kisan Suvidha mobile App having unique features like extreme weather alerts and market prices of the commodity has been added to empower farmers in the best possible manner. Farmers and youth of Harisal village are trained for the Kisan Suvidha and AgriMarket. Installed the apps and being used by Farmers. Efforts are being made to initiate poultry farming with the tribal department and beekeeping. Infrastructural improvements are also being pursued in partnership with the Project Office, Dharni for better fencing against wild animals, etc. e-Governance: Common Citizen Services Centre The launch of the Internet has enabled the creation of a Common Citizen Services Centre in the village which can cater to 5-10 villages in the surrounding vicinity. About 40 common citizen services are including RoR, Age and Nationality, Caste, land permits, birth and death certificates, ration cards, etc. are now enabled through the centre in the village itself, saving on travel of 30-50 km to the district office in Amravati. Aadhar enrolment is also available at the centre now which has reached a lot of people. About 9865 documents are delivered through Common Citizen Services Centre Harisal. Citizen-centric services are being provided through ASSK centers under the e-District Project using Digital Signature Certificate and Gram Panchayat through the Service Plus system. Skill Development Skill development is being done under the Maha- Kausalya Project of the Maharashtra Government for the local females for Dress Designing and other courses. Various initiatives have been undertaken in skilling such as a cutting and sewing program for women in a skills centre. After completing training, women can stitch clothes for their families and other villagers. About 90 women and girls have been trained for dress designing. They are also being encouraged to open their shop in the village. Dayal Bag Institute, Agra providing vocational training for ICT and other courses. Honey and Bamboo processing courses are likely to be started. Banking Services Bank of Maharashtra opened Account for all 1350 citizens of Harisal village and Debit card distributed to account holders, Banking Services includes Mobile Banking, SMS Banking, POS, etc. The Bank of Maharashtra has set up an ATM facility in the village. Training of BHIM app imparted to youth and Citizens for promotion of Digital payment in the village. Separate counter setup for MGNREGA and other Social scheme Payments in Bank. Cashless transitions are being carried out in shops and hotels using the Bhim app and PayTM. Public Distribution System: ePDS and Smart Card RC Under the PDS Scheme, digitization and distribution of Ration Card are already done for the citizens. ePDS being effectively implemented for the Distribution of grains and pulses to the ration cardholders. Smart card RC allows, ration to be purchased using biometric verification as well as through Smart cards. Smart cards in the name of the woman have been created for every household and about 350 of the 450 households have been registered. Solar Power Plants Solar power Plant has been provided to Digital Village Office, 2 Anganwadi, Aashram School, and other offices of Harisal as a Power backup for the installed facilities such as hardware, internet, e-learning, and other devices. In addition to the above, other projects are VC studio setup for organizing monthly VC sessions with Citizens, Library for youth for preparing Competitive Exams, Gym for youth, Harisal Tourism, Poultry farm, Bio-Gas, etc. Role of NIC Amravati: NIC Amravati playing a vital role in the Digital village Harisal programme, beginning from setup to operationalization. Act as a Nodal agency for Technical coordination with different departments/ agencies and provides Administrative and ICT support to District Administration. NIC also supports for implementation of Digital Locker, VC studio setup, Kisan Suvidha, and other National and State level Projects in the village. Citizen-centric services are being provided through ASSK under the e-District Project using DSC and from Gram Panchayat through Service Plus. All schools in the village use Technology to impart Education to students and Teaching happens with the help of audio-visual content as per their curriculum. Villagers have access to quality medical advice in PHC through e-HC centre using Telemedicine with other hospitals. In this programme Digital Technology acts as a catalyst for development, enabling local business opportunities, education, improving the health and welfare of Tribal as well as other citizens of Harisal.