In order to assess the expectations of the rural masses from the Government and to encourage the rural participation in plans and policies, 1st National Conference on ‘e-Readiness Expectations of Rural Masses’ was organised at Patna recently. The Conference was inaugurated by the then Hon’ble Union State Minister of Communications and IT Dr. Sanjay Paswan. The conference included varied technical sessions and was attended by delegates from all over India.
A questionnaire containing around 25 questions were circulated among the participants (around 179 respondents) to draw important inferences on relevant issues. Some of the interesting findings include ….
The extent of satisfaction with the present systems of information availability showed that 71.51 per cent of rural Masses are not satisfied with present system of information availability. This indicates that there is an urgent need for alternative source/ means of Information system.
· With respect to question on reach of govt. services to the poor masses, 63 per cent were in agreement with the view that Govt. services are not reaching to the real beneficiaries. Analysis shows that main reason for officers not able to provide the information is lack of good information system. Hence, an effective information system is essentially required.
· 66 per cent of the rural population were well aware of the fact that Communications and Information Technology Tools are well utilised for the improvement of living standards of the rural mass. It is also encouraging for the planners that 66 per cent of the rural masses were aware of Internet.·
74 per cent were of the opinion that information on Health & Tele-medicine will help the rural mass in ameliorating their health conditions.
Further, 63.69 per cent were of the opinion that information on Land Records is of absolute necessity for the rural mass. Also, 61.45 per cent were of the opinion that School/ Virtual Schooling can play very important role in educating the rural mass.
· Maximum participation was from the age group 30 ~ 40 and the participants were mostly graduates or matriculate showing that educated youth can be trained and motivated for the implementation of the rural welfare schemes.
· Only 59 per cent participants were well aware of the Govt. Welfare Schemes thus emphasizing on the need for effective publicity of Govt programmes. It was also suggested that effective ICT based Information Facilitation Counters (IFCs) ought to be opened at the Block level.