LEADER ARTICLE
Wired for Change | IT Route to Empowerment

That Information Technology (IT) is an extremely potent tool to alleviate the miseries of the common man has never been in doubt. Among the earliest to realise this were the politicians. Recognising the power of IT as a vote-catching device among the growing tribe of middle class, at least in terms of perception, some of the smarter ones have consciously cultivated the image of being IT-friendly.
Some, like Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, have actually acquired a larger-than-life image in the field. Then there are S M Krishna and Digvijay Singh, the current and former CMs of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh respectively. They too have worked assiduously to cultivate an IT-friendly image. However, while the real intention may be no more than to capture votes, IT is one tool whose spillover is always positive.
A report released recently by the Centre for Media Studies says that computerisation in various government departments has actually led to a decline in corruption levels. Middlemen are apparently the hardest hit. The report substantiates what the votaries of e-governance have always maintained, that IT would liberate the common man from the clutches of corruption and have a positive impact on his life, and that the government’s role should be only to facilitate, and in areas where human interface is avoidable, computers should take over.
This is particularly so in areas like electricity, municipal corporation, urban development, transport, civil supplies, hospitals, water supply and railways. The benefits are there for all to see. Take rail travel, for example. Anyone who travelled by train a decade ago and does so now would vouch for how things have changed. Standing at one of the reservation centres in Lucknow, you can get a ticket for a trip not only to Delhi, but even between Kochi and Chennai and any other sector where the railways operate. All this is taken for granted now. For not very long ago, someone who had to travel multiple sectors in the pre-computerisation and pre-networking era, had to encounter unimaginable miseries.
The same thing has happened with Indian Airlines too. No doubt, the middlemen still exist, but the scales are different. Ditto for banks and post offices. Or as Bill Clinton witnessed in Nyala village in Rajasthan in March 2003, where women from a co-operative used computers to test milk fat content, maintain accounts and surf the Net to get the best milk prices, all to empower themselves. All these functions are mere facilitation, and computers and improved telecommunications are already having a huge impact on the lives of the common man.
The other area where IT has a potentially major role is in education. When we talk of literacy, there is not just a shortage of classrooms, textbooks and stationery, but quality teachers too. IT has the potential to bridge this very significant gap. The distance e-learning modules being readied these days can, if need be, replace teachers. Some of them are so interactive that once a child sheds her initial inhibitions, she can actually feel more comfortable learning from such a module than from a human teacher. The other major advantage, however, is that the e-learning module can keep pace with changes. Let us face it, it is easier to replace a million CDs with updated information than retrain a million humans.
The real test of IT, however, is when it comes to information. Access to information is one area that perhaps impacts the common man more than anything else. Some states have already passed the Right to Information Act, and several others are in the process of doing so. Not only does it make life easier for the information-seeker, who would otherwise have to grease countless palms to get things as innocuous as a simple birth or death certificate, it actually makes governments accountable. If the local administration invests in some public utility and is forced to make public facts like costs and material used, the person entrusted with the task would be more careful.
A proper investigation could always expose the culprits, but making available such information in the public domain instils fears in the minds of babus. They know the skeletons in the cupboard can come tumbling out if their deeds are open to public scrutiny.
An example of how potent this can be was seen recently in Akola, Maharashtra, where a cloth merchant, harassed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board staffers, dug out dirt on officers, and threw the rule book at the authorities, forcing them to bring the errant officers to book. The state had passed its Right to Information Act in 2003. One can only imagine the impact it would have on everybody’s life when all non-strategic information is made available online.
Andhra has already taken steps in that direction with its e-seva centres. Information Technology has the potential completely to rewrite the rules of governance, especially in a country like India, where whims and discretionary powers have so far ensured that only those with money or muscle can get by. But as the experience in Maharashtra shows, such days could be numbered. The present government cannot stop talking about India Shining referring to the current buoyant economic mood. However, if it really wants the country to shine, it has to empower its citizenry, and the shortest, fastest and the most suited route for that is IT.