I have chosen the topic called Information Technology to reduce poverty. Poverty has been a great issue for both developing and developed country. My focus will be on India. India has been the victim of poverty since its independence. I come from India and I have been through poverty. I had to work in order to buy my study books. I had to spend most of my time earning money and could spend only few hours for study. In rural area condition of girls is worst. They have to cook, look after their younger siblings, do household work and earn money so they hardly get the chance to study and even though they get the chance they don’t have money to pay for it. Parents do not hesitate to sell their children for little amount only. An Oscar winner movie Slumdog Millionnaire’s child star Rubina Ali’s father decided to sell her Oscar winner daughter to cope with financial condition. In order to fight poverty steps were taken in the past decade to encourage beneficiary participation through NGOs (Non-governmental organisations) and CBOs (Community-based organisations). Unfortunately, these were not successful due to many factors such as illiteracy, lack of access to educational opportunities and limited access to information and resources by the poor.
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The national minimum wage in India is 40-60 Rupees per day. As people are illiterate and they are unaware of their rights they are being used by others. The recent example of this is Primark. Primark – a well known British Clothing company has used the child labour. It paid a child 76 cent a day. Thus such companies and people take disadvantage of the poor people who are not aware of their rights. The reason for choosing Information Technology is it is widely spread. Using IT we can start of with literacy. People who are literate can be the first bead of the chain to start with and they can share their knowledge with others and in this way and the chain can be made bigger by getting more beads. In this way we can make them aware of their rights and make them able to fight for their rights. IT also helps to create more job opportunities not only in the field of IT but also in Management, Accounting & Finance, and Marketing & Sales etc.
With the help of information technology we can spread the awareness in rural as well as urban area so that poor people can find their own path for their better career and also help others to achieve their basic needs
Using the Information Technology we can provide the education to the people on the air at no cost. We can broadcast educational programme on the TV so people can take advantage of it. They need the support from the people who earn adequate money and can afford to buy a television and let people use it when educational programme is being broadcasted.
Information technology is the primary step towards in rural areas to reduce the poverty which can help the poor to reduce their poverty for longer period.
Literature Review
Literature Search Plan:
Figure 1: Literature Search Plan
The literature search plan is made of three parts which are as under.
Topics for Investigation:
This part will look at the causes of poverty in India, the Gap between Rich and Poor and the existing Information Technologies for Poverty Reduction.
Resources:
This part will cover the required resources and methods which are going to be used to achieve the proposed result. Books, news article and internet will be used and amongst that internet will be the main resource. Apart from this quantitative research method will be used.
Information Search Details:
This third part will focus on how and from where the resources will be collected.
Literature Review:
Population is increasing by leaps and bounds. The ratio of birth is high but the ratio of death is going lower because of the new health technologies and people being more concerned and aware about their health. On the other hand there are not enough jobs available and people are becoming unable to fulfil their basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, health care, clothing, and shelter. Since its independence, the issue of poverty within India has remained a widespread concern.
According to the common definition of poverty, when a person finds it difficult to meet the minimum requirement of acceptable living standards, he or she is considered poor.
People from rural area migrate to urban areas in quest of jobs. Rural people depend on agriculture income which depends on rain patterns and monsoon season. Due to climate change the environment cycle has tumbled and there are not enough irrigation facilities available which leading people to migrate to urban areas in quest of jobs. Where as in urban area there are not enough jobs and on top of that people form rural is coming there to find the job which boosts poverty in urban area.
Different Types of Poverty:
Figure 2: Different Types of Poverty
The definition of poverty is different for different people. Some thinks inability to buy basic needs such as food, water and shelter is poverty which comes under Income Poverty while other thinks it is about not getting fair share of education, health care or being given respect which comes under non-income poverty.
Figure 3: Urban and Rural Poverty Statistics
(Source: Economy Watch – Economy, Investment & Finance Reports)
We can see from the above statistic that the ratio of the urban and rural poverty is really high in the year of 1993-1994 (urban-32.4% and rural-37.3% of Indian Population)and a great fall can be seen by 2007 which means the poverty is being reduced and can be demolished by taking the appropriate and efficient steps.
Substitute Systems and its Problems
Government has taken steps to reduce poverty. It has started free education plans for poor people, inspiring people to get educated and start small business by providing financial help. Government has also motivated people to have fewer children to help maintain the population. Some steps and its problem has been describes as following.
Figure 4: Substitute Systems and its Problems
Solution:
AIITPR ( Asian Institute of Information Technology for Poverty Reduction) can be solution to fight poverty. It can be the answer to the problem faced on the existing systems by rejuvenating the existing education system and bringing this system to the community level so poor people can use it. By using IT including private sector channels and internet and digital technologies AIITPR can provide global support, design strategies, and network all the institutions across Asia. The community informations could start with the progarmmes and projects bought in the past and are of no use in the urban areas. They can be moved to the rural areas and can be set up in existing schools which will reduce the cost of hardwares in the beginning. Local leaders can be trained for using this basic hardware, software,email and internet access and other programs through distance education.
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The proposed AIITPR will conduct requirement analysis for the creation of information technology infrastructure in rural areas required for poverty reduction. It will also provide research support to proagrams of poverty reduction through human development. It will take responsibility to respond to the necessity of ICT training for the rural poor and build information skills development strategies for the poor youth in order to make sure that tomorrow’s poor can compete efficiently in an integrated market particularly for services. It will also make sure that the ICT is being operated for the poor people and poor countries in all spares of life. It will also make poor women’s access to ICT-enabled help (which includes legal services as well) easy to protect their rights.
Hypothesis
Figure 5: SWOT Analysis
To describe the hypothesis I will use the SWOT Analysis.
Strengths:
The Strength for AIITPR is easily available programs, projects and place. As mentioned in the literature review, projects and programs will be easily available to set up in the existing schools of rural area. As the community centres will start using the projects and programs bought in the past and not being used by urban areas, it will make this project cost effective. Other strength of this project is that the local leaders will be educated through distance learning in the areas such as email, basic hardware, software, internet access and other programs.
Weaknesses:
The weakness is that the methodology of the AIITPR is only the primary step towards poverty reduction. With the help of this project people will be able to gain the required knowledge and that knowledge will be put into action after long phase of experience. For example, one group of people is being trained for road work. They will get enough theoretical knowledge then they’ll have to go for practical knowledge and after that they’ll have to find a relevant job and prove that they are eligible for the job in order to gain a source of income which is the answer to the poverty. This whole process will be long. Thus, the purpose of the project will take quite a long time to achieve its goal for poverty reduction.
Opportunities:
This project will encourage poor people to take advantage of the provided services which will help them to find out the career suitable for them. They will be given the opportunity to get in depth knowledge of the interested topic and can start their journey into that direction at no cost. They can find the appropriate job or can start their own business based on the knowledge and training provided by AIITPR. They can be aware of the current world affairs and issues and may be able to help invent other programme like AIITPR which can boost up this idea of poverty reduction.
Threats:
The only threat of this project is that the future is unpredictable. This project might not receive a great welcome from the people. It might achieve its goals or might be put off at any stage. As mentioned in the Weakness above this program is the initial stage for the poverty reduction and it has to go through lots of stages to gain the result which will cost lots of time.
Conclusion:
As we have discussed above that IT definitely provides the basic platform and education/knowledge to compete against poverty but in the country like India IT is not the only factor which helps poor to reduce the poverty because there are many more issues which needs to be considered such as opportunity to get employment after acquiring relevant knowledge and skills, health issues, corruption, lack of government interest etc. Thus IT can only be considered as a helping hand towards poverty reduction and the full result depends on the answers to the other issues related to poverty.
Research Question:
Based on the literature review and existing theory we came to the conclusion that the AIITPR project might face problems in order to review poverty but one should not take make any guess about failure or success without proper investigation and proof. In order to find out the result I will conduct a telephone interview in India and ask the affected people few questions using the questionnaire. I will create a sample size using demographics such as gender, Age, Chief Income Earner, Education etc.
I will then input all those answers in SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) which will help run the statistical analysis. This analysis will give me the idea what people are thinking about AIITPR and whether they will be able benefit from it or not. I will also include open questions as well so that they can give their suggestions and can ask for the services AIITPR has not included which might be crucial to people.
I would like to give you the example of Kelloog’s Crunchy Nut. Kelloogg’s was faced with the challenge of reviving low cereal sales in 2001. With the help of the problem identification research, it was able to identify the problem and through problem-solving research, it was able to develop several solutions to increase the sales of cereals. The problems and their solutions found were as following.
Through problem identification research followed by problem-solving research Kellogg’s has seen increase in sales as well increase in consumption of cereals other than breakfast.
Thus Market Research helps you to find out the problem if the produce or service is already available. AIITPR is a new project so I will find out via conducting interviews that whether people will be satisfied with the services which will be provided. If they need extra services we can include them so poor people can benefit more from it.
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