ICT is finding applications in all human endeavours and at the national level. Digital India project has been launched which also called upon the civil society organizations to extend it to rural areas and education in the remote habitations. Keeping this in view CULP team sought to have an experience to gain insights so that it could not only help Druv project but also to use it as a part of classroom interventions.

CULP has been implementing ICT-based Druv Project in taking Digital India Initiative to households in four villages of Jamwa Ramgarh block in Jaipur district since January 2017. The project has been made viable by converting smart TV into computer screen mediated through a customized centre box (Druv box) which are provided free of cost to the user households. Druv project is an initiative of Tata Trusts as a non-profit social development activity with the technical support of a US-based company ‘PRODEA’ and collaborated with Information Technology Department of Government of Rajasthan.

Druv Project aims at reaching out to rural population in Rajasthan to bring social change in the community by helping them utilize the power of digital technologies by providing free access of internet on available TV Screen. Its main purpose is to facilitate the digital, social and financial inclusions by appropriate use of ICT.

CULP works for the education of children of rural communities in tribal backward districts where the Households don’t have easy access of internet. We also felt that youths are glued to Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube which is not much useful for their development, and Druv is striving for a paradigm shift in delivering useful curated multimedia contents on TV in domains such as e-Gov, Education, Agriculture, and Health. It contains educational videos and useful knowledge / information about various government programmes, social security schemes, learning material for students, child and women health, agriculture, current affairs for youth aspiring jobs. All members of rural families are direct beneficiaries of the project since there is relevant information and knowledge for both women and men, children (from age 3 and above) and youth which can be used for betterment of their lives.

CULP has installed Druv boxes in TVs of 500 households in four villages (viz. Jamwa Ramgarh, Andhi, Tala and Raiser) for providing internet access by converting TV in smart screen. More than 80% households are using the Druv boxes.

The key challenges faced were

• non-compatibility of TV screens in about 90 % Households
• Poor Internet connectivity
• non-availability / non-retention of committed community volunteers who could impart user education and wallet education of members of Druv subscriber families. Effective Social Marketing Strategy is required to be adopted and a cadre of community volunteers must be trained, supported by a committed team of two young professionals.

CULP is planning to up-scale Druv in about 3000 new households in 15 villages of four blocks in two districts (viz. Jaipur and Banswara) in next one year where we are having our other educational programmes.