#NokiaC3ForChange - Empowering students and farmers in a Madhya Pradesh village

Welcome to the #NokiaC3forChange initiative with The Better India.
As part of this campaign, we handpicked 20 changemakers across India. These changemakers and their communities were asked to learn to use smartphones in their change endeavours – farming, education, building a business, saving endangered birds, etc. – and share the impact that technology helped them make. These stories have been recorded after the communities used the phones for a month. While we’re sure long-term use of technology will make an even bigger impact, here is what the communities were able to accomplish in just 30-days.
The story
18-year-old Resham Bhagel from Madhya Pradesh dreams of becoming a lawyer. Having spent most of her life in a small village called Kekadiya in Bhanpur district, the yearning to know more about the world outside is something that drives this youngster.
All this while, the books and audio-visual classes at the community centre in her village were her only window to the world. However, with schools shutting down due to COVID-19 this year, her connection to knowledge and opportunities was severed.
"There are 52 of us here, and while the teachers would help us sometimes by giving us their phones, it wasn’t enough. On top of that, all of us are of different ages and the lessons could not be personalized based on our needs. None of our family members has smartphones, so attending online classes at home was also not a possibility," says Resham.
As the world changes and becomes increasingly digital, there is no reason why Resham and her peers cannot e-learn, and why the village adults cannot use technology to access better healthcare and other facilities.
Here’s what happened next.
The change
Amitabh Soni, who runs an NGO called Abhedya in the village, was one of the 20 chosen changemakers of the #NokiaC3forChange initiative. Amitabh centralised a tech hub in the village’s community centre, by making 6 smartphones available to the villagers as part of this initiative. Under the guidance of moderators at the community centre, children and adults in the village are now learning how to use a smartphone for their everyday needs.
The impact
Today, one finds children, between the ages of 10 and 18, at the community centre, using the smartphones or borrowing them for studies.
Not just in e-learning, the phones are now being used to transform the lives of people in the community as well. With an aim to improve income from farming, provide better livelihood opportunities and reduce migration to urban areas, Amitabh and his team are starting a Farmers Producer Organisation (FPO), which will enable the villagers to start and run their own agri-business.
Talking about the impact, Amitabh says, "A community reserve of smartphones has the potential to be a gamechanger in a village like this, and these phones have already begun to garner impact. Access to smartphones has immensely helped our children with e-learning, and is helping the adults as their day-to-day needs are now being met by having tech in their hands and someone who can guide them through it all."
“Registration of farmers to create the local FPO is underway and in the first batch we have reached out to 5 to 6 villages with over 30 farmers involved in the fold. Once this is complete, we hope to reach out to over 300 farmers across 15 villages of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan,” says one of the volunteers, Prem, while stressing the fact that this might not have been possible if not for the smartphones. “The centre for document submission and registration is about 30 kilometres away from these villages and it was always a huge hassle to kickstart the operations. But, the phones and the provision to do it all online has made things easier for us and helped us reach out to more people,” he adds.
Comments
-
It's a great initiative, I think students need support all over the world. After the recent pandemic, it is especially difficult for students to get into the rhythm of learning, so they are encouraged to use the services find here with free essay samples like this about leadership. It helps a lot to increase the level of knowledge and get more free time.
0
Categories
- 33.7K All Categories
- 28.3K Phones
- Nokia XR21
- 2 Nokia G22
- 2 Nokia C32
- Nokia C12
- 48 Nokia G60 5G
- 68 Nokia X30 5G
- 3 Nokia C31
- 140 Nokia G21
- 8 Nokia C21 Plus
- 2 Nokia C2 2nd Edition
- 60 Nokia G50
- 18 Nokia C30
- 107 Nokia XR20
- 10 Nokia C01 Plus
- 141 Nokia X20
- 43 Nokia X10
- 148 Nokia G20
- 36 Nokia G10
- 11 Nokia C20
- 7 Nokia C10
- 20 Nokia 1.4
- 6 Nokia C1 Plus
- 372 Nokia 5.4
- 158 Nokia 3.4
- 100 Nokia 2.4
- 4 Nokia C3
- 306 Nokia 8.3 5G
- 459 Nokia 5.3
- 20 Nokia 1.3
- 157 Nokia 2.3
- 1.3K Nokia 7.2
- 251 Nokia 6.2
- 447 Nokia 9 PureView
- 162 Nokia 2.2
- 1.7K Nokia 8.1
- 893 Nokia 7.1
- 4.6K Nokia 6.1 Plus
- 1.9K Nokia 5.1 Plus
- 2.2K Nokia 7 plus
- 349 Nokia 8 Sirocco
- 1.5K Nokia 8
- 2.1K Nokia 6.1
- 2K Nokia 6
- 230 Nokia 5.1
- 1.2K Nokia 5
- 220 Nokia 4.2
- 105 Nokia 3.2
- 781 Nokia 3.1 Plus
- 295 Nokia 3.1
- 967 Nokia 3
- 242 Nokia 2.1
- 528 Nokia 2
- 76 Nokia 1 Plus
- 287 Nokia 1
- 50 Nokia X7
- 565 Feature Phones
- 4 Nokia 8210 4g
- 4 Nokia 5710 XA
- 4 Nokia 2660 Flip
- 12 Nokia 5310
- 20 Nokia 800 tough
- 22 Nokia 2720 Flip
- 5 Nokia 110
- 2 Nokia 105
- 7 Nokia 220 4G
- 4 Nokia 210
- 79 Nokia 3310 3G
- 284 Nokia 8110 4G
- 415 All phones
- 113 Tablets
- 1 Nokia T21
- 17 Nokia T10
- 77 Nokia T20
- 3.5K General
- 117 Home of Nokia Phones
- 60 Announcements
- 2 Tutorials
- 215 All about Community
- 6 Rules & Guidelines
- 488 Community Feedback
- 196 Contest & Activities
- 14 #Campfire
- 27 Global Contests
- 6 Q&A's
- 36 #ShotOnNokia Challenges
- 895 Ideas
- 622 Anything goes
- 3.3K Tech talk
- 139 Software and Specs
- 2.2K Beta labs
- 304 Beta labs
- 216 Android Developer Preview
- 252 India