Computers on wheels for young people in India
1 July 2004
Sunder, 15, lost his father in the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, which destroyed the family's house. He and his mother fled to Chandigarh in northern India, where they eked out a living selling plastic utensils at the roadside.
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| "By learning computers and understanding how banks work, I hope to be able to help my mother, who has no knowledge of these things." |
"Sunder had no formal education when I met him," says Vivek Trivedi, an intern at the Asia Centre of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) in Chandigarh, "but he was smart and picked things up very fast so I brought him onto the van and showed him the computers. I saw he had the capability to learn so I spoke to a principal and got him enrolled in school. "
Vivek is an instructor with the mobile unit of the CYP Technology Empowerment Centre (CYPTEC-on-Wheels), which travels to schools and slum areas in and around Chandigarh. The unit consists of a van with six computer terminals set up in the back, broadband internet connectivity and even its own generator for use in areas without a mains power supply.
"Now Sunder can use Notepad, Paintbrush, and can design Powerpoint presentations. He has also been teaching some of his juniors how to use the computer and access information using networks. So on the one hand he is completely outside the school system, but on the other he is gaining computer literacy."
Two of Sunder's classmates on the CYPTEC-On-Wheels van, Jarnardan, 13, and Omprakash, 15, are brothers from the impoverished state of Bihar. They use a software programme that enables them to write in Hindi using an English keyboard. Omprakash also surfs the web, visiting the sites of the English-language newspapers in India. In that way he is beginning to read and write in English too.
CYPTEC-On-Wheels seeks to benefit both those in schools and deprived children of school age from the slum colonies around Chandigarh. Today the three boys are sharing the van with three girls from the school where the van will be stationed for the next ten days, until it moves to a new site. Both pupils and teachers have learned basic computer literacy on the van. Students who show exceptional promise may be invited to take further courses at the CYPTEC lab/cyber cafe at the CYP Asia Centre.
Sunder says that computers are used everywhere today, including banks. "By learning computers and understanding how banks work, I hope to be able to help my mother, who has no knowledge of these things."
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