Yuva Sphurti Kendra IT School
Grand opening of the DGS IT School
At the G8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005 the world's eight most powerful leaders met to discuss the primary needs of the worlds most under privileged people. Computer giant Bill Gates strongly agreed with the comment made by a UK based anti- debt organisation that "the worlds poorest people can not eat laptops." (Vint 2007 - Let them Eat Megabytes). What good are computers to people who live on less than a dollar a day?
However, staff and beneficiaries of Deep Griha Society an NGO based in Pune feel it is important to see beyond this misconception and have decided to take a step to help bridge the 'digital divide' that hinders progress within their community.Evidently these developments could not be made at a more appropriate time. Pune is fast becoming a core IT region within a digital world with its many ICT firms consistently developing within the city.
However, over 40% of the population living in Pune currently occupy urban slums. Therefore this constitutes an enormous proportion of the population that cannot reap the benefits of the ICT facilities that are practically situated right on their doorstep. Consequently, after focusing for almost 30 years on developing the primary services that could assist urban slum dwellers such as medical care, nutritional information and childcare, DGS have decided to further develop their educational programmes for both adults and children by introducing Information and Technology training as the next logical step within the organisation.
Initially DGS began investigating the possibilities for ICT development within their organisation by conducting a presentation in March for 'Commonwealth Connects', an international development programme that is striving to lessen the 'digital divide' across the 53 countries of the commonwealth.
Within this presentation the current inadequate state of ICT training in government run schools was reinforced. As well as this the lack of essential funding for ICT training in addition to the currently unreliable IT equipment owned by DGS was emphasised.
As a result of this DGS has formed a partnership with Satyam Foundation, a social outreach programme which stems from Corporate IT firm Satyam Computer Services Limited. Through this partnership DGS has acquired a new IT Training Centre within its main office that has been equipped with 30 new computers. This training centre will effectively be used as an 'IT School' within which IT courses will be run by the staff of Satyam Foundation for the staff and beneficiaries of DGS. These courses will focus on developing the IT skills of the occupants of the local area as well as building on the skills of DGS staff. After the courses have been run Satyam hope to saturate those who excel in their examinations into the company. All remaining students will be able to use the opportunity to build their CV and potentially find employment in other IT firms across the city.
Therefore, the opening of the IT School is not only a means of improving the ability of DGS staff to apply IT knowledge more effectively. In time it will also help to break the technological barriers that currently restrict the progress of those living in the local community.The Satyam Foundation's connection with Deep Griha Society does not stop here as both organisations work together as part of the central team for the Wake Up Pune campaign; an association of organisations working together to raise awareness regarding the issue of stigma connected to HIV and AIDS within Pune.It is due to the formation of valuable partnerships such as this that NGO's such as DGS are able to build on the important work that they already carry out, consistently seeking to improve and enrich the lives of the under privileged people living in the slums of Pune.