DEF is gradually setting up Community Resource and Information Centres (CIRC) across the country as ICT hub in villages for local communities. The cornerstone of the CIRC is to provide amicable digital services and disseminate information about education, health, livelihood, public service delivery schemes.
One important purpose of these CIRCs is to fulfill the content needs of local communities through online and offline facilities. The first CIRC was established in 2007 in Rajasthan’s Baran district. The successful implementation and overwhelming response received from the community led the way for creation of two more centres from the existing one. Since then, we have grown from 3 to more than150 CIRCs spread across 70 districts of India in 23 States, serving over 1, 50, 000 people through various community oriented interventions.
Programme Relevance
The transformation world has witnessed in last three decade is remarkable. However, the effectiveness of the significant transformation has remained limited to selected geographical locations. The limit of transformation has been transcended by the mechanism of information sharing techniques that have penetrated the most desolate pieces of land throughout the world. Despite, all the attempts Internet inclusion in contemporary period remains an unfinished task that requires more and improved rigorous efforts.
In continuum to DEF’s effort of ensuring digital inclusion Nichlagarh CIRC center started operating in the month of October, 2015. However, it was formally inaugurated in December 2015 as DEF was able to connect the village with internet, where it is still difficult to access any mobile network. Nichlagarh CIRC is one of its kind where DEF has provided most amicable digital facilities. Prior to opening of the centre people of the village had to travel more than 20 km to get a photocopy or any other basic digital facility. The centre so far has played a crucial role in creating symbiotic relationship between people of the village and technology.