Sitting cross-legged on the top berth of a bogey in the Jagriti Yatra train, Harishchandra Babu (33) explains his plans for business expansion. On the one hand, he is on a journey to learn about the building of tier-2 and tier-3 cities through enterprise. On the other, Mr Babu, a native of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, already runs four businesses, and is, in fact, looking for ways to start a fifth. Possibly, he says, in another state.
Mr Babu runs a computer training centre that caters to everyone from first standard students to adults interested in digital literacy. He runs a common service centre in his district, which issues PAN and Aadhar cards and arranges video-conferencing for patients with doctors. He is a bank mitra (friend – basically a mobile ATM machine that goes to around 10 villages and offers withdrawal and deposit services to those who cannot come to a bank or do not have access to an ATM). Fourth, he runs a photography and videography business and accepts contracts for events like weddings.
Through the story of Mr Babu’s career, one can discern how computers, and increased mobile and internet connectivity are changing the rural India.
“After finishing MA from Bundelkhand University, I got into social work and joined an organisation called Nehru Kendra where I eventually got promoted to a district coordinator. There were many programmes that involved travel through Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and I undertook a train trip around the country to teach people about the history of each state,” he says.
In 2008, he overheard a conversation about someone starting a Jan Seva Kendra (common service centre) to provide certificates to the people in the district. He decided to take a loan of Rs 30,000 to start his own. “It was a modest office, and at the time a centralised service for far-off rural areas was just starting off. The centre used to provide caste, income, birth, and death certificates.”
By 2011, his work with the Jan Seva Kenda and his knowledge of the surrounding areas led to him being hired by Punjab National Bank for its Bank Mitra scheme. “The bank thought it was a good way to increase their customer base and reduce the crowds at its local branches,” Mr Babu explains.
With a machine that needed his fingerprint to activate he used to make the rounds of 10 villages around his district to take banking services to the people living there. “It is the only one of my businesses that will not run if I am not there. The rest could be handled by others for a while,” he says.
The Bank Mitra scheme was first handled by a company called SEED and then by Coromandel. Under the present government, Mr Babu says, the service was brought under the Jan Seva Kendra. It meant an expansion of services under Mr Babu’s office and these days anybody can walk in for a range of banking services, from withdrawing and depositing money to opening a Jan Dhan Yojana bank account to registering for one of the government’s new pension or insurance schemes. It also provides health services: patients can fill in a form after which a video conference will be arranged with a doctor at Apollo Hospital in Delhi.
Over the next two years, he decided to run two other enterprises from his office – the photography business for which he had hired four cameramen and the computer training centre for digital literacy.
Of the government’s plan for financial inclusion, he says many are given the promised Rs 5,000 overdraft facility if they do regular transactions, something that’s difficult to manage for most. “Many people make a deposit and then decide that they need the money and withdraw it all. I try to talk to them and also put up posters in my office to teach them how to make regular transactions with the bank. If they don’t do this, they won’t show on the records and they cannot build trust.”
He is passionate about the computer training centres and feels Digital India can boost capacity in rural areas. In order to train people, Mr Babu himself took a course in Jhansi in software expert technology. “It started as a two-year pilot project for 10 villages in February 2014 and since then it has been successful. I am thinking of starting something at a block level, possibly somewhere in UP. This time it will be my own programme and not in collaboration with the TCS or anyone.”
Besides the enterprise Mr Babu represents and his ambition to start new things, there is another story.
Both Digital India and Jan Dhan Yojana were announced with much fanfare to improve the lives of the common man.
While some hailed those, an equal number were sceptical about the benefits reaching those who needed it the most. Mr Babu, then, is the rare representation of how a Central policy translates into ground-level work.
In his enterprise, there is a vision of a better future in which every Indian might have access to services. That in itself is remarkable.
Through his story, one can discern how computers, mobile, and internet are changing rural India
The copy has been corrected for a factual error.
