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Khadim Miyan seldom makes a promise, but in the rare cases that he does, he goes to any length to live up to his words. Thus, when Miyan promised his niece Hidmat that he would bring her gifts on Eid ul-Adha or Bakri Eid, he knew it would be impractical but not impossible. After all, he could not take more than 3-4 leaves from his work at the local tourist cottage in Kalpeni, and the journey to his sisters house in Minicoy takes over 14 hours by sea. But, more than the time spent in traveling, it was the time spent on arranging a ticket in one of the five ships that linked the dozen odd islands in Lakshadweep that bothered Khadim.

Seats are scarce, especially during festivals like Eid, and there is no guarantee that one could find a berth on these ships. It is simply a matter of too many passengers and too few ships. There have been cases that aspirants for a berth on these ships have lined up a few days in advance in the hope of finding a seat. Considering the situation he was in, Miyan decided to play it safe. He decided to check the availability of tickets on Lakport.nic.in and then plan his trip accordingly. In a matter of minutes, Miyan zeroed in on MV Bharat Seema and booked for self a ticket to Minicoy. Stepping out of the port office, all that Miyan was concerned about is which toy should he purchase for his 7-year-old niece. At least he was sure that this time, too, he had managed to keep his promise and he had to thank technology for it.

Like Miyan, there are thousands of people on Lakshadweep whose lives are changing for the better, thanks to the miracles of technology.

Located some 200-300 km off the coast of Kerala in the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep is the smallest union territory of India. The total land area of the territory is some 32 sq km. In 1956, Lakshadweep was designated as a union territory and brought under the direct authority of the Center. As the ecosystem of the islands is pretty fragile and not supportive to heavy industrialization, the territory lagged the rest of the nation in terms of economic growth. In fact, it was an isolated paradise, where quite a few travelers wanted to go, but only a few did.

Over the past many years, there has been an awakening of sorts. The government seems to have woken up to the potential of the island paradise as a top tourist spot. Located close to the Gods own country, ie, Kerala, Lakshadweep can be a big draw for people looking to be away from the madding crowd. This, in turn, has prompted the much needed investment into physical infrastructure, thereby making the place attractive to visitors and tourists.

Bridging the Remoteness
Fortunately, technology is a two way sword and it always cuts both ways, so the very application, namely registration of seats on ships to and from Lakshadweep, has not only been a boon to tourists but also to the local population like in the case of Miyan. Credit is due to a few individuals like administrator of Lakshadweep BV Selvaraj and his team at Lakshadweep. They have taken upon the cause of modernization and the result is a robust and thriving ICT initiatives in the various islands. In fact, over the years, e-governance projects in Lakshadweep have received awards at different platforms in recognition of the path breaking work being done by the smallest union territory.

My principle objective has been to bring the disparate islands into the national mainstream. There was an urgent need to bridge the remoteness of the various islands spread across the Arabian Sea and we have been able to do that with the help of modern technology, says Selvaraj.

Slew of Projects
Indeed, this human focus has been the hallmark of all e-governance projects carried out in the union territory. Unlike other places in India, Lakshadweep has very unique problems and pain points. Thus, the solutions that have worked well in the hinterland are not necessarily the best solution for it. Take the case of ship reservation. The five or so passenger ships connect the eleven inhabited islands. The total population of Lakshadweep is in the range of some 65,000 people. The population is also spread very unevenly, for instance, the capital Kavaratti and Androth islands have a population of over 10,000, while Bitra has a mere 250 odd people. From this problem came the genesis of the reservation system.

Similarly, employment is a big issue in Lakshadweep. As there isnt much industrialization, there is a high level of unemployment among the youth. For these people the only hope is the employment exchange, and close to 20% of the population has registered with the bureau. In not so distant past, people had to travel to Kavaratti employment exchange for registering and other facilities. Keeping in mind the geographic spread and inadequate transport facilities, it would take anything between eight days during normal season and around fifteen days in monsoon for the job aspirant to travel to Kavaratti and back to his island.

To cut down on this unnecessary travel and trouble caused to the islanders, the administration of Lakshadweep and National Informatics Center put together total digitization of employment services. Under this, the data related to some 15,000 registrants was digitized and re-codified, virtual employment exchange were opened up in all the islands and the same were connected through the bandwidth provided by NICNET and BSNL. The project, launched in 2007, has been a roaring success with hundreds of job aspirants registering themselves in the new employment exchanges that have been set up on their islands.

Considering the fact that around one-fifth of the population in Lakshadweep is unemployed and dependent on jobs from the employment exchange, the digitization of the same has been of a great help. In fact, it is the first such project in India and has been appreciated far-and-wide. We have received several awards and accolades, and I personally think that it is fit to be replicated on all the employment exchanges in India, adds Selvaraj.

The project was bestowed with the Manthan Award recently and accepting the same Selvaraj said, The administration, along with all the political representatives, namely members of Parliament, members of the District and Village (Dweep) Panchayats, has been working toward effective administrative reforms through aggressive e-governance. We are going to have a basket of e-governance projects and compete for the best e-administered state/ UT of the country shortly.

Another project that has received a lot of applause has been the Web-enabling of the Lakshadweep electricity department (read Selvarajs column for more on that). Lakshadweep also has the unique distinction of being the first union territory/state in the whole country to have universal electricity. And due to the efficient materials management and transportation of fuel and effective maintenance of the power houses there has been no instance of load shedding in the past year.

Not only that, the administration has also refurbished the Lakshadweep (lakshadweep.nic.in) Web portal, providing vital information about the islands and also giving a link to over 20 different administrative departments. The portal also has links for citizen charter and even an online photo gallery that showcases the beauty and serenity of the island paradise. Little wonder, the portal is referred to as the electronic window to the union territory.

Future Beckons
Going ahead, Lakshadweep has decided to implement a state level SWAN Implementation Committee that will formulate the technology to be adopted and various other aspects of the implementation of state wide area network. As of now, the SWAN project is in proposal stage and the implementation committee will aid in faster completion of project, the deadline for which is September 2008. The members of the committee have been derived from NIC, BSNL and ISRO, and the project will be funded by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) and jointly implemented by NIC and the IT society of the administration.

Additionally, Selvaraj is also keen on improving the Web connectivity in the different islands. In this regard, he has asked BSNL to augment the bandwidth of the BSNL satellite earth station, Kavaratti to 16 Mbps from the present 8 Mbps immediately. Once the SWAN is in place, a slew of e-governance applications like digitizing of land records or payments of taxes, etc would be rolled according to officials.

Through all this, Selvaraj also emphasizes the need for structural reforms. Technology is important, but e-government projects by themselves will not bear fruits unless they are coupled and integrated with structural reforms, he says. He has also appointed a committee on administrative reforms that harmonizes the functioning of different departments and looks at bringing in transparency.

With these and many other initiatives, Lakshadweep is finally coming out of the isolation that geography has bestowed on it. Like any other place in the country, mobile phones have also made a huge impact in the lives of the islanders. In was in 2003 when BSNL had launched its services in Kavaratti, and today there are more than 10,000 mobile subscribers in Lakshadweep. Private operators are also on the anvil and Airtel supposedly does provide connectivity on Kavaratti.

Little wonder, people like Miyan no longer feel left out in the race to modernization, and their lives have been enriched in ways they would have scarcely believed. Using the portnet online system, Miyan was not only able to visit his niece on distant Minicoy but was also able to ensure that he did not waste any time in the process and was back to his job on the promised day. He is quite happy that he was able to live up to his word and has ICT to thank for it. The best part is that stories like that of Miyan are no more mere anomalies or exceptions but are steadily becoming the norm. And, by this benchmark alone, tiny Lakshadweep has made giant strides toward a better and wholesome future. Something its larger cousin states on the mainland could take a few pointers on.
Shashwat DC
shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in

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