Common Services Centre Scheme Hits Snag

Irregular power supply, slow internet connectivity and lack of proper training are making operations difficult for Village Level Entrepreneurs across the country, making Digital India a far-fetched dream.

- Anu Jain Rohatgi

Mohammad Ali was very enthusias-tic when started Common Services Centre (CSC) in one of the Jammu and Kashmir villages. The zeal has gradually vanished as this budding entrepreneur finds himself helpless when a sudden wind storm snaps the power lines, which is crucial to continue the work at the centre. “We barely get electricity for 6-7 hours a day. It’s impossible to run the centre smoothly in such a situation,” said Ali.

Lack of training of CSC operators is another significant stumbling block. Many of the operators are clueless about the precise nature of the services they are supposed to deliver. It is the duty of the service centre agency to impart training to the CSC operators in the villages. But somehow the procedure is not followed most of the time, hampering the smooth functioning of the CSC across the country.

The CSC had been setup to provide a physical facility for delivery of e-Services by the Govt of India to the rural and remote locations where availability of computers and internet is currently negligible or absent. Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) at the CSCs, as per the plan, were the key people to help achieve the goal of Digital India. Experts feel the intention of the Govt is good but its implementation is poor. Besides poor internet connectivity and lack of training, there are many other problems that are faced by operators in day-to-day functioning of CSC. Some of them are threat calls received by CSC operators and lack of awareness among villagers to avail the services.

Sunil Prasad (name changed) had started CSC in Darbhanga district of Bihar almost a year ago. He was providing many IT and computer-related services to villages such as data entry for Mnrega scheme, applying for resident proofs and many other services, etc. He is receiving threats from locals, who take commissions from the villagers for helping them in their work.