A village in the northern state of Haryana, Hansdehar, has ventured onto the Internet. Though the villagers are far from being computer savvy, they believe this step will help garner attention from government officials to their abject living conditions. "It will be a revolution," said farmer Ajaib Singh. "Now we can put our problems on the web site, and then the Government can't say 'we didn't know'," he said.
Youngsters have charted out a different plan all together. Call them skeptical or simply more aware of the situation regarding governmental policies, they are looking for an exit into the world at large by searching online for college places and jobs in big cities. Kanwal Singh hoped to open more avenues and a small window to the world when he set up the web site for the villagers.
Kanwal Singh, who long ago left to work as a web site developer for the local government in Chandigarh, said that until recently lack of opportunities left villagers with few options beyond agriculture. Now Hansdehar farmers hope they will be able to get better prices for their crops by trading online through the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange, cutting out middlemen. Apart from the feasibility of the hopeful plans of the villagers, its good to know rural India is waking up to the Web.
