Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS)

  Last updated on 18 Nov., 2003      

Report on LOW-COST PUBLICATIONS & DESK TOP 
PUBLISHING Project Activities in 2001-2003
-The Indian experience

Krishna V. Sane
Retd. Professor of Chemistry, Delhi University and Former UNESCO-Nehru Professor for Science Capacity Building, JNCASR, Bangalore, INDIA.

Empowerment of disadvantaged persons, particularly women, is an important item on the global agenda. Another item is the problem of digital divide. An interesting possibility is to explore if computer-based skills can play the role of a catalyst for empowering needy women. The InfoDev/World Bank sponsored pilot Project SITA (Studies in Information Technology Applications: A computer-skill training program for socially disabled women) has developed a multimedia-based strategy for training individuals with inadequate educational background and limited communication skills. The project implemented this strategy with great success in training over 500 needy women during 1999-2001. 

An important component of SITA was the hands-on training in Desk Top Publishing (DTP) using real-life manuscripts obtained from international sources. This enabled the trainees to acquire such skills as are needed to produce "camera ready copy" using scientific and mathematical symbols and terminology. Since the manuscripts were chosen on the basis of their educational relevance, an arrangement has been worked out whereby 50% of the income from the sale of these publications goes to assist needy women in various ways. 

Amongst the many recognitions received by SITA, mention should be made of the Global Junior Challenge Award in December 2000 in Rome where 589 projects from 54 countries participated in the competition. The project was a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge Award 2000 competition held in June 2000 and in the ICT Story competition organized by the IICD, Netherlands, in October 2000. SITA was showcased at the 14th Conference of the Commonwealth Education Ministers in Halifax (Canada) in November 2000 and at the Third Global Forum in Naples (Italy) in March 2001. 

SITA's quest for sustainability began at the conclusion of InfoDev support in 2001. The Core Group of women trained under SITA has established an e-cooperative MitraMandal, which is operating through a Community Centre located in a low-income neighbourhood of East Delhi. The Centre is spreading ICT awareness in the neighbourhood and hoping for self-reliance through contracting job work from the public/private sector agencies. It is also formulating partnership programs in capacity building with several NGOs. The e-cooperative perhaps the first hitech coop in the world is planning to conduct the MitraMandal Challenge Award (MMCA) competition in 2004 to catalyze the use of ICT in schools in India with particular reference to the disadvantaged schools. The Rome-based GJC and the Stockholm Challenge Award have offered to co-sponsor MMCA and similar response is awaited from several other sponsors in India and abroad. 

ICT training and Internet access is restricted -- in a country like India -- to the upper-income group who can afford the cost of these facilities. This fact will widen further the digital divide if allowed to go unchecked. The key feature of SITA/MitraMandal is to provide ICT training, Internet access and income generation in an interlinked manner so that disadvantaged individuals, particularly women, are encouraged to enter ICT-enabled service sector. 

Summary

The UNESCO sponsored Locally Produced Low-Cost (LPLC) Equipment Project directed by the author from 1980 onwards had an obvious requirement namely that the project publications should be as affordable as the LPLC equipment. This led to the exploratory attempts of using the Desk Top Publishing (DTP) approach. The remarkable success led to the next step when the author was the Chairman of the IUPAC Committee on Teaching of Chemistry (CTC) when a number of CTC members provided high-quality manuscripts (See the Appendix for the list of books). 

The Low-Cost Publication program received a major boost when the Information for Development (InfoDev) Program of the World Bank initiated Project SITA which was formulated when the author was the first UNESCO-Nehru Professor for Science Capacity Building at the JNCASR in Bangalore. SITA was implemented in Delhi during 1999-2001 and proved to be a useful step in the world-wide attempts to empower poor women. At the conclusion of the InfoDev support, the women trainers of SITA have set-up an e-cooperative MitraManda which is operating through a Community Center located in a low-income neighborhood of East Delhi. The author would like to invite women members of FACS to strengthen this gender empowerment program – now a sub-project of FACS --- which has considerable potential well suited to the Asian culture and conditions. The author also hopes that FACS will look beyond its present activities to offer meaningful support to such projects as have proved their suitability for Asian needs and requirements. 

Internet references

www.kcetu.org; 
www.mmcaetu.org/sitaa/sitaa.html; 
www.gjc.it; 
www.challenge.stockholm.se. 

Appendix

List of Books published under the Low-Cost Educational Publications Program 

Please write to Prof. Krishna Sane (sitah@bol.net.in) if you wish to contact the distributor for processing the order for these books. 
　

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