Nitish in poll mode: Free tablets for girls, women in Bihar by 2014

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar appears to have decided to take a leaf out of his arch-rival Narendra Modi’s book and step firmly into election mode with a mega model for a Ram temple larger than the Angkor Wat and also a unique free tablet PC/laptop scheme which will be rolled out ahead of the Parliamentary elections in 2014.

With his free bicycles scheme for schoolgirls having been received well, Nitish has now reportedly decided to offer tablet PCs to girls and young women through an ambitous Rs 8,000-crore scheme to bring digital literacy to women in urban and rural Bihar.

According to a report in The Indian Express , the aim is “to bring digital literacy to a largely ignored segment – the woman running a household” through use of computers for health and education-related information.

Other state governments, including that of Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, have offered free laptops or tablets too, but those have been targetted at the student community. Governments in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are planning free computer schemes too.

The free tablet/ free laptop promise is making a repeated appearance in election manifestos, the latest one being Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh’s poll promises. He has promised free laptops or tablet PCs to college students and engineering college students on the very first day of their enrolment. The Congress in Chhattisgarh has gone a step further and promised that it will allow students to select the model of their free laptops or tablets.

However, Nitish’s idea of offering digital literacy specifically to women is a unique one.

According to the Indian Express report, the tablets will be GPRS-backed, with assistive technology inlcuding voice recognition and interactive icons on the home screen. Users will be able to speak in Hindi to search for information.

“It will be prepped with informative applications like how to give first aid to a child suffering a sudden bout of diarrhoea, helping the user to contact the nearest primary health centre and even call up a doctor there. It will also have education-related information to enable the user to help her children with homework. The government also hopes to monitor the midday meal scheme through these tablets,” said the story.