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When talking about digital divide, it is not the 0's and 1's that have missed access to, instead it is the information - the nucleus of all developmental activities. Libraries that have been in existence for the primary cause of acquiring, organizing and disseminating
information seem to have thrown out of the very network of bridging the digital divide paradigm, especially when they are to be playing one of the most significant roles.

Rural Libraries are part of the public library system in the country. For example, state central libraries, district central libraries, and then the Taluk and Panchayat Libraries (referred to as rural libraries here). Like many other public sector undertakings and perhaps even more, the rural libraries are suffering from the financial crunch. Therefore, most of the rural libraries do not have a proper person to handle the library effectively, let alone having a professional librarian. And hence, these libraries function more like reading rooms.

Although IT was introduced in rural development in the year 1986, rural libraries largely remained as a forgotten asset in the dissemination of information to the rural population. Secondly, the IT Policy formulated in the year 2000 showed little interest in the development of rural libraries. This may be because the policy-makers were not very keen to explore the tremendous potential of rural libraries in bridging the divide in India, or the library professionals were not enthusiastic enough to convince the policy-makers about it. This scenario needs to change, the information professionals need to come forward and study the present system of operation and find a better solution to transform these reading rooms into an information center where people find value. Many a times, it is possible to run the library with private government-community collaboration. It is needed to explore these possibilities and to make rural population responsible for their library improvements.

It is universally accepted that information is the core of all the developmental activities. Therefore, providing vital information to the rural population plays a significant role. Considering 60 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, the information requirements of rural population relates to their day-to-day like agriculture, fishing, education, health-care, weather, loan facilities, land registration, fees related to various government services, etc. In order to get these services, it becomes necessary for the villagers to travel 25-30 miles and in some cases bribe the officers. If the villagers are given access to their critical information requirements through rural libraries, it will help them save a lot of time as well as money. Simultaneously the governing body can function smoothly and corruption free. Besides, the villagers will not have fear in approaching their library and getting the information.

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Dr. Gursharan Singh Kainth specializes in Quantitative & Development Economics, and is currently Director of GAD Institute of Development Studies, Amritsar, a self-financed research institute. Has been honoured with various awards, including Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award, etc.
Ms. Kamalpreet Kaur is Research Scholar at GAD Institute of Development Studies.
Article posted on December 28, 2008.