Across the divide Digital inclusion in India

The concept of a digital divide the gap between those who have the access, skills and opportunity to use ICT and those who do not - is well known in the UK. Digital Inclusion for all is something that government, industry and the voluntary sector are all working towards.

But the problem isnt just confined to the UK. As a global company, BT has always recognised the importance of helping those communities in which it operates and its global community investment strategy has been helping to do just that in India since 2001.

Katha is a Delhi-based charity that works with children from the poorest communities in the capital - most of whom have either never attended school or who have dropped out of the education system. BT began working with the charity in 2001 to establish the Katha Information Technology and E-commerce School (KITES) in the heart of Govindpuri - Delhis largest impoverished area.

The school offers ICT skills to children, provides teacher training and offers training to the local community through Kathas Lifelong Learning Centre. BT provided the computer labs and equipment to ensure that the students were able to access the latest technology.

Indias ICT boom

Gartner analysts have predicted that India will continue to have the fastest growing ICT market in the world and forecast a combined annual growth rate of 19 percent from 2004 through 2008. It also estimates that ICT spending in India will surpass US$54.8 billion by 2008, a rise from US$29.5 billion in 2004. Kites aims to ensure that their students will have the skills to share in Indias ICT boom.

Katha has been operating in Govindpuri for the past ten years and has isolated the lack of high-quality motivational education as a key problem holding the community back.

Parvinder Kaur, headmistress at Katha, said: Access to computers is very expensive in India. This means that the opportunities for most children in poor communities are non-existent.

Most 14-year-olds, for example, will be working as poorly paid labourers to support their family. We want to wean these children away from work and back into education with the hope that they can improve their earning potential in the future.

Janet Blake, head of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for BT Global Services, said: Many of the children some as young as six drop out of formal education to begin working in low income jobs with no hope of improving their situation. With almost 50 percent of Delhis 14 million population living in slums, there are an estimated 1.3 million children out of school highlighting the scale of the problem.

Success stories

Through KITES, more than 3,000 children have already received training - ranging from basic computing skills to complex software programming - with a number of KITES graduates finding employment in Indias booming IT-related fields.

Students work towards graduation and earn computer specialist certificates, as well as their school leaving certificate.

Success stories abound. Take Jogendra, for example after gaining his basics in computers at KITES, he is now training as a computer instructor at the India Sponsor Foundation. Other graduates are working as computer operators, electrical technicians and in desktop publishing.

Janet Blake says: Our partnership with Katha will continue to grow and together we are focused on improving the geographical reach of Kites to help as many underprivileged children as possible.

This year Katha has opened ten satellite schools in other deprived areas in Delhi and we have provided the schools with new computers to ensure the children have access to the latest technology.

We will also be establishing an employee volunteer programme, which will see the relationship between our employees in Delhi and Katha develop further.