Tanuja Raichura left her career as a graphics and web designer, to start a common service centre (CSC) in Dhamtari village, Chhattisgarh. P N Lakshmi, through a CSC centre in a Kerala village, is earning extra income for her family.
In the extreme north, in Jammu and Kashmir's RS Pura sector, five km away from the Line of Control, Savita Sharma is running her Khidmat Centre (CSC) braving the difficult terrain. Before its commissioning, people from her village and nearby areas had to travel 30-40 km to avail the services.
At S Bollen in Manipur, Lunkhonei's CSC journey was not smooth. A difficult terrain and connectivity hassles in the remote and hilly village made it a big challenge for her to set up the centre.
These women are now seen as role models for people in their villages. Beside giving them a sustained earning, the CSC centers have become a medium to show off their entrepreneur skills, despite these women not coming from affluent backgrounds.
Called village level entrepreneurs (VLE) by the government, about 200 such women from across villages in India are coming here to talk on Tuesday about women entrepreneurship and share their ideas around Women's Day. About 18 per cent of the 140,000 CSC centres across India are being run by women, according to the official data.
These centres are service delivery points, a physical front-end for the government to render services to its citizens. They offer government-enabled services and even private ones such as air ticketing and payment of utility bills to clusters of seven or eight villages each, employing locals.
Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, chief executive officer of CSC E-Governance Services, told Business Standard: "A VLE is the key to the success of the CSC operations. While content and services are important, it is the VLE's entrepreneurial ability which ensures CSC sustainability. And, according to an independent study, women as VLEs are better compared to men in terms of managing/operating such centers."
"We are also planning to release a book on 45 women VLEs which will showcase their journey till now and how they have become an effective tool in imparting digital IT (information technology) services,'' Tyagi said.
The main objective is to provide a physical facility for delivery of government e-services to rural or remote locations, where availability of IT is negligible or completely absent. The CSC scheme, run under a national e governance plan by the department of IT, is being implemented through a public-private partnership model. CSCs offer services in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine and entertainment, among others.
In the extreme north, in Jammu and Kashmir's RS Pura sector, five km away from the Line of Control, Savita Sharma is running her Khidmat Centre (CSC) braving the difficult terrain. Before its commissioning, people from her village and nearby areas had to travel 30-40 km to avail the services.
At S Bollen in Manipur, Lunkhonei's CSC journey was not smooth. A difficult terrain and connectivity hassles in the remote and hilly village made it a big challenge for her to set up the centre.
These women are now seen as role models for people in their villages. Beside giving them a sustained earning, the CSC centers have become a medium to show off their entrepreneur skills, despite these women not coming from affluent backgrounds.
Called village level entrepreneurs (VLE) by the government, about 200 such women from across villages in India are coming here to talk on Tuesday about women entrepreneurship and share their ideas around Women's Day. About 18 per cent of the 140,000 CSC centres across India are being run by women, according to the official data.
These centres are service delivery points, a physical front-end for the government to render services to its citizens. They offer government-enabled services and even private ones such as air ticketing and payment of utility bills to clusters of seven or eight villages each, employing locals.
Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, chief executive officer of CSC E-Governance Services, told Business Standard: "A VLE is the key to the success of the CSC operations. While content and services are important, it is the VLE's entrepreneurial ability which ensures CSC sustainability. And, according to an independent study, women as VLEs are better compared to men in terms of managing/operating such centers."
"We are also planning to release a book on 45 women VLEs which will showcase their journey till now and how they have become an effective tool in imparting digital IT (information technology) services,'' Tyagi said.
The main objective is to provide a physical facility for delivery of government e-services to rural or remote locations, where availability of IT is negligible or completely absent. The CSC scheme, run under a national e governance plan by the department of IT, is being implemented through a public-private partnership model. CSCs offer services in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine and entertainment, among others.