Connecting the villages

This article describes an initiative in Padinettankudi, a poor rural village in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. According to the article, citizens who suffer from such eye ailments as watery eyes and blurred vision are enabled to seek help through a webcam and online patient questionnaire. A local resident/entrepreneur provides assistance in these services at the village internet kiosk. She then sends the information to the Aravind Eye Hospital in the city of Madurai, 40 km away. "What would have taken days or weeks by post is achieved instantly, by e-mail". An eye specialist then carries out an online conversation with the patient. If warranted, the physician arranges an appointment at the hospital, where free treatment will be provided.

The article continues: "The Padinettankudi kiosk is one of 30 launched in the district over the past year by n-Logue, a commercial offshoot of the prestigious Madras Indian Institute of Technology, and the company has ambitious plans to wire up the rest of rural India within 10 years...For villages like Padinettankudi, which have no public telephones and where many people are illiterate, the internet kiosk has become their means of communicating with the outside world..." Furthermore, as part of the initiative, staff are able to discuss new medical developments with colleagues and can observe surgeries taking place in other cities.

One of the participating physicians, Dr Venkatasamy, says that "This is very exciting, because poor people need not be poor. If a man recovers his sight and earns even a dollar a day, that means six million people recovering their sight each year could be earning 6 million dollars a day...Imagine what a huge difference that could make to the economy of the country."

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