Assessment of Village Level Demand on e-Governance Services Using Participatory Rural Appraisal

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives for rural development in India are not new. Many of these initiatives have shown mixed responses. Most of these projects have been incubated with government support. For a development project to be successful, the approach should shift from the current supply-driven to demand-driven mode that is citizen centric. These challenges are predominantly in rural areas since the issues are dynamic, engulfed with digital divide issues and services need to be livelihood security centric. In order to make the e-government plans successful and sustainable in the rural areas, e-readiness as well as citizens acceptance of ICT technology needs to be managed.In this paper a citizen centric model or design uses Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to create an ambience where citizens access their requirements and influence the service providers to perpetually create and deliver the required services through feasible ICT options.This paper focuses on developing a mechanism to reflect rural citizen's contributions in the e-governance systems. These contributions are elicited through PRA exercises since most of the rural citizens face educational security challenges.