Best Paper of the Compendium Award in 12th National e-Governance Conference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqfPMKTkMFY

Near double-digit growth, global takeovers by Indian companies and massive payments being made to cricketers across the world by the Indian Premier League (IPL), all sign's of prosperity and all around growth. However this growth is not uniform, there is an 'India' which is surging forward, but there is a 'Bharat' which continues to be home to one third of the world's poor.

India is the world's second most populous country, ranked 128th out of 177 countries on Human Development Index, with an estimated population of 1.13 Billion in 2007. According to UNDP, 28.6% of these 1.13 billion people live below poverty line and in terms of absolute nos. it is a staggering 323 million people.

Orissa is one of the poorest states in India and regularly suffer from natural catastrophe leading to further suffering to vulnerable and resource poor populations. A staggering 18.5 million people (49% of the population) earn less than 10 rupees (0.16 Euros) a day - it is hard to comprehend how people can survive on such a pittance. Of course it is a fact that many do not, or have to take extreme measures in order to meet their most basic requirements. Stories of this despair from Kalahandi (Orissa) formed the headlines in media for years.

Against this backdrop of extreme poverty, the Government of India has sought to introduce a series of Social welfare schemes and programmes to provide minimum support for its poorest citizens such as Old age/disability/widow pension, food from Public Distribution System, Mid Day Meal Programme in schools etc. The latest such scheme is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) which provide 100 days employment to each rural household that demands it. For poor households these social security schemes can provide a vital safety net. Unfortunately most of these programmes, schemes and services have not achieved their objectives owning to poor implementation as well as corruption in the programme delivery system.

Regular audits and studies have identified that there is a need for greater transparency at all levels of programme delivery to ensure due entitlements reach the needy. To raise their voice against corruption people were lacking information and knowledge. This leaves them in a very disadvantageous position in developing themselves with no bargaining power whatsoever. Monitoring Entitlements for Rural Communities (MERComs) is a mobile phone based monitoring system for tracking delivery of entitlements to rural poor.

Concern Worldwide, an Irish non governmental international development agency, is working in Orissa and partnering with several development organisations including Women's Organization for Socio Cultural Awareness (WOSCA), Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) and Prakalpa under its Governance and Livelihood with an endeavour towards achieving its strategic objective of promoting responsible governance.

Ghatagaon and Banspal blocks are the two most backward blocks of Keonjhar District in Orissa state. Banspal block spreads over a geographical area of 1191.07 sq. km. and consists of natural dense forest and hills. Ghatagaon block is spread over an area of 547.29 sq. km. Both these blocks are home to a large tribal population, of which more than 80% live below the poverty line. The tribal population includes Bhuiyan and Juanga, which have the status of Primitive Tribal Groups.

Concern Worldwide and WOSCA partnered with Ekgaon Technologies, a New Delhi based socially committed information technology company for conceptualising and implementing the MERComs system in Ghatagaon and Banspal blocks of Orissa. MERComs is a modular, expandable and localized (in English, Hindi, Oriya) Management Information System (MIS) for NGOs, INGOs and volunteers for monitoring rural entitlements.