PRISONER PROGRAMMER: Tihar inmates take a first byte of computer education

For the past two months O.P. Mishra, superintendent at Delhi's Tihar jail, has been getting a computer-generated statement every evening. It is the daily sales report of the jail canteen, down to the number of cups of tea and samosas sold and complete with the day's profit and loss account. The jail's inmates have also devised a format for generating bail applications and court petitions on the computer. So pleased are the jailbirds with the results that even the washerman in the jail wants to use a computer to prepare his daily account of number of clothes washed and ironed.

The craze for click and mouse isn't confined to the high walls of Tihar. From tribals of Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh to the temple town of Puri in Orissa; from villagers near Jodhpur in Rajasthan to the members of the Legislative Assembly in West Bengal, more than 1.5 lakh people have picked up their first bytes of computer literacy during the past three months, courtesy NIIT's unique Swift Jyoti computer education campaign against the digital divide. And like inmates of Tihar jail, many are beginning to apply their newly acquired skills in their day-to-day lives. "The programme has helped us demonstrate that computers are not just for the elite but for everybody," says Mishra.

CYBER CHAKLA: Using a chakla as mouse pad, villagers near Jodhpur surf the Net

Launched on December 2 last year to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rs 1,139-crore software education and solution company, the campaign is meant to spread computer literacy among people untouched by the infotech revolution. Through 2,500 NIIT centres across the country, people were offered a variety of a specially designed basic 10-hour computer course at a subsidised fee of Rs 500. Students from select government schools, their principals and a few political leaders were offered participation free of cost. On December 2 alone, 1,04,000 people-ranging from five to 85 years of age-enrolled for the course. By offering the first touch and feel of the computer, the campaign also broke many myths and fears about computers. "It helped break the techno-phobia," says actress Rupa Ganguly who participated and popularised the course in Kolkata. In Tihar jail, for instance, the inmates who trained under Swift Jyoti are now training others, thus helping spread computer literacy.

NIIT, however, found one thing amiss in the overwhelming response to its December campaign-women participation was only 30 per cent. That prompted the launch of Swift Jyoti for Women-a 10-hour course specially designed for women that's running through the country in March. The target is to make two lakh women computer literate within a month. NIIT Chairman Rajendra S. Pawar sees a great opportunity of narrowing the gender divide by spreading computer education among women.

Are mere ideals driving NIIT's fight against the digital divide or is the company hoping for financial spinoffs as well? After all, like most hot and happening information technology companies in India, NIIT too is fighting a slump in profits. But business and social objectives don't have to be mutually exclusive. Not for Pawar who defines such literacy programmes as social entrepreneurship. "It is enlightened self-interest. It endears us to our customers and helps us to be good corporate citizens," he says. That could be the programming code for replicating the heady growth rates of the past.