Akodara, a small hamlet in North Gujarat, around 100 km from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hometown Vadnagar, has emerged as India’s first ‘Digital Village’. All transactions above `10 are being done online here! And it is all set to become India’s first paperless village contributing to making Modi’s ‘Digital India’ dream come true.
The villagers have RuPay debit card, which they use for various transactions in the village. For purchasing groceries, villagers don’t need to carry cash with them. They can make payment through mobile banking. The mobile banking platform uses Gujarati as the medium of communication, which is user-friendly for the villagers.
Take the case of 30-year-old Vipul Patel who wants to purchase two packets of wafers for his children from a provision store. Instead of paying the shopkeeper `20 from his pocket, he uses his smart phone. Instantly, shopkeeper Kedar Patel confirms payment and gives him two packets of wafers.
In another instance, a teacher in the only school of the village is not taking attendance traditionally by shouting pupils’ names. Before entering the classes they put their thumbs on the biometric attendance machine. As if this is not enough, all the classes of the school are equipped with digital boards. “We have made such an arrangement that parents can monitor their children’s activities sitting at their homes or at the workplace. Students are using tablets and exchange study material digitally,” says Taraben, woman sarpanch of Akodara.
The village, having WiFi connectivity, is situated at a distance of 90 km from Ahmedabad and comprises around 200 households with a total population of 1,100. Everyone above 18 years of age has a bank account. A digital display has been installed at a crossroads in which real-time prices of agro commodities of all major Gujarat mandies (agriculture produce markets) are displayed. Before selling their products, farmers of this tiny village make it a point to confirm prices of various mandies.
The village has also its website — akodara-digitalvillage.in.
“Everybody in the village uses smart phone having Internet connectivity. They have been taught touse mobile banking application. It has made our life easy. We are paying our electricity, mobile and other bills online,” says septuagenarian farmer Dahyabhai Patel.
Not only ‘Digital India’, the village situated in Sabarkantha district has also taken lead in PM Modi’s other cleanliness drive. One can see neat and clean streets and well-planned system for the disposal of solid waste. Here India’s first animal hostel was initiated. People keep their cattle at the hostel unlike other traditional villages where domestic animals are kept in the backyard of home. “Due to animal hostel, we are able to keep our village clean. They are not roaming around in the streets. At the same time experts take care of cattle at the animal hostel which resulted into increase in milk production too,” says Patel.
