The Sonailtala union information and service centre is six kilometres from Mongla town. It takes Tk 40 taka to take four copies of photographs and then Tk 100 in transportation back and forth. And then there is the matter of time and trouble involved.
Marjina Begum, a housewife, doesn't go to Mongla town anymore. She takes her photograph at the union information service centre for Tk 20. She tells Prothom Alo, "I would spend more on just going to town and returning than actually spending on taking my photograph."
Like Marjina, thousands of people around the country now avail information technology (IT) services in their own unions. Official records say about four million people avail these services every day. There are over 5000 IT centres around the country.
Ramesh Baroi and his wife Kalyani Baroi of the village Haldibunia in Chandpai union would travel 60km to Khulna town to apply for their Indian visa. They can now do so from the information service centre in their own union.
Like them, many now go to the union or pourashava service centres to avail 60 types of services at low costs. About 1.45 million people wanting to go to Malaysia on government expense to get jobs there, and 300 thousand women wanting to go to various countries, have got registered at these information service centres.
According to the Saudi government conditions, online registration and machine readable passports (MRP) are compulsory for going on Hajj. A total of 101,759 Hajj pilgrims will have to register within 21 January to 5 February.
Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan has told Prothom Alo, "Bangladesh can fulfill this condition of the Saudi government. Appropriate facilities now exist at the union level."
Local government experts have said that so long union parishad just meant local salish (arbitration) and dispute settlements. They would sometimes distribute rice and wheat. Now that has changed and the union parishads provide IT services too.
Many persons in the most remote villages can now speak to their relations overseas by Viber or talk and see them over Skype. The IT centres throng with people when exam results are released. All centres are yet to come to the same standard, though.
The beginning: These IT centres were set up countrywide by the local government division and Bangladesh Computer Council under the Access to Information (a2i) programme of the prime minister's office with funding from the United National Development Programme (UNDP). These centres were inaugurated on 11 November 2010 with a video conference between prime minister Sheikh Hasina in her office and News Zealand's former prime minister Helen Clark in Char Kukrimukri union of Bhola district.
Service and revenue: The centres started off with the slogan, service at the people's doorsteps. Within four months the people no longer had to go through inordinate pains to avail services. According to a2i records, the union IT service centres have provided services to 120 million people and have earned Tk 1.4 billion so far.
Prothom Alo's local correspondents carried out on-the-spot visits to service centres in five areas of the country. They noted that some of the centres were not functioning properly due to slow Internet speed, no electricity, computer out of order, lack of women entrepreneurs and non-cooperation by some of the chairmen.
Where there is no electricity, some of the centres run on solar energy. There is no electricity in Mithakhali of Mongla, the Sundarbans and Chila union. The centres here run on solar energy. Chandpai, Sonailtala and Buriganga union have electricity facilities and so the centres there run properly.
Each centre has two organisers, one women with a minimum secondary level education and one man with a minimum higher secondary level education. The presence of a woman organiser makes the centre more accessible for women. However, in most centres there are no women entrepreneurs. The women leave the centres once they get married or different jobs.
Total number of information centres: According to official records, there are digital centres in 4547 unions of the country. After the success of the union, digital centres have been set up in 321 pourashavas and 460 digital centres at a ward level in 11 city corporations. In all, there are 5328 information service centres in the country.
All the centres are not functioning well. The beginning was very poor. In the first year, 60% to 65% of the centres would remain locked up. Now about 75% to 80% remain open.
Junaid Ahmed, state minister for information and communications technology, told Prothom Alo that despite certain limitations, the digital centres have managed to close the distance between the villages and towns which made an important contribution to the country's socio-economic development. The state minister referred to the recent award received from the World Summit on Information Society and World Information Technology and Service Alliance, saying that the government still has a lot to do in developing this sector and improving its quality. He said that the speed of Internet would improve with the implementation of two projects taken up by the government, banglagov.net and info.sarkar.
Lack of publicity: Though the project is of public importance, it has inadequate publicity. Prothom Alo's correspondents noted that many people of the villages were unaware of the service centres. Nayeemuzzaman Mukta, a2i public perception expert, said that the local organisers would publicise the centres on their own accord initially. For about six months now TV ads are being run on behalf of a2i. At the district level digital innovation fairs, the activities of the service centres are highlighted. District information officers every months update the local journalists in this regard.