While each of the four IBM CSC teams have been working with four different NGO clients on various projects, we all decided to dedicate one day (weekend) to community service where we will be directly interacting with the people whose lives may get directly impacted by the projects we are doing. VSO proposed two community service activities and asked us to choose one:
- Teaching how to use digital cashless technology to a group of people from Indore slum areas impacted heavily with HIV.
- Teaching Indore based NGOs how to use social media and other online technology for increasing efficiency and impact
After internal discussion, IBM CSC team agreed to work on both service activities. We spend our evenings and weekend time to plan the both activities and prepare the documentation:
Morning Session: Teaching Cashless Technology to Slum Area Residents
Location: Shivaji Nagar community hall (near Malwa Mill)
Time: 10-11am (60 minutes)
Agenda:
- Who we are (5 min)
- Background: why e-Payment is becoming more prominent (5 min)
- Digital World – Digital India. World is connected via technology, new jobs in technology areas. Everything has started to happen using computers, including train tickets, bus tickets, shopping etc.
- Demonetization and future of paper cash. PM started the demonetization to stop corruption. In future, the country may reduce the money supply and stop printing notes. Countries like USA already have majority of the transactions as cashless.
- What is e-Payment? (5 min)
e-Payment implies paying someone without cash.
There are 5 ways to do so:
- Checks
- ATM Debit/Credit card
- UPI – BHIM
- USSD – *99#
- Aadhaar card enabled payment system (yet to be operational)
- Are e-Payments reliable? (5 min)
- Yes, they are more reliable than cash. You will be using the passcodes that no one knows. You can check your balance any time and there is a record of transactions.
- Benefits of e-Payments (10 min)
- Sending money to your family that is not living with you
- You can charge exact amounts, in the event of not having small change
- No need to go bank / ATM to withdraw cash
- Point out YouTube videos for step-by-step instructions (5 min)
- Demonstration / Roleplay of BHIM (15 min)
- Questions (10 min)
The IBM team reached the community hall at 9:30 AM to check the site and plan tasks. The community hall was part of a small Shiva temple in the community. After getting off from the major road, we parked the cars and walked through a small street lined with small houses, some less than 10 feet wide.
Soon, members from VSO team, MPVHA, and the local community for whom the training was intended, started to arrive. After having about 30-40 people, including men, women and youth, we started our training session around 10:15 AM.
After a brief introduction of IBM team, we explained steps 2 to 5 in Hindi. Since no projector was available, we made use of other visual aids to keep the audience interested. We explained everything in Hindi and had the help of five college volunteers to do the translation. Then we showed a video on how to use the cashless systems using three laptops that were synced up for single source of audio.
After that, we provided the demonstration of technology using roleplay/skit, which was really appreciated by the audience. Finally, we answered the questions and helped few individuals to install and setup the cashless apps.
The overall training was very much liked by the community and the VSO team. They offered us coffee at the end and thanked us for coming to their area to provide this training. We also thanked them for providing this opportunity and came back to the hotel to get ready for the next training session in the afternoon.
Davinder Singh Garcha Blogs 