GramVaani is a mobile technology incubator with a clear focus on serving the huge untapped, consuming populations at the Bottom of the Pyramid across the globe.
By deploying disruptive technologies GramVaani envisions to get a majority share of the consumers voice at the Bottom of the Pyramid, and offer tremendous opportunities for the leading brands to market their products and services to targeted consuming communities across global rural markets.
Potential of AI (Generative AI) in Business: Learnings and Insights
Gram vaani's work on community engagement
1. Gram Vaani Community Media
- Technologies for Community
Empowerment -
MARCH 2013
VOICE OF THE VILLAGE
goonj: social media for everyone
2. About us
Vision: “Build citizen-driven media platforms that give
communities a voice of their own”
Working at the interface of
Technology | Media | Development
Strategy
Evolve synergies between communities, the government, large
development institutions, and media agencies
We work all across India with more than 30+ non-profit
organizations, and now in Africa too
Awards and recognition
Rising Stars in Global Health award 2012
mBillionth award 2012
Rockefeller Challenge 2012
10 most innovative companies in India (by Fast Company)
Economic Times Power of Ideas 2010
Manthan Award 2009
Knight News Challenge 2008
goonj: social media for everyone
3. Our projects
1. Goonj: Social media for the BoP
Voice-based social media platform, currently in
Jharkhand
2. GRINS: Automation system for community
radio stations
35 deployments across 12 states in India, 6
deployments in Africa
3. vApps: Community engagement tools
Indian deployments: UP, Bihar, AP
International: Afghanistan, Pakistan
4. FullCircle: Social audit tools for communities
A voice and SMS based community audit
framework to review the performance of public
services
goonj: social media for everyone
5. What is the Goonj network?
Network of voice-based community media stations in
rural and suburban India
Mobile radio
Interactive radio over phone technology pioneered by Gram
Vaani
Jharkhand Mobile Radio: Over 2000 calls per day, 20000+
callers
Community radio
Gram Vaani‟s GRINS automation system enhances community
engagement over FM community radio
UP, MP, Uttarakhand, Haryana, AP, Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Rajasthan
goonj: social media for everyone
6. How it works in Jharkhand
Mobile phone based platform for crowd-sourcing local information from remote
villages, and making it available for anyone to access over phone
Village groups call into Validated stories
a toll-free number to are published
tell stories and online
experiences Valuable statistics
The submitted stories and reports can be
are validated and derived from the
moderated by a trained information
editor collected
Validated stories are
also published for
access on same toll-
Other people can call into the toll- free number
free number to listen to the
validated stories goonj: social media for everyone
7. The tremendous response
~ 2000 calls per day
~ 20,000 callers
~ 4 min average time per call
~ 11,000 returning callers
Main areas: Dhanbad, Giridih,
Bokaro, Lathehar, Palamu
goonj: social media for everyone
8. Content on Goonj
90% community sourced content
Local news
Opinion on topical issues
Guided discussions and campaigns
Grievances and feedback on government schemes
Cultural artifacts including folk songs and poems
Propagation through word-of-mouth and field partners
Gram Swaraj Abhiyan
Public Health Resource Network
Leads Trust
JSACS
Red Cross Society
PRADAN
goonj: social media for everyone
9. What we have learned
How to build community
Through workshops and field meetings, we have built a large and dedicated
network of community representatives
Actively solicit opinion of the community on how Goonj is working for them
Bring ownership by discussing the role of media and getting ideas from the
community itself
How to translate community media into impact
Convey issues and questions raised on the forum to civil society partners, non-
profit organizations, and resource experts
How to use media for accountability and transparency
Connect with government departments to use the forum for citizen-government
engagement
Announcements, grievance redressal, and community audit of government
schemes
goonj: social media for everyone
10. Some examples
Escalating grievances
A village ignored by health agencies was reported to have had 3 malaria deaths
in the last one week. This was brought to the notice of the DC and a mobile
ambulance was immediately dispatched, with fumigation equipment and first aid
Community reports
Campaign on water
conservation broughtt inputs
from 30 panchayats that even
though all panchayats had
water bodies funded under
MNREGA, but due to poor
engineering none of the
works were being used as
productive assets
goonj: social media for everyone
12. MCD project on garbage site
monitoring
1 2
Municipal Corporation of Delhi
3
approached Gram Vaani for phone Our server makes and receives
based citizen monitoring of waste calls/SMS from contract staff on
disposal in the city their deliverables
Community
members query
the status and
dispute it if they
want
Self-reported status
4
by MCD staff Status and disputes
Citizens can query were made available on
and dispute a web dashboard and
reviewed by the MCD
commissioner; City
Representatives post
responses on facebook
goonj: social media for everyone
13. What we helped convey
Need for internal monitoring
MCD did not have any internal monitoring processes to keep track of its own staff
and contractors
Statistics on self-reports given by the staff helped the commissioner understand
the relevance of reporting
Need for community audit
Disputes filed by the community on mis-reported status of garbage sites helps
generate internal discussion and reveals process ineffeciencies
Fortnightly meetings with the commissioner by community representatives also
helped give community a voice to engage with the service providers
Need for action
Community participation gradually fell because despite good discussions, many
problems reported by the community were not solved. This highlighted that such
projects will be successful if the authorities are more responsive
goonj: social media for everyone
14. New avatar: ICDS monitoring
Working closely with DC, Dhanbad to launch Fullcircle as a tool for
ICDS monitoring
School teachers and principals report daily via SMS
Number of children who came to school today
Number of children fed
Menu
Ration remaining
Community can query reports filed by the service providers, and also listen to
them on Jharkhand Mobile Radio
Lodge a dispute if they detect a discrepancy
Dispute is included in a weekly report that is discussed with the DC
Also trying to start a similar project for urban municipal schools
goonj: social media for everyone
16. vHelp: Running a mobile
callcentre/helpline
1
„The Hoot‟ approached Gram
Vaani to build an „intelligent
helpline‟ for journalists
2
Journalists call into
Calls are archived if
3 4
a toll-free number Calls are patched to the nobody answers, and
to request for closest first response can be reviewed over a
assistance/advise network of volunteers web interface
and staff
goonj: social media for everyone
17. vSurvey: Collecting structured inputs
from the community
Surveys on IVR and SMS can be pushed out to community members
Mix of multiple-choice questions, numerical inputs, and audio recordings
Used by UNDP to understand whether their SHGs wanted help with
livelihoods or savings or advisories
Current survey to assess exposure to micro-insurance in eastern UP
goonj: social media for everyone
18. vAct: Community-based complaint
management
1
A governance focused NGO, Action
India, approached Gram Vaani to Youth wing of NGO files
build a „better grievance redressal complaint officially, and sends a
system‟ report to the local councilor
4
Community
2 members call into Redressal statistics also displayed on
3
a toll-free number NGO listens to website (and wall newspapers)
to leave complaints and
complaints categories/transcribes
them on the Internet
5
Internal pressure dynamics thus created were
used to improve grievance rates on ration,
pension, and sanitation. New toilets and public
works were sanctioned
goonj: social media for everyone
19. GRINS: Community radio automation
system
GRINS: Gramin Radio Inter Networking System
Makes it easy to run community radio stations
Full telephony support: People can call into the station
and leave voice recordings, or go live on air
Content management and statistics on programs played
Internet streaming of live broadcast
Community database: Maintain a database of
volunteers, staff, community resource people, etc, and
reach out to them through group SMSes and voice
messages
Powering a large network of 35+ community radio
stations across India
Now including community radio stations into the
Goonj network, for greater outreach and diversity
goonj: social media for everyone
22. Our team
Strategy and business development
Dr. Aaditeshwar Seth Assistant Professor, IIT Delhi, Aaditeshwar leads the technology
Co-Founder Ph.D, University of Waterloo, development and product design,
bringing new generation solutions to the
B.Tech, IIT Kanpur
rural Indian context
Mayank Shivam Business head at Jabong.com, Mayank advises on the overall strategy
Co-Founder 5 years with McKinsey & Co, and business partnerships, bringing to
MBA, IIM Lucknow bear his rich consulting experience
B.Tech, IIT Kanpur
goonj: social media for everyone
23. Our team
Technology
Dinesh Kapoor 3 years with Microsoft Dinesh leads the development of voice
Product Manager Voice M.Tech, IIT Delhi applications and is driving the current
Applications vAct and vNews applications
B.Tech, IP University
Balachandran C. B.Tech, IIIT Allahabad Bala architected the voice platform and
Technical Consultant ensures that our technology is converted
into relevant and user-friendly
applications
Zahir Koradia Ph.D candidate, IIT Mumbai Zahir leads the development of the
Product Manager GRINS M.Tech, IIT Kanpur GRINS platform for community radio
stations
Kapil Dadheech BTech, Arya College of Engg Kapil single-handedly manages 30+
Technical Support installations of GRINS and 10+
Engineer installations of voice applications
Rohit Jain MCA, Sikkim Manipal University Rohit manages remote installations of
System administrator Microsoft certified sys. admin. GRINS and voice applications
goonj: social media for everyone
24. Our team
Project coordination
Sayonee Chatterjee MA Sociology, Pune University. 5 Sayonee manages our Mericity.in and
Project manager years experience with PRADAN and MCD initiatives in partnership with
PRIA NGOs various NGOs in Delhi
Aparna Moitra Gold Medalist & MSc Development Aparna manages our Jharkhand
Researcher Communications and Extension, deployment of mobile news and
Lady Irwin College coordination with field staff
Ranchi office
Shambhu Mahto LLM, Ranchi University Shambhu manages the field operations of
State coordinator for JMR Jharkhand Mobile Radio in Ranchi,
popularizing it and managing our district
coordinators
goonj: social media for everyone
25. Thanks
G r a m Va a n i C o m m u n i t y M e d i a
Website: ht t p:/ /w w w.gra m vaa ni.or g
Email: contact@gramvaani.org
goonj: social media for everyone