A presentation by Mr. Anurag Gupta at National Consultation on OER for Skill Development at New Delhi

1. Last Mile Services in Rural / Shadow Areas
By
Mr. Anurag Gupta
Founder, Zero Base Micro Finance Foundation
Mumbai
Presented at
National Consultation on
Open Educational Resources for Skill Development
Organised by
Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi
In Collaboration with: KNI Trust, Gurgaon
Venue: Hotel Royal Plaza, New Delhi
Date: 28 November, 2014

2. Last Mile Services in Rural / Shadow Areas
• To be operated at density in Districts we select: 4
Women Micro-Entrepreneurs formed as a Joint
Liability Group in each Gram Panchayat.
• Each woman micro-Entrepreneur buys a 4” NFC
phone (target Rs. 4000) as basic starting equipment.
Aadhar FP scanner added as an option for Rs. 2500.
• Pratham provides applications. Illustration shows the
launch screen of such a phone.
• Villagers enlisted as Members. Rs. 30 for RFID card;
Rs. 10 / month Membership Fee.
• Income potential between Rs. 800-6000 / month.
Key Challenge: The target women micro-entrepreneurs
are completely illiterate.

3. Anurag Gupta, CEO - A Little World Pvt. Ltd.
+91.98332.89382 anurag@alittleworld.com
Problem of illiteracy is compounded:
• While the selected women micro-entrepreneurs are
most enthusiastic, they are usually quite ill
equipped as well as unwilling to travel to the
nearest District HQ to get any sort of training –
such as from an RSETI.
• No training material available for the illiterate.
• As new applications and capabilities will get added,
re-training will be required frequently.
Solution:
• Redesign mobile interface so it can be used by
completely illiterate persons with a little training.
• Use pictures, small animations, audio files to make
interface easy to understand, remember and use.
• Impart training using the SAME mobile.
• Once they get used to utilising training material on
the same device, retraining is no problem.
• Use peer learning - JLG meeting every week is
used to exchange notes and clarify doubts.
Appeal:
• Please let us know if suitable / useful
tools are available to train illiterate
persons.