Volume 19, No. 3, October 2009
SMSONE
Community Development through Creation of Social Entrepreneurship
Anuradha Parekh
[This
case study was developed by the author under the guidance of Prof.
Subhash Bhatnagar, as a part of work assigned to her when she was
working with the Centre for E-Governance (CEG) at IIM, Ahmedabad. It has
been written primarily on the basis of the author’s field visits to
SMSONE’s office in
Introduction
Today,
mobile phones reach a large portion of the Indian population, including
the poor. From street hawkers to businessmen, most
citizens are now connected through the mobile. A simple SMS
(Short Messaging Service) facility can provide citizens with a channel
to receive, share, or broadcast their views on important issues.
Enabling push-down services such as sending alerts, reminders, updates,
and vital information via a mobile phone can bridge the digital divide
between and within rural and urban areas while serving as a useful
medium of interaction between the government and public.
SMSONE
– ‘A Local SMS Community Newsletter’ was established in 2005 as a
proprietorship firm in Pune, Maharashtra, by Ravi Ghate,[1]
a young social entrepreneur with a vision of creating self-employment
opportunities for India’s unemployed or unemployable youth, and for
empowering local communities with specific and localized information.
Ravi Ghate designed a simple, yet unique way of reaching out to
thousands of citizens using a mobile phone.
As a part of
its newsletter initiative, SMSONE sends free messages (SMS) on social
and political issues to more than 300 communities and over 3,000,000
subscribers in Maharashtra’s 25 districts, most of which are in the
state’s backward and semi-urban regions. The mobile penetration level
in rural areas covered by the project is about 40%, and within that, the
service covers 80-90% of the population.
Through the
service, bulk messages are sent within minutes to 1,000 mobile users
(who may be using mobiles connections of any service provider) in a
community. Field workers or community leaders are responsible for
collecting information and news on local happenings in the community;
these include cultural programs during festivals and public holidays,
water and power shutdowns, and due dates for telephone bills and
municipal taxes. In this manner, community members get access to
reliable and relevant information.
The project
has also been successful in achieving its objective of providing a
source of income to the rural youth. Its success at promoting
“Self-Employment through SMS Communities” was lauded with the
Manthan Award under the ‘e-Youth’ category in 2007. The project’s
services have now been extended to various government/non-government
organisations like the Police Department of Pune that uses the software
for quick and specific intra-departmental communication; Ministry of
Sports and Youth Affairs; and various schools/colleges under
Background
Realizing
the importance of mobile technology in bridging the digital divide, Ravi
Ghate felt the need to use it to create a location-specific medium that
would open communication channels between neighborhoods in an
integrated, interconnected and interactive manner. He therefore started
the Local SMS Community Newsletter
that offered a platform to bring people under one umbrella, encouraged
public participation, and disseminated useful and genuine information.
SMSONE
started with an initial investment of Rs 7,500 and was piloted in about
70 communities, each comprising a thousand members. The firm did not
avail any assistance/ funding from the Government, NGO, or any
charitable organisation. It follows the franchisee model, allowing every
individual to work as an entrepreneur rather than a paid employee.
One of the
primary goals of the project is to promote social entrepreneurship
amongst school-college dropouts, opportunity-less street wanderers, and
financially backward youth. The project intends to connect every 1,000
mobile phone users under one local SMS community, each of which would
have a community leader responsible for sending promotional or social
messages to his/her community. Connectivity of all 200 million mobile
users in
The software
application runs on a computer with an Internet connection, and has been
developed by a technical team that comprises the chief coordinator and
an IT engineer. SMSs are sent via a gateway (broadcasting network) hired
from a local third party. Every community is allotted a username and
password to ensure security; the software also maintains an address book
of the 1,000 users within each community. The application uses bulk SMS
technology for one-to-many transmission of messages, and maintains a
log/summary of messages sent during a period.
Service
Delivery Model
At the time
of joining SMSONE, staff members are given a two-day on-the-job training
to enhance their basic computer skills. The operators are also trained
on relevant procedures and on developing the right attitude to deliver
quality customer service. Each project member is capable of performing
all the required functions in the absence of the others.
The
operations at SMSONE are headed by the Chief Coordinator who
is responsible for the overall functioning of the state, district
and Taluka (sub-district) coordinators; preparing and submitting
proposals for project implementation in various government departments,
influential organizations and institutes; and defining and enhancing the
scope of work at various levels.
The State Coordinator selects and supervises the working of District and Taluka Coordinators, each of whom is the agency owner of his/her respective area and the communities within it. The district coordinator helps taluka coordinators and community leaders within his/her district in building networks and collecting information from different government agencies and areas. Each taluka coordinator appoints and supervises ten to twelve community leaders, each of whom is responsible for 10-12 villages.
The Community
Leader serves as the main link to the community by linking community
members to clients who wish to publish advertisements. As a field
worker, he collects information on various issues affecting the
community and builds his network of clients to get relevant
advertisements. He is trained as a mobile journalist who can reach out
to thousands of people via the SMSONE service. Based on his performance,
a community leader can be promoted to taluka or district coordinator.
Service
Delivery Process
§ To start with, an advertisement is placed in the local newspapers for selection of community leaders or mobile journalists. Preference is given to those who have failed in the 10th or 12th grades or are high school/ college drop outs, opportunity-less street wanderers, demoralized, and financially backward youth.
§
The selected youth is then appointed as the community leader of a
particular area based on his capabilities and enthusiasm for undertaking
such an activity. The selected youth is presumed to understand the
requirement, ethos, and social issues relevant to the community.
Community leaders are given a one-day training during which the
procedures and the working of the organization are explained to them.
§
On appointment, an amount of Rs 5,000 is taken as an investment deposit
from the community leader who has the flexibility to pay back the amount
in easy installments once he starts earning from the newsletter. The
community leader is also asked to collect 1,000-1,500 mobile numbers
from a given area – that is, one mobile phone number from each
household. The leader’s first task is to conduct a primary survey of
the allotted area and collect basic information from each household.
During the survey, he explains the types of messages that the households
could expect to receive, that the service provided to them will be free,
and convinces them about the efficacy/ importance of these messages. He
also ensures that the selected 1,000 members are a diverse group
comprising of students, farmers, politicians, businessmen, women
self-help groups, artisans and professionals.
§
The community leader then gets the member’s consent for joining the
community on a registration form. He prepares a manual list of all
mobile numbers and submits it to the head office. The head office enters
these numbers in its database and allocates a unique location specific
ID for each taluka. Further, to provide targeted messaging service,
categorization of customers as per their needs or community or
profession is done in the database. For example, agricultural
information is sent to farmers whereas education related messages or
alerts on job openings are sent to student groups. This facility has
been started in a few communities only.
§
The community leader also acts as a reporter or journalist who collects
information on various political and social events taking place within
the area allotted to him, and sends the information to the respective
taluka coordinator. Influential organisations, government officials and
political leaders approach the community leader when they wish to send
messages across to a community. A template for the same is first created
at the head office and sent to the community leader via mobile, and is
shown to the customer. Once approved, the message is sent to the entire
community.
§
Community members receive the SMS in less than two minutes. SMS is sent
in the local language (Marathi) but written in English using the Roman
script. In case of delivery failure to a particular number for five
consecutive instances, the community leader is asked to cross check the
number and replace it with a new one. Members can even opt to
discontinue the service (a few such instances have been reported).
Service
Fee
Messages
that are sent are of two types:
1.
Social messages include local news and alerts related to water and power
shutdowns, due dates for payment of telephone bills and municipal taxes,
notices on traffic congestion and road closures, important announcements
from local/municipal/state/central government agencies and the local
police, and related to emergency medical services.
2.
Promotional messages - Alerts and updates on local happenings such as
cultural programs organized during festivals or public holidays,
lectures, stage shows; eye testing, health checkups and various medical
camps; and birthday wishes to members.
The
ratio of social to promotional messages is generally 1:4 but can be
changed. A maximum of five messages is sent in a month and about 60
messages annually. Family related messages are usually sent between 6 to
8 PM as this is the time when most people return from work and can share
the information received through SMS with their families. As a matter of
policy, one message per week, a maximum of four commercial and two or
three social messages per month are sent to the members to avoid
overload of information and irritation.
For
every social message, one rupee is charged from the customer i.e. the
entity using the SMSONE facility to reach out to the community. However,
the community leader has the freedom to negotiate the price for each
message that he sends, and this can go up to Rs 2-3 per message.
Promotional messages are charged at Rs 2-3 per message. The community
leader can negotiate with competing rivals and decide to provide service
to the highest bidder.
The
community leader can decide how many promotional messages he should send
to his community against every social message. He can compensate for the
lower revenue earned from social messages by sending more promotional
SMS. The usage of this service is limited only by the vision of the
youth who runs the project and can be as diverse as: advertisements from
shopkeepers about shop openings or discount offers, credit societies and
cooperative banks, hotels, and establishments, insurance agents, car or
two-wheeler dealers and service centers, and real estate dealers;
marriage invitations; political messages for budding local leaders;
information related to panchayat, municipal, state assembly or
parliamentary elections from political parties; and information about
lections of various cooperative bodies.
Out
of each message sent, 50 paise is passed on to the head office,
irrespective of the rate charged by the community leader. The balance is
retained by him and is his income, thus allowing him to earn anything
between Rs 5,000-10,000 every month. Out of the 50 paise per message
that goes to the head office, 40 paise goes as SMS credit charges to the
gateway service provider, 3 paise each to the taluka and district
coordinator, and the rest is the income of the central office (chief
coordinator). Thus, the central office ends up with a meager profit
margin of 4 paise per message. The total number of messages sent via the
SMSONE network in 2007-2008 was approximately four million and the
revenue generated was about Rs 4,000-5,000 annually. However, this has
the potential to increase once the overall turnover of messages
increases, enabling the project to obtain gateway services at a much
cheaper rate than the current 40 paise per message.
Benefits
to the Community
§
Youth empowerment: The project provides employment to the rural youth
who could otherwise be engaged in non-productive and disruptive social
or political activities. The youth is not treated as an employee but as
a social entrepreneur who works on behalf of and for the interest of the
community. He/she has the authority to take independent decisions on the
service fee charged from the client. He can earn up to Rs 6,000 per
month and build his social network. He is no longer looked upon as an
unwanted social element and can aspire to become a social/political
leader or activist.
§
Help during emergencies: This service has benefited many people who have
been denied help from local authorities during emergencies such as
accidents and sickness. For example, in Pune district, donations were
received by a family that had a medical emergency because of the appeal
made by the community leader to community members. Also, many farmers
and backward communities have been made aware of important subsidies and
other entitlements- vital information that is otherwise inaccessible to
them.
§ Bridging the digital divide: Today, most earning members of every household have mobile phones. By communicating with the earning member of a household, one can access all members of the family. For instance, if an SMS related to a health camp is sent, the information would eventually reach members of the household or the neighbourhood. Among them, those who require medical aid and advice could then attend the health camp. Thus, irrespective of the fact that the elderly or children may not have direct access to technology, this audience can be reached through SMS and encouraged to participate in social activities, thereby bridging the digital divide.
§
Beneficial for m-governance: By sharing information with
the public through SMS, the government can help build transparency in
its working and win public trust. The SMSONE services have been extended
to various government and non-government agencies and departments such
as the Pune city and rural police departments, Sports and Youth Services
department, Pune Union of Working Journalists and various NGOs.
Current
Status
The
project is ready for implementation in a few districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Pilot projects have started in Andhra Pradesh under a joint venture with
Bhumi-
an NGO group, and in
Challenges
Faced by SMSONE
§
Limited funding:
SMSONE started with an initial capital investment of Rs 7,500, which was
not sufficient for covering expenses such as the cost of training mobile
journalists, cost of sending messages through the service provider, and
the cost of collecting localized information.
§
Changing the mindset of the youth: Changing the perception of the youth
was one of the project’s key challenges. The opportunity-less, poor
individuals that the project targets are completely demoralized and
presume that such activities would not accrue them any income. Moreover,
the false promises of big revenues made by large, private companies,
network marketing companies and data entry companies leaves the rural
youth more wary. Consequently, it becomes a Herculean task to convince
them to join the organization and assure them that this is not another
fly-by-night network selling system.
§
Lack of cooperation from the Government: The project team finds it
extremely difficult to collect information from government departments
who are yet to realize the criticality of interacting with citizens and
disseminating important information to socially or economically backward
classes. Also, the idea of providing two-way interactive communication
services using the SMSONE software was not well received by some
government departments since they did not have a proper system or
adequate manpower in place to support this initiative and were not
willing to take responsibility for complaints.
§
Illiteracy of target audience: Since the SMSONE services reach out
mostly to the rural communities in
§
Poor mobile penetration: The reach of the newsletter is mostly in
backward and semi-urban regions of
§
Non-availability of low cost handsets: GSM mobile handsets that enable
use of Indian scripts (with a price range of Rs 1,500 and above) are
largely unaffordable for rural inhabitants, and are not easily
available. Moreover, messages under this service cannot be sent to CDMA-enabled
phones due to technical limitations. In CDMA mobile phones, the
sender’s name is not displayed and only the telephone number is
displayed; this makes it difficult for the receiver to identify the
source of the message, thereby reducing the credibility of the message.
§ Message space limitation: The 160 character message size limits the amount of information that can be sent to community members. Also, the policy of maintaining the ratio of social to promotional messages at 1:4 restricts the number of social messages that can be delivered.
OTHER
USERS OF SMSONE
Pune’s
Police department started using this service in December 2006. The
crime branch of Pune police, responsible for prevention and
detection of crimes committed in the city, implemented the software to
enable quick and specific intra-departmental communication. According
to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Anil Kumbhare, “the
software has benefited the police in sending confidential and
non-confidential messages to selected officials at a very fast speed.
The software helps in maintaining secrecy of confidential and vital
information as against using wireless systems where the chances of
leakages are much higher”.
The
messaging facility provided by the SMSONE software allows each zonal
head to communicate with his subordinates in his own zone. The
Commissioner has the facility to communicate with all his officers or
selected group of officers, anytime and can send reminders for
collection of reports from the zones. The messaging facility also
helps the police in monitoring the city in case of riots, social
events or natural calamities, while proving highly effective in
alerting citizens against any potential threat or in controlling
rumors. The police department prefers the SMSONE messaging service
over services provided by private telecom players since it enables
sending bulk messages within a few minutes (five to ten minutes) as
against five hours taken by networks of other service providers. This
is possible because SMSONE uses an independent gateway hired from a
service provider. If the police department is unable to send messages
during emergencies, the SMSONE team is asked to do so, on its behalf.
The public receives messages in the name of Pune police with relevant
help line numbers provided at the end.
UoP-NSS
department has been using the SMSONE
software service intensively since two years to send alerts and
information to students, 500 program officers and 250 college
principals across three districts of Maharashtra - Pune,
For
example, during the Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008, the
general public feared moving out of their homes and collection of
blood for the victims was a major concern. The UoP-NSS sent messages
to all Pune city NSS program officers (POs), which was in turn
conveyed to the youth who collected 510 bags of blood within three
hours.
Schools
Pune’s
The
software “SMSONE–Express” is a PC-to-mobile service that can
send 1,000 messages in a minute as against an ordinary mobile that can
send only six messages per minute. A staff member of the school hired
for the same operates the software. SMSONE–Express is offered to
schools in three ways: a) the school can volunteer to bear the minimal
costs or b) the parents can pay an annual charge of Rs 30-50 or c) the
school or parents can receive the service free of cost if the parents
are willing to receive promotional messages sent by SMSONE to cover
its cost. Thus, the initiative is a reliable, easy, and a most
cost-effective way of contacting parents on a mass scale. The project
has caught the attention of many other schools in the city.
Pune
Union of Working Journalists (PUWJ)
This
organization for journalists in Maharshtra has about 430 working
journalists associated with it. The organization uses this service to
send alerts, updates and inform its members about get-togethers and
important press conferences. After using this service for the past two
years, the members feel that the service has been excellent and
cost-effective. Any member wanting to use the service to disseminate
information on any particular event contacts the technical team of
SMSONE and asks them to send the message on their behalf through the
user ID created for the community. Since the software is
user-friendly, members themselves can go the SMSONE website, log in,
and send messages accordingly.
References
§
‘Smart’ Messaging Service.
§
Brahme, N. Two cool. Times of
§
I4donline.net (2008, June 6). Building SMS network for empowering poor.
Available: http://www.i4donline.net/interview/interview-details.asp?interviewid=444
§
Jagtap, U. In short, the message is social change and empowerment.
Dainik Jagran, Pune Edtion, January 16, 2009.
§
MiD DAY (2009, February 24). Social entrepreneur uses ‘mobile
scribes’ to make a difference. Available: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/feb/240209-SMS-newsletter-Parbhani-Ravi-Ghate-Ahmed-Siddique-urban-population-Malaysia.htm
§
Schools to keep parents informed via SMSes. Indian Express, Pune
Newsline, September 30, 2006.
§ SMSONE (n.d.). Connecting BoP through Local SMS community newsletter. Available: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8240644/Local-SMS-Community-Newsletter
[1]
Ravi Ghate is the Chief Coordinator and Director of the SMSONE
project and has recently been honoured with the NASSCOM Award of
Social Innovation. In 2007, he received the “National Youth
Award”, which is the Government of