Raising a Billion Voices
Sheetal K. Agarwal
IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | sheetaga@in.ibm.com
Arun Kumar
IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | kkarun@in.ibm.com
Sougata Mukherjea
IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | smukherj@in.ibm.com
Amit A. Nanavati
IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | namit@in.ibm.com
Nitendra Rajput
IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | rnitendra@in.ibm.com
Almost a year back, we started working on an
exploratory research project Pyr.mea.IT [ 1]. “The
bottom of the pyramid is the largest but poorest
socio-economic group. In global terms, this is the
four billion people who live on less than $2 per
day, typically in developing countries [ 2]”. Since
almost all of our research in computer science
and information technology has until recently
focused on the top of the pyramid, we thought it
might be a good idea for us to get at least somewhat acquainted with our end users. All of the
authors have lived and grown up in India, so we
have a reasonable understanding of the people
around us, or so we thought. We conducted some
initial surveys, in about 10 cities and towns in
India, with fruit sellers, milk-delivery men, auto
rickshaw drivers, plumbers, and the like, to get a
firsthand idea of the way technology, not just IT,
impacts their lives and their level of comfort in
using it.
Two things, seemingly contradictory, are
inescapable in today’s India: the lack of literacy
and the penetration of mobile phones. While
the former has been around for years, the latter is a recent phenomenon. Even people whose
monthly salary is one-fifth the cost of a mobile
phone are carrying one around with them (the
mobile is shared with the family). One milkman
we talked to does not use the address book to
store and retrieve numbers! He dials the number
every time. Another young man plays games on
his, although he cannot read or write. Invariably,
all the folks surveyed use the mobile phone to
talk and stay connected with family and clients.
Although sending a text message is often cheaper
than making a phone call, lack of literacy makes
that a nonexistent option for most of these
people. Somewhat interestingly, it is also true
that many educated people in India do not use
the mobile except for talking. One thing becomes
clear: Services relevant to various sections of the
society are either nonexistent or the interface is
practically unusable.
Until as recently as four to five years ago,
mobile phones were still expensive, and getting
a landline phone connection was complicated.
Many of the plumbers, electricians, and carpenters come to the city from neighboring towns
and villages and stay with friends and relatives,
so address verification becomes an issue, and it
could take several months to get a connection.
The processes were slow, and there was no competition for the telecom company. As a result,
freelance plumbers, electricians, and carpenters
used to associate themselves with an electrical
shop or a hardware store to find job assignments.
People typically call up these shops for such services, and the shopkeeper sends the workers on
assignments and collects a fee from them. The
falling price of the mobile phone has changed this