Raising a Billion Voices
Sheetal K. Agarwal

IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | [e-mail]

Arun Kumar

IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | [e-mail]

Sougata Mukherjea

IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | [e-mail]

Amit A. Nanavati

IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | [e-mail]

Nitendra Rajput

IBM India Research Laboratory (New Delhi) | [e-mail]

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