Kerala tribes high on internet skills

November 4, 2008

by Suzan Abrams

The Hindustan Times reports today on a very interesting video which explains how Kerala's Palakkad Village is all ready to be proclaimed as India's first e-literate tribal village. Kerala which lies on the tip of South India and is as famous for its swaying palms, the fabulous Kovalam Beach which holds Europe's leftover hippies and splendid touristy hill stations just as it is for important novelists like Arundhati Roy has always been known as India's only state with the highest literacy rate.

But now even its tribes in the outer forest regions are not spared. The Attappady community which is probably the largest and poorest of them all, are being given sound and comprehensive training on IT under the Akshaya Project, so that the villagers would easily be able to keep pace with the rest of the world.

In Kerala's Malappuram district alone where the project first commenced, it is now believed to have reached over 600,000 households in less than 6 months which means that a single person in every family is well-versed with internet protocol and wireless networks.

This has also resulted in a massive wireless infrastructure development throughout Kerala state.