[ad_1]
Many of them don’t have cell towers, so the only way to verify biometrics is to walk up and down the surrounding hills till you find a strong signal
Kuda Raju spends the first week of every month trudging up and down hills. He’s a volunteer who brings pension and other government services to people’s doorstep in Thadiparthi hamlet of Andhra Pradesh’s Anakapalli district, but most of his trekking is in pursuit of phone signals.
Across Thadiparthi and hundreds of other hilltop tribal hamlets in the state’s Eastern Ghats, mobile and internet signals remain a mirage. But as every government benefit is linked to Aadhaar, Raju and the beneficiaries sometimes have to walk an hour to catch a signal and authenticate biometrics.
A TOI team visited several such inaccessible hamlets on foot to bring you this report.
Old and young suffer alike
Korra Chilakamma’s house in Z Jogampeta hamlet is the first “live” spot for tens of surrounding villages that lie up to 20km away in the woods. When TOI visited the isolated house perched high up on rough terrain, 69-year-old Gemmali Bangaramma was resting in its veranda. The ailing woman had dragged herself almost 5km from home to make sure she didn’t lose her old-age pension to a patchy network for the third month running.
In Rayapadu village, Seedari Bhaskara Rao complained about the “bleak” connectivity. “We are still dependent on a landline phone 2km away from this village for even an emergency call,” he said. Rao, who belongs to a particularly vulnerable tribal group, added that signals by themselves would be futile as most of the tribals haven’t ever used a phone. Browsing, messaging, streaming, social media and e-commerce are beyond their wildest fancy.
Pangi Vijay Kumar of Ajayapuram in Ravikamatham mandal said lack of internet connectivity iskeeping the region’s indigenous tribes away from modern civilisation. “Not only my generation, but also our children are clearly lagging in education and technology use. ”
K Govinda Rao, president of tribal body Andhra Pradesh Girijan Sangham 5th Schedule Sadhana Committee, also said the people in these parts are worse off because of the digital divide. “How can bedridden or elderly persons travel several miles to avail their pension orration? Children could not lay their hands on technological devices or learn computers. ” At the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, children in these hamlets could not transition to remote learning due to the absence of connectivity.
G Santhi from Ravikamatham mandal is a rare girl who owns a smartphone. “I cannot access any educational videos or watch news in a 10km radius of my village. Technology is an alien word and world for us,” she said. She walks up to 20km to get infotainment videos loaded on her mobile at a weekly market.
These are not isolated cases from a few interior villages. The digital divide is clear across mandals like Gummalakshmipuram, Komarada, Jiyyammavalasa, Kurpuam, Chintapalli, Araku, GK Veedhi, Munchingiputtu, Dumbriguda, Pedabayalu, etc, in the old Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, and Srikakulam districts.
Towers for 1,200 villages soon
The Centre’s data shows about 1,700 Andhra villages, including nearly 1,200 in north coastal Andhra Pradesh, lack mobile connectivity. Using the universal service obligation fund (USOF) the Centre is targeting to set up mobile services in about 1,200 uncovered villages of the state’s “aspirational districts” by the year-end.
Pavathipuram-Manyam district collector Nishant Kumar said 182 new mobile towers have been sanctioned for the district. “The district administration has planned to complete the installation of 100 towers by May. We are working on resolving issues of forest land where the towers need to be set up. ”
Meanwhile, Alluri Sitharama Raju district that’s home to 6 lakh tribals will get about 1,000 new towers. Only 30% of its hamlets have mobile connectivity at present. But even with these 1,200-odd towers more than 500 Andhra villages will remain unconnected for the foreseeable future.
New beginnings
Tribal villages that got mobile towers recently have already started reaping their bene?ts. Y Ganga Raju from Mulakalapalli village said they can now communicate and get government services from the comfort of their homes. But he sounded worried about technology’s effect on his children. “They are now spending a lot of time on mobile games and videos,” he complained.
Cheedivalasa in Ananthagiri mandal is another hamlet that got a tower recently. But here, the residents say they have to step out to make a call as the signal strength is poor indoors.
Kuda Raju spends the first week of every month trudging up and down hills. He’s a volunteer who brings pension and other government services to people’s doorstep in Thadiparthi hamlet of Andhra Pradesh’s Anakapalli district, but most of his trekking is in pursuit of phone signals.
Across Thadiparthi and hundreds of other hilltop tribal hamlets in the state’s Eastern Ghats, mobile and internet signals remain a mirage. But as every government benefit is linked to Aadhaar, Raju and the beneficiaries sometimes have to walk an hour to catch a signal and authenticate biometrics.
A TOI team visited several such inaccessible hamlets on foot to bring you this report.
Old and young suffer alike
Korra Chilakamma’s house in Z Jogampeta hamlet is the first “live” spot for tens of surrounding villages that lie up to 20km away in the woods. When TOI visited the isolated house perched high up on rough terrain, 69-year-old Gemmali Bangaramma was resting in its veranda. The ailing woman had dragged herself almost 5km from home to make sure she didn’t lose her old-age pension to a patchy network for the third month running.
In Rayapadu village, Seedari Bhaskara Rao complained about the “bleak” connectivity. “We are still dependent on a landline phone 2km away from this village for even an emergency call,” he said. Rao, who belongs to a particularly vulnerable tribal group, added that signals by themselves would be futile as most of the tribals haven’t ever used a phone. Browsing, messaging, streaming, social media and e-commerce are beyond their wildest fancy.
Pangi Vijay Kumar of Ajayapuram in Ravikamatham mandal said lack of internet connectivity iskeeping the region’s indigenous tribes away from modern civilisation. “Not only my generation, but also our children are clearly lagging in education and technology use. ”
K Govinda Rao, president of tribal body Andhra Pradesh Girijan Sangham 5th Schedule Sadhana Committee, also said the people in these parts are worse off because of the digital divide. “How can bedridden or elderly persons travel several miles to avail their pension orration? Children could not lay their hands on technological devices or learn computers. ” At the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, children in these hamlets could not transition to remote learning due to the absence of connectivity.
G Santhi from Ravikamatham mandal is a rare girl who owns a smartphone. “I cannot access any educational videos or watch news in a 10km radius of my village. Technology is an alien word and world for us,” she said. She walks up to 20km to get infotainment videos loaded on her mobile at a weekly market.
These are not isolated cases from a few interior villages. The digital divide is clear across mandals like Gummalakshmipuram, Komarada, Jiyyammavalasa, Kurpuam, Chintapalli, Araku, GK Veedhi, Munchingiputtu, Dumbriguda, Pedabayalu, etc, in the old Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, and Srikakulam districts.
Towers for 1,200 villages soon
The Centre’s data shows about 1,700 Andhra villages, including nearly 1,200 in north coastal Andhra Pradesh, lack mobile connectivity. Using the universal service obligation fund (USOF) the Centre is targeting to set up mobile services in about 1,200 uncovered villages of the state’s “aspirational districts” by the year-end.
Pavathipuram-Manyam district collector Nishant Kumar said 182 new mobile towers have been sanctioned for the district. “The district administration has planned to complete the installation of 100 towers by May. We are working on resolving issues of forest land where the towers need to be set up. ”
Meanwhile, Alluri Sitharama Raju district that’s home to 6 lakh tribals will get about 1,000 new towers. Only 30% of its hamlets have mobile connectivity at present. But even with these 1,200-odd towers more than 500 Andhra villages will remain unconnected for the foreseeable future.
New beginnings
Tribal villages that got mobile towers recently have already started reaping their bene?ts. Y Ganga Raju from Mulakalapalli village said they can now communicate and get government services from the comfort of their homes. But he sounded worried about technology’s effect on his children. “They are now spending a lot of time on mobile games and videos,” he complained.
Cheedivalasa in Ananthagiri mandal is another hamlet that got a tower recently. But here, the residents say they have to step out to make a call as the signal strength is poor indoors.
#Pension #ration #remain #uphill #tasks #Andhras #tribal #villages #India #News
