Hole in Wall - Minimally Invasive Education

The Government of Delhi in partnership with NIIT Ltd. and with the support of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has initiated the Bhagidaari project for the setting up of 6 Internet Kiosks - each Kiosk having 5 computers - in Ambedkar Nagar. Ambedkar Nagar, earlier known as Madangir, is a residential colony (and not a slum) in South Delhi which houses people from lower socio-economic strata. Unlike Kalkaji, the residents of Madangir are relatively better off. Most of the children are aware of computers and a few of them have even used it in their schools.

Each of these kiosks is connected to the Internet through an ISDN line. The computers allow access only to the Internet and not any applications resident on the computer itself. The reason being that the kiosks are not manned, so it is possible that the users may knowingly/unknowingly delete certain vital applications/programs leading to a non-functioning computer. However, certain security measures are being worked out to resolve this issue and access to computer-based application will be provided in due course.

A customised web interface has been developed and deployed to facilitate the ease of surfing the Internet. The interface focuses on a variety of areas including educational contents, and caters to a wide variety of audiences. The major areas covered are education, edutainment, entertainment, news, information about Delhi and India. But the web interface in no way restricts the users from accessing any other kind of information.

Currently, the estimated number of users per day range from 40-60. Most visited websites can be categorised into: Educational sites, New & information sites, games sites, movie sites and cartoon sites. Mathematical puzzles, Hindi news and entertainment and travel-related websites are quite popular too.