Yamunanagar Field Visit

I returned late last night from a long day trip to Yamunanagar, a city in Haryana state. We are also launching the mobile PCO project here and we went to check on the 4 women that are currently using these handsets. PCO stands for Public Call Office and these are significant fixtures throughout India. They are essentially payphones, although only some are coin-operated. The remaining ones are operated by people, who collect money for calls made. Although most people in urban areas have mobile phones now, PCOs are still used a great deal to make interstate or international calls, because the rates are lower. The goal this project is to provide PCO service on a mobile phone and provide it to communities in rural or semi-rural areas.

First, we met 3 of the women in the office of a local NGO that has set up SHG (Self-Help Groups) to support the women. The purpose of our visit to see how the women were doing with their mobile payphone businesses. They were also given additional tips on how to generate business. Unfortunately, two of the women we met with are not using the phones as much as they could because of pressure of involvement from men in their families. One young woman showed a tremendous amount of interest and potential, but has run into problems from her older brother. He doesn't understand why she now has a mobile phone and thinks she may be using it to take to men. As a result, the young man is often scared to use her phone because of fear of verbal or physical abuse from her brother. Another woman indicated that her husband is using the phone for his personal use, instead of allowing here to use it for business.

Later in the afternoon we traveled to a small village to visit the fourth woman in her home. As we entered, we were greeted by the entrepreneur and several other members of the SHG. I immediately caused a stirred as people gathered in the streets and on rooftops of buildings to catch a glimpse of me. Louise traveled here in December and warned me of the buzz she generated. We sat for about an hour with the women to once again provide guidance on how to generate business. This particular woman was selected by her SHG to receive the mobile PCO because she is the poorest, but the rest of the group was reminded that they are also responsible for ensuring her success. They need to do their part to promote her and her business and help her to understand the phone and basic book-keeping techniques.

Below are two photos of the entrepreneur, Urmila. The first is in the entrance way to her home under her Mobile PCO Name Card. The second is her using the phone so she could then record the transaction in her log book.