Digital Village will be the first kind of village in Pakistan that will be transforming digitally to solve basic problems through these technologies.
Young entrepreneur Sajid Bhutto from Sehwan, Sharif Sindh, Pakistan, presented the creative idea of Digital Village Pakistan, a programme under his registered institute, 110 Innovate Institute of Technology Sehwan, which he has run with his own resources to train the youth of villages in rural Sindh to become walking factories through the latest technologies.
Youth around the world are earning money while using latest technologies and creating an impact of about 50 trillion USD in global economics.
Pakistan has opportunity to target it by diverting young minds in this direction. Specially those who lives in villages because Pakistan’s 70% population lives in rural areas and there are not much opportunities in villages for skill development and earning through technologies.
Most of the people from rural areas do not want to go urban areas for skill development due to some cultural, demographic and political issues. To find out the real problems in rural areas Mr. Sajid Bhutto conducted survey in 20 villages of district Jamshoro of Hyderabad region Sindh Pakistan.
He founded that there are many technological products in villages like mobile smart phones, dish TV, motorbikes and even computers and laptops but they use them for only entertainment. They are not using them for earning as youth from all over the world are doing. Even they don’t want to go urban areas for skill development.
Most of people from villages have fear that if they leave their ancestor’s properties or family businesses then someone else can take over these businesses or properties as most of properties or businesses in villages are not registered.
So these kind of fear do not allow them to go urban areas for longer time. In the case of females, most of them have only permission to get education within there village premises. There fore Mr. Sajid Bhutto finds our solution of these problems.
Digital Village Pakistan is solution of these problem that is initiative of young entrepreneur Sajid Bhutto. Digital Village is concept of providing a platform where rural youth can learn and earn within their village premises. That is focused on three domains, Digital literacy, IoT base solutions and online earning through freelancing and e-commerce
President of Pakistan, Governor of Sindh awarded him the certificate of the best idea in the category of Education from all over Pakistan during the National Idea Bank award in 2021.
Digital Village will be the first kind of village in Pakistan that will be transforming digitally to solve basic problems through these technologies.
The fundamental principles of the Digital Village’s activities are to empower the Villages through tech trainings that solve basic digital problems and earning model for villagers to offer high value content /products to potential markets that will directly impacts on rural areas to make village life easier and smarter.
In order to keep up with change, villages need to train their key resources. This purpose engages creating local intermediaries that empower local people to co-design solutions with the support of external policy makers and service delivers.
The project of Digital Village is multifaceted and it will be addressed on numerous levels. The IoT domain includes smart homes, smart huts, smart shops, smart farming, smart dairy, smart cattle tracking, smart health care, smart water and waste management, and smart governance etc.
We have categorized IoT solutions into three basic sectors: Agriculture, Social and Utilities sector. Candidates will receive training of IoT and then deployed to find problems and their IoT base solutions from above sectors. Candidates will be selected for each sector for research and development.
This training will take 04 months, after this training they will get two months business incubation to transform their generated ideas in to startups businesses.
According to Sajid Bhutto, there is a lot of talent in the villages of Sindh and other provinces of Pakistan. He said that Rs 4.6 million was required to transform 20 villages of Jamshoro, which he had selected for Pakistan’s first digital village project in Sindh. He can also provide a workforce to the software houses operating in Pakistan for web development, freelancing, e-commerce and coding projects for the international market.
A mobile laboratory has been set up in the villages of Jamshoro to provide training. He takes laptops, batteries and devices in his car to the villages where training classes are conducted for the youth near their homes.
Trainees of ‘The Internet of Things‘ include skilled craftsmen, electricians, and mechanics who have improved their skills through the Digital Village Pakistan Project and use their experience and expertise to reach out to rural people through digital technologies to find solutions to the problems.