• It outlines the research methodology used in the collection of information
• It provides key findings in each of the following areas:
  Village Profile, Community Profile, Household Profile, Demographics, Socio-Economic Profile, Communications Profile, Education & Literacy, Health, Gender-Related Indicators and Additional Project Information.
• The research forms an information resource for the project team in both the design and implementation of the Pilot Project.
• It forms a baseline for ongoing project evaluation.
  

The organization of the research has been generally organized into the following categories:

• Community Profile: Including Demographics, Village Profiles, Household Profiles, Location and Accessibility, Literacy, Language, Major Public Buildings, Village Organizations and Social / Cultural Activities
• Household Profile: Including Housing, Goods Ownership, Annual Expenditures and Energy
• Communications: Including Communication Needs, Media Profile and Telephone Use
• Wealth: Including Labour Distribution, Wages, Land Ownership and Use, and Sources of Income
• Gender Related Indicators
• Education
• Health
• Additional Project Information: Including experiences with project stakeholder, awareness of CIDA, etc.

The Pilot Project Research was conducted in the State of Madhya Pradesh, India. The state was selected by BSNL in consultation with the Project Team based on the factors outlined below:

• A state in which it is possible to gain from CIDA’s concentration of projects (ability to reinforce development objectives within this project).
• State government is an active supporter of telecom and ICT applications as an enabler of socio-economic development.
• Proactive support and assistance from the state departments of education, health, agriculture, etc.
• Complementary to the state’s need for connectivity.
  

• Villages surveyed range in size from 29 to 250 households
• The Babai region is characterized by slightly larger villages with an average number of 84 households compared to 76 in Khirkiya Tehsil
• Similar projects typically target substantially larger villages with 800+ households
  

• For Hindi, the most commonly spoken language, the proficiency levels drop dramatically from speaking to reading to writing
• For men, however, the number of readers drops by 44% whereas it drops by 62% for women
• In all aspects of language use in Hindi, men are more proficient than are women

• For the local dialects of Korku and Gondi, the findingSaAre similar to that of Hindi though depressed overall
• Only a small percentage of the population can demonstrate any proficiency in reading and writing
• Again, women lag men in proficiency quite substantially

• Findings related to proficiency in English demonstrate very low competency levels among rural villagers

• The gaps between men and women continue to wide