#GoodNews: How This Manipur Village Became 100% Computer Literate

Nungthaang Tampak in Manipur is the first village in the region to be 100 percent computer-literate.

In a bid to set an example before the Northeast government and encourage other underdeveloped parts of the region to follow suit, a non-profit organisation has helped make a Manipur village fully computer-literate.

Thanks to Surjit Ningthoujam’s NGO Mangaal Rural, all the residents of Nungthaang Tampak, a small village situated nearly 65 kilometres from Manipur’s capital Imphal, can now use computers, reported Kingson Chingakham for The Better India.

Village chief Leivon Romeo said Nungthaang Tampak has a population of around 200 people.

50 Households in the Village Participated

According to the The Better India report, Mangaal Rural specifically chose this hilly village as there was a large development gap between villages in the hills and villages in the valley.

Ningthoujam firmly believes that all people, regardless of geographical limitations, should have easy access to information.

With this in mind, he set out to teach members of 50 households of this village how to use computers.

During the nearly month-long computer training programme, Ningthoujam claimed that he managed to get even a 55-year-old Anganwadi teacher to participate, despite her initial apprehension.

Were there hurdles along the way? Quite a few, Ningthoujam recalled in an interview with The Better India’s reporter Chingakham. Ningthoujam said:

Asking a 55-year-old person to participate in a computer education programme is a difficult job. In Manipur most of people ask troubling questions like – I am not going to apply for job, why should I learn to use a computer?

But it all seemed to have worked out in the end, as Ningthoujam told the reporter:

I can see the hunger in people to learn new things. Everybody in Nungthaang Tampak was willing to learn how to use a computer. Without their willingness, the training would not have been successful.

To ensure that everyone could attend the training sessions despite their domestic chores (in case of women) and farming duties (in the case of men), the training centre was kept open from 5 am to 11 pm daily.

Despite infrastructural challenges like lack of proper furniture, wired internet connection, and electricity, Ningthoujam managed to achieve his goal.

Most of the contribution towards the cause came from Ningthoujam himself, who donated four computers to the training centre and used his own funds to run it.

As per the report, he received no help from the state government. The founder of ‘Mangaal Rural’ hopes to make all of rural Manipur computer literate over the next two years.

(With inputs from The Better India)

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