AI in Rural India: A Dream or a Distant Reality?

In a world where AI is transforming everything from business to entertainment, remote rural communities in India remain largely untouched by this technological wave. While urban areas seamlessly integrate AI into daily life, rural India continues to struggle with basic digital access. This gap raises an important question: Is AI in rural India just a distant dream, or can it become a reality?

The Work of Janastu: Bridging the Digital Divide

Janastu is a people-oriented, open-source collective committed to enabling community storytelling by the people, for the people. It originated from Servelots, founded in 1999 by a group of computer scientists aiming to provide low-cost and user-friendly software solutions. In 2002, Servelots initiated Janastu to develop open-source solutions for not-for-profits and marginalized communities. Our mission is to create decentralized, community-owned networks that facilitate local connectivity, internet access, and digital literacy, particularly for illiterate and semi-literate communities. In an era where AI is ubiquitous, we wanted to explore how it could benefit rural villagers—helping them with farming, weather updates, market prices, and learning new skills. However, we encountered significant challenges. Many villages do not have mobile signals, making even basic internet access a challenge. To address this, we introduced COWMesh (Community-Owned Wireless Mesh) to help communities take ownership of local communication in Durgadahalli. As a result, some people started buying smartphones. However, even with mobile phones and internet access, the rural population remains digitally excluded because most online content and access to the knowledge is in English and heavily text-based. For illiterate and semi-literate communities, consuming this content is almost impossible. To bridge this gap, Janastu has been conducting workshops with CrafterSpace women, helping them build literacy and digital literacy. Another major hurdle is the lack of digital literacy, as many villagers have never used a computer before. Schools often lack functional computers, and without access to digital tools, advanced technology like AI remains out of reach.

Why AI Struggles in Rural Areas

The mainstream AI models are built using data available on the internet, but rural communities have had little to no digital presence for centuries. Their accents, slang, words, and languages are not represented in AI training datasets. AI models like ChatGPT and Meta AI do not recognize or understand local dialects, and even when they support Kannada, they rely on literary Kannada, which differs significantly from the spoken dialect in rural areas. Without stable internet access, even smartphones become useless, limiting the reach of AI-powered tools and open source & self-hostable AI models are mostly trained in the English language.

Our Approach: Making AI More Accessible

Under the sponsorship of APC (Association for Progressive Communication), Janastu has initiated the use of AI to enhance the livelihood of villagers in Durgadahalli. Despite these challenges, we believe AI can benefit rural India if approached differently. To introduce digital literacy, we began engaging children in government school where students had never seen a computer before. We made learning interactive by incorporating play-based methods, allowing children to explore computer components, participate in hands-on activities such as connecting and disconnecting hardware, creating files, algorithms and understanding the evolution of computers through animations and videos. To reinforce their learning, we designed activities that helped them recall what they had learned. When we started, school computers were not in working condition, so we repaired them and also brought additional computers from Janastu to ensure students had functional systems for hands-on learning. Beyond teaching basic computer skills, we introduced children to AI concepts in an accessible way, making them comfortable emerging technologies.

animation of evaluation of computer, history of computer showed to children and they curiously involved themselves in the session.

during hands on session, child learning how to connect and disconnect components of computer.

during session, children were asked to perform as how software perform according to instruction.

Additionally, through CrafterSpace, we provide training for women and youth, helping them learn how to use digital tools for crafts, communication, and business. We also experimented with AI applications for embroidery tutorials and learning Kannada, but AI struggled with local slang and failed to provide responses in the villagers’ language, highlighting the need for better AI training in rural dialects.

crafterspace women learning Kannada alphabet and English alphabet in the crafterspace.

To sustain this effort, Janastu is planning a summer camp during the holidays, where children will further explore digital literacy and AI concepts in an engaging environment.

Conclusion: AI is Still Far Away

While AI holds great potential, it remains far removed from the reality of rural India. Before AI can be truly useful, digital accessibility and literacy must come first. Until AI models are trained on rural dialects and integrated into offline applications, they will remain an urban luxury rather than a rural necessity. Given the limited access to adults who can work on AI within the community, we decided to introduce AI to children first. By engaging children, we believe AI can gradually be introduced to the entire community. To initiate this plan, we are conducting a summer camp where children will not only learn about computers but also gain foundational knowledge about AI in an interactive way. This initiative is a step toward making technology more inclusive and accessible, ensuring that rural communities are not left behind in the digital revolution. Only then can AI become a reality rather than just a distant dream for rural India.