The Right to A Plug-point

The Right to a Plug-point (RTAP)was a term coined by me while at the hostel. The hostel rooms did not have plug-points and you could charge your mobile phones and laptops only in the office room. The door of the office room could be opened only when nuns authorised to do so wished to visit it, which was only a few hours everyday. That meant that unless you had advanced surveillance equipment(read: a friend in the ground floor near the office room), you either had to forget about charging your phone from the office or risk having your phone trapped in the office room from morn till night. Most of the times, it was a touch-and-go affair.

My friends and I had heated debates on how to avoid such problems. The first solution was to use piezoelectric crystals or solar cells attached to the mobile phones for charging them. Then we found out that they were pretty much useless for smartphones. The next solution was wireless transmission of power from the electric cables to the phones. However, sensing that the idea, though workable, would not be feasible owing to huge wastage of power and also billing problems, we ditched that idea too. The only thing that remained was the good old 'wireful' transmission of power, whether we liked it or not. The Government had to declare RTAP as a fundamental right if it wanted the country to progress.

Later on, I read somewhere that Japanese were trying out the idea of wireless transmission. Also that many of our villages do not have access to power. Coming from two opposite ends of the spectrum, they amused me.

The Digital Divide in our country can be bridged only through mobile phones. No matter how cheap the laptops and PCs become, there is a huge section of people who will never be able to afford them. Also, they consume more power when compared to cellphones. They have 'fancy' software most people will have no use for. Plus, a computer without an internet connection is virtually useless today, unless it is used for billing in a grocery store. Also it requires an almost continuous supply of power. After all, how long can a laptop be run on its battery alone?

Compare that with a low-end smartphone. At about INR 3000-4000, you get a smartphone that helps you communicate with others, access internet at dirt-cheap rates, do not consume half as much power as an average laptop and allows you to draft documents, powerpoint presentations, watch movies and listen to songs. Plus, it is completely wireless.

The only thing that is missing now in those villages is the plug-point. People do not buy mobile phones in these villages as they know that they will not be able to recharge their batteries. That missing plug-point can save lives, help farmers earn more money, increase government efficiency, cut down corruption, bring in financial inclusion, promote education and what not. There is no limit to what that cellphone in your hand can do once you have a plug-point.

( When I hear of colleges banning cellphones, I can only marvel at the idiocy of such reckless orders. These are instances of dumb logic. E.g: 'Knives are used for killing people. So let's ban their use.' Instead of teaching the students how to use the devices in a responsible manner, the authorities instead opt for the easy way out - banning them. Banning something is never a solution. In fact, that itself is a problem greater than many others.)

So, dear citizens of the country, who want this nation to progress and actually become a superpower, who think that the dream of creating a 'knowledge economy' in this country can be realised, who know that Digital Divide is an artificial divide that denies a majority of our citizens the information that can change their lives for the better, I request you to chip in and spread the word about RTAP. The Right to Power ought to be a fundamental right in this digital era.

;)
P.S: Though this is a post written in jest, think about it sometime. And remember to do your bit when time comes.