Flickr/Question Box

Imagine you are in a sleepy Indian village called Phoolpur, near New Delhi, which has no computer or Internet facility. What do you do when you have some question? Google?

Some time last year, I had exchanged some emails with Rose Shuman. She has found a very simple but ingenious solution to take the power of Internet to those place which have been so far devoid of Internet connection, and also to those people who have no literacy--a "Question Box".

A Question Box is basically an intercom device that allows users to ask questions from an operator sitting in front of an Internet-enabled computer. The operator, who is generally located in some nearby town, then finds the answer on the Internet and communicates it in user's language.

In December, two mobile-phone, solar-powered Question Box were installed, one each at a village near Pune and other in Chandernagar slum in Pune in India's western state of Maharashtra.

First Question Box, using landline phone connection, had been installed in Phoolpur village near New Delhi in September 2007 followed by another landline-based box at Ethida village near Noida, a suburb of New Delhi, in November. These Question Boxes often went dead due to disruption in phone lines, a common problem with wireline telephone connection in any parts of the country. Solar power and mobile phone connections that have been used in the latest Question Boxes will help solve the problem of power failures and dead phone lines.


Solar panels on the roof of shanties in Chandernagar slum in Pune.


A girl using Question Box to get her queries solved.


An NGO worker demonstrating how to use the Question Box.
Images/Question Box

Shuman, who conceived the project, had told me that the questions asked on the system varied widely. A simple mathematics problem; scores of ongoing cricket matches; procedure of procuring a loan and career counselling were some of the questions that the operators at the other end of the system had answered.



A pilot project of the Question Box project will soon be undertaken in Uganda.

She also plans to extend her Question Box by allowing users to directly dial a number to ask the question, eliminating the need of a Question Box kiosk. This can help the project expand its reach as more and more people get connected with cheap mobile phones.

The Question Box project is being undertaken by Open Mind Foundation, a US-based NGO. Most of the boxes rely on donors for installation and maintenance.

Question Box