<p>Shibayan Raha is an Access Now Tech Innovation Award Winner and the Founder of Seven Sisters Project, which helps citizens and citizen journalists in the Northeast to tell their stories.<br /><br />Speaking to Metrolife, Raha says that even in this age of mobile access and connectivity, ‘There are various remote locations in the Northeast, which are rural in nature and where unknown and unheard of atrocities take place. Many of these incidents never come to light because people do not have access to phones and internet’.<br /><br />Raha trains and enables people from the villages as leaders and teaches them how to report on issues that impact the lives of the village residents and the community <br />in general.<br /><br />“The idea behind the Seven Sisters Project is to enable reporters in Northeast India to tell their stories to the world via a deep integration of mobile phone (using open-source voice portal technology ) and also Facebook. The technology is such that it combines an interactive voice response system and Facebook application to create a mobile reporting network for Northeast India. The news will be spread through Facebook to users in different parts of the country,” Raha explains.<br /><br />Citing an incident, he says, nearly a year-and-a-half ago, Prahlad Chakma from a village in Arunachal Pradesh, informed the Arunachal Pioneer, about the Arunachal Chakma Student Union, members of the Khampti community, shooting at Chakma forest workers indiscriminately. This kind of reality often remains hidden from the eyes of the media as most of these villages are not even recognised on the map, he adds.<br /><br />“In the Northeast high-tech infrastructure remains underdeveloped, therefore one uses new media most of the time. The Seven Sisters Project not only fills this vacuum between the government and public, but also creates a much needed replicable model to reach different parts of Northeast,” says Raha.<br /><br />Through the project, citizens can report and discuss issues of local interest by using the seven sisters portal. Individuals call 08376952143 using any mobile or fixed line phone. Callers are prompted to press “1″ to listen to stories recorded by others, “2” to comment on stories, and “3” to record a story. On the other side is a trained moderator, who, through the web-based interface, reviews and verifies each report after receiving it from the field.<br /><br />Approved reports are then made available for playback over the phone and can be accessed on the Seven Sisters Project Facebook page, website and on Twitter.</p>.<p><br />Raha a native of Haldia, explains the reasons why he was motivated to help Northeastern Indians. ‘They faced racist jibes from other Indians which include being called chinki, dog eaters to the extent of sexual violence. <br /><br />Northeast has hardly been taken care of by the central government after the 1962 war with China, merely out of concern that China will use the infrastructure to occupy Northeast permanently,” says Raha.<br /><br />As Northeast India consists of seven states/regions namely Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, they have been historically known as the seven sisters, “we decided to stick to the frame and name it the <br />Seven Sisters Project,” he adds.<br /></p>
<p>Shibayan Raha is an Access Now Tech Innovation Award Winner and the Founder of Seven Sisters Project, which helps citizens and citizen journalists in the Northeast to tell their stories.<br /><br />Speaking to Metrolife, Raha says that even in this age of mobile access and connectivity, ‘There are various remote locations in the Northeast, which are rural in nature and where unknown and unheard of atrocities take place. Many of these incidents never come to light because people do not have access to phones and internet’.<br /><br />Raha trains and enables people from the villages as leaders and teaches them how to report on issues that impact the lives of the village residents and the community <br />in general.<br /><br />“The idea behind the Seven Sisters Project is to enable reporters in Northeast India to tell their stories to the world via a deep integration of mobile phone (using open-source voice portal technology ) and also Facebook. The technology is such that it combines an interactive voice response system and Facebook application to create a mobile reporting network for Northeast India. The news will be spread through Facebook to users in different parts of the country,” Raha explains.<br /><br />Citing an incident, he says, nearly a year-and-a-half ago, Prahlad Chakma from a village in Arunachal Pradesh, informed the Arunachal Pioneer, about the Arunachal Chakma Student Union, members of the Khampti community, shooting at Chakma forest workers indiscriminately. This kind of reality often remains hidden from the eyes of the media as most of these villages are not even recognised on the map, he adds.<br /><br />“In the Northeast high-tech infrastructure remains underdeveloped, therefore one uses new media most of the time. The Seven Sisters Project not only fills this vacuum between the government and public, but also creates a much needed replicable model to reach different parts of Northeast,” says Raha.<br /><br />Through the project, citizens can report and discuss issues of local interest by using the seven sisters portal. Individuals call 08376952143 using any mobile or fixed line phone. Callers are prompted to press “1″ to listen to stories recorded by others, “2” to comment on stories, and “3” to record a story. On the other side is a trained moderator, who, through the web-based interface, reviews and verifies each report after receiving it from the field.<br /><br />Approved reports are then made available for playback over the phone and can be accessed on the Seven Sisters Project Facebook page, website and on Twitter.</p>.<p><br />Raha a native of Haldia, explains the reasons why he was motivated to help Northeastern Indians. ‘They faced racist jibes from other Indians which include being called chinki, dog eaters to the extent of sexual violence. <br /><br />Northeast has hardly been taken care of by the central government after the 1962 war with China, merely out of concern that China will use the infrastructure to occupy Northeast permanently,” says Raha.<br /><br />As Northeast India consists of seven states/regions namely Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, they have been historically known as the seven sisters, “we decided to stick to the frame and name it the <br />Seven Sisters Project,” he adds.<br /></p>
