The Centre for Internet and Society
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Feminist Design Practices
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/artez-platform-aayush-rathi-akash-sheshadri-ambika-tandon-feminist-design-practices
<b>Aayush Rathi and Akash Sheshadri and Ambika Tandon co-authored a research paper on 'Feminist Design Practices' which was published in a special issue of Apria, a peer-reviewed journal hosted at ArtEZ University. The special issue "Feminist by Design" highlights the work of the Feminist Internet Research Network and its contributions to building an equitable internet through design interventions.</b>
<h3>Abstract</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Feminist and design justice principles can be adopted into research praxis to make knowledge less extractive and more accessible. These principles include making research and outreach more participatory, translating academic knowledge into more accessible forms, and channelling research into action that can challenge patriarchy and other systems of domination.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This paper focusses on the outreach and communication of policy research to outline its potential for producing radical change and translating knowledge across communities. The authors reflect on their experiences of producing research for domestic workers and workers’ collectives in India to highlight challenges and ways forward for accessible research forms.</p>
<hr />
<p>To access the full article published in Apria, <a class="external-link" href="https://apria.artez.nl/feminist-design-practices/">click here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/artez-platform-aayush-rathi-akash-sheshadri-ambika-tandon-feminist-design-practices'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/artez-platform-aayush-rathi-akash-sheshadri-ambika-tandon-feminist-design-practices</a>
</p>
No publisherAayush Rathi, Akash Sheshadri and Ambika TandonGenderResearchPlatform EconomyPeer Reviewed ArticleDomestic WorkResearchers at Work2022-04-16T03:34:51ZBlog EntryRe:Wiring Bodies
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/rewiring-bodies.pdf
<b>Asha’s monograph is a historical research inquiry to understand the ways in which gendered bodies are shaped by the Internet imaginaries in contemporary India. </b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/rewiring-bodies.pdf'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/rewiring-bodies.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaResearch2011-09-27T06:46:00ZFileExploring Big Data for Development: An Electricity Sector Case Study from India
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/exploring-big-data-for-development-an-electricity-sector-case-study-from-india
<b>This working paper by Ritam Sengupta, Dr. Richard Heeks, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, and Dr. Christopher Foster draws from the field study undertaken by Ritam Sengupta, and is published by the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. The field study was commissioned by the CIS, with support from the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Download the working paper: <a href="http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/publications/workingpapers/di/di_wp66.pdf" target="_blank">PDF</a></h4>
<hr />
<h3><strong>Abstract</strong></h3>
<p>This paper presents exploratory research into “data-intensive development” that seeks to inductively identify issues and conceptual frameworks of relevance to big data in developing countries. It presents a case study of big data innovations in “Stelcorp”; a state electricity corporation in India. In an attempt to address losses in electricity distribution, Stelcorp has introduced new digital meters throughout the distribution network to capture big data, and organisation-wide information systems that store and process and disseminate big data.</p>
<p>Emergent issues are identified across three domains: implementation, value and outcome. Implementation of big data has worked relatively well but technical and human challenges remain. The advent of big data has enabled some – albeit constrained – value addition in all areas of organisational operation: customer billing, fault and loss detection, performance measurement, and planning. Yet US$ tens of millions of investment in big data has brought no aggregate improvement in distribution losses or revenue collection. This can be explained by the wider outcome, with big data faltering in the face of external politics; in this case the electoral politics of electrification. Alongside this reproduction of power, the paper also reflects on the way in which big data has enabled shifts in the locus of power: from public to private sector; from labour to management; and from lower to higher levels of management.</p>
<p>A number of conceptual frameworks emerge as having analytical power in studying big data and global development. The information value chain model helps track both implementation and value-creation of big data projects. The design-reality gap model can be used to analyse the nature and extent of barriers facing big data projects in developing countries. And models of power – resource dependency, epistemic models, and wider frameworks – are all shown as helping understand the politics of big data.</p>
<hr />
<em>Cross-posted from <a href="http://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/research/publications/other-working-papers/di/di-wp66/">University of Manchester</a>.</em>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/exploring-big-data-for-development-an-electricity-sector-case-study-from-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/exploring-big-data-for-development-an-electricity-sector-case-study-from-india</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroBig DataData SystemsResearchers at WorkResearchFeaturedPublicationsBig Data for Development2019-03-16T04:33:15ZBlog EntryFinancial Speculation as Urban Planning
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/financial-speculation-as-urban-planning
<b>Talk by Prof Michael Goldman</b>
<p>A talk by Michael Goldman followed by an open discussion organised by a group of concerned citizens and the Centre for Internet and Society, about the roots of the US financial crisis and related dynamics in "world city" planning, such as that here in Bangalore. </p>
<h2>Speaker Bio<br /></h2>
<p>Michael Goldman<br />Associate Professor<br />Dept of Sociology<br />Univ of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN<br />McKnight Presidential Fellow<br /><br /><strong>Interest Areas</strong>: Transnational, political, environmental, and development sociology; Sociology of knowledge and power; Transnational institutions (international finance, expert networks).<br /><br /><strong>Current Research:</strong> Neoliberalism and its discontents; the making of a world city: Bangalore, India; “Water for All”/ water privatization policies; development and environment in North-South relations.</p>
<p><strong>Recent Publications</strong></p>
<ol><li>“How ‘Water for All!’ Became Hegemonic: The Power of the World Bank and its Transnational Policy Networks.” 2007. <em>Geoforum</em> special issue on global water policy, 38(5): 786-800. </li><li> “Under New Management: Historical Context and Current Challenges at the World Bank.” 2007. <em>Brown Journal of World Affairs</em>, special issue on Wolfowitz’s Bank, Vol. XIII: 2, Summer 2007.</li><li>“El neoliberalismo verde.” 2006. Chapter in <em>Las Politicas de la Tierra</em>, Alfonso Guerra and Jose Felix Tezanos, eds. Madrid: Editorial Sistema.</li><li><em>Imperial Nature: </em><em>The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization</em>.
2005. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press. Yale UP
paperback edition, 2006; India edition, Orient Longman Press, 2006;
Japanese edition, Kyoto University Press, 2008.</li><li>“World Bank.” 2005. Entry in <em>Encyclopedia of International Development</em>, Tim Forsyth, ed., London: Routledge.</li><li>“Tracing the Routes/Roots of World Bank Power.” 2005. <em>International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy</em>, special issue on global water policy, 25(1/2): 10-29.</li><li>“The Birth of a Discipline: Producing Authoritative Green Knowledge for the World (Bank).” 2005. Chapter in <em>Earthly Politics: Local and Global in Environmental Governance</em>, Sheila Jasanoff and Marybeth Long, eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. </li><li>“La tragedia della recinzione dei beni comuni.” 2005. <em>Beni Comuni: Fra Tradizione e Futuro</em>, Giovanna Ricoveri, ed., Rome: Editrice Missionaria Italiana. </li><li>“Eco-governmentality and Other Transnational Practices of a ‘Green’ World Bank.” 2004. in <em>Liberation Ecologies</em> 2nd ed. Richard Peet and Michael Watts, eds. London: Routledge. </li></ol>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/financial-speculation-as-urban-planning'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/financial-speculation-as-urban-planning</a>
</p>
No publishersunilResearch2011-04-05T04:36:21ZEventReaping the Benefits of Gamification
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/reaping-the-benefits-of-gamification
<b>As a part of the Making Change blog-post series, in this post we will identify a new technique: gamification. This technique is being used for sustainable environment conservation by modern day change-makers. We interview two out of three co-founders of Reap benefit- Kamal Raj and Gautam Prakash who believe in the adoption of more sustained environmental practices that induce social change towards conserving the environment.</b>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<div align="left">
<pre style="text-align: justify;"><strong>CHANGE-MAKER:</strong> Kamal Raj,Gautam Prakash and Kuldeep Dantewadia
<strong>ORGANISATION:</strong> Reap Benefit
<strong>METHOD OF CHANGE: </strong>Gamification and Human centric systems for consistent behavior change towards better waste-water-energy management.
<strong>STRATEGY OF CHANGE:</strong> Building a new era of environmentally conscious youth in India through technology and an interdisciplinary approach to change.</pre>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We depend on the environment and the resources that it provides us, but surprisingly we are unaware of the effects of its depletion and the need to save these resources. A few of the problems that people now face are with resources like- water,waste and energy because we do not acknowledge the fact that we are wasting them unconsciously. This only triggers the need for more and more solutions which would change the way people perceive the resources and realize the need to conserve. While trying to start an initiative to come up with some solutions to manage these resources, we are approached by the question of the <strong>accessibility, affordability and sustainability</strong> of those solutions. The solutions and the practice of that solution is a two-way process for any sustainable making-change initiative.</p>
<p align="left" style="text-align: justify;">In this post I will be introducing to you Reap Benefit and the technique of Gamification. I will bring out a comparative analysis of the various definitions by renowned gaming authorities across the world who are involved in the process of using games in non-game contexts to bring out change in the offline space. Only after this, will I be acknowledging the importance of the strategies used by Reap Benefit for making these solutions sustainable. The strategies will be- human centric solutions and gamification. Then, I will bring out the connection between these two strategies to provide you an inter-disciplinary understanding of the making change process. Next, these strategies will be coupled with the discussion on the use of technology to speed-up the process. Also, throughout this post we will be referring to the blog-<strong> Methods of Social Change</strong> written by Denisse Albornoz and we will also make an attempt to answer the questions- 'Who,Where,How' of this making change project in relation to Reap Benefit. The blog post can be accessed <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-for-social-change/">here. </a></p>
<p align="left" style="text-align: justify;">Before the journey of the post, I would like you to read this little success story narrated by Kamal Raj in the interview that led Reap benefit a step higher in its aim for making change:</p>
<p class="callout">Reap benefit went to a school which received only 400 litres of water supply a day resulting in poor health and care conditions. This water would be used for washing their plates after the mid-day meal and also for sanitation systems. This would only make the place a platform for water, food and breeding mosquitoes all together. Since the students usually consumed food with their right hand, while taking the plate to wash it, they would leave the plates at one side; they would open the tap with their left hand, would take their plates again and start washing them. During this time interval, they would waste a lot of water. <br /><br />As, a solution to this, Reap Benefit changed the taps which would discharge 60% less of water. They also created a clean water purification system. Now, with the same 400 litres of water, students washed their plates and adopted better sanitation practices. The challenges that they faced actually made them innovate better systems for remarkable change.</p>
<p align="left"><strong> <img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/tapswithoutaerators.jpg/image_preview" title="taps without aerators" height="157" width="159" alt="taps without aerators" class="image-inline image-inline" /> <img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/tapswithaerators.jpg/image_preview" title="taps with aerators" height="157" width="160" alt="taps with aerators" class="image-inline image-inline" /><br /></strong></p>
<p align="left"><strong>Think about these questions for a minute..<br /></strong></p>
<div align="left">
<ul>
<li>Does this story relate to <strong>physical needs?</strong></li>
<li>Does this story relate to <strong>creative problem solving?</strong></li>
<li>Is it a story that brings out<strong> better affordable solutions?</strong></li>
<li>With this solution were the <strong>students benefited</strong>?</li>
<li>Was this a <strong>successful idea?</strong></li></ul>
</div>
<h2>Reap Benefit</h2>
<p>First of all, take a look at a brief introduction of Reap Benefit given by Kamal Raj:</p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"><strong>Kamal: </strong><em>"Reap Benefit works to implement affordable solutions, enabling quantifiable waste-water-energy management systems, as a way to facilitate behavioural change by engaging the head, hand and heart of the user. Having worked with many people, we have realized that behaviour modification allows for more sustained adoption of environment sustainability practices. We take them through a 4-stage behavioural change process – <strong>‘Unconsciously Wrong’, ‘Consciously Wrong’, ‘Consciously Right’ and ‘Unconsciously Right’ </strong>(we will understand this process later in the post). A link to the website is here- <a href="http://reapbenefit.org/">Reap Benefit</a>."</em></p>
<p align="left" style="text-align: justify;">Reap Benefit is bound together by the deep concern for the environment they have and the dead-lock issues that it faces. They aim for affordable solutions with maximum impact in the least time. Kamal marks that they work only with the students within the age group 10-16, because the use gamification is most effective in this age group. Also, he makes an addition to that by saying the rewards the older age groups demand are not as easy-to-meet as those of the age group they work with. It also aims to co-create experiences by working hands on with the youth: their target audience for creating change.</p>
<p align="left" style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_reapbenefit.jpg/image_preview" title="Reap benefit" height="175" width="234" alt="Reap benefit" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It is said that the more you practice the better you get. By this, I would like to introduce you to the concept of<strong> quotidian activism</strong>. Reap Benefit deeply believes in this concept. But, what does quotidian activism mean? A working definition is: <em>the form of activism occurring everyday.</em> This form of activism may lead to people making actions sustainable and achieve consistent behavioural change, supported by products and innovations provided by Reap Benefit (later in this post, I will introduce you to some of these innovations).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, Reap Benefit highly focuses on the need to answer the <em>‘</em><strong>why’</strong> behind the problem. This answer would provide a more personal understanding of the problem for creating change. By engaging the participant with the 'why', he will also be able to evaluate the impact and the benefits of his actions, take ownership of the problem and comprehend the need for innovation.</p>
<h3 align="left">What is 'change' for Reap Benefit?</h3>
<p align="left">Presuming every organization has its own design to making change, Reap Benefit's understands it in the following way:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"><strong>Gautam: </strong><em>“Change for us is a very sub-conscious part of your life. (It is also a) two stage process- <strong>knowledge:</strong> which will tell us we need solution and the<strong> solution.</strong> The knowledge will tell you that you are <em>unconsciously </em>doing the wrong thing. Then when you realize it, you go to a stage of consciously wrong. When you keep doing this you reach a stage when you know that you are consciously doing right, and soon, you are doing it every single day and then you unconsciously do it.”</em> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I will attempt to understand their process of change by adding that this 'to be good' drive in the individual or the need for public approval is what makes them do <em>unconsciously right </em>everyday, and then it is only the last stage what makes it a habit. Gautam also mentions that each of these stages has an impact of its own and altogether, they become more powerful. This change process will lead to sustainable change according to him.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">We have seen the change agents that are vital to create change, but how is this change executed? In the next section we will look at two strategies used for making change: <em>gamification</em> and <em>human-centred design</em> and later, we will only try to produce a connection between them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<h2>Discovering Gamification</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In this section, we will unpack the first part of the<strong> 'how' </strong>question. First of all, we will compare the various definitions of the technique given by people involved in understanding the use of game elements in the non-game contexts, to create change in the emotional and social behaviour of people. The definitions of these three people in the big list of so-called gamification authorities will be used provides us with keywords for a comparative understanding of what the technique means. These three people are:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>JANE McGONIGAL: </strong>She is an American game designer and author who advocates the use of mobile and digital technology to channel positive attitudes and collaboration in a real world context.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>GABE ZICHERMANN:</strong><em><strong> </strong></em>He is an author, public speaker, and self-described "serial entrepreneur." He has worked as a proponent of leveraging <a title="Game mechanics" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_mechanics">game mechanics</a> in business, education, and other non-entertainment platforms to increase user engagement through gamification.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><strong>JESSE SCHELL</strong>:</em> He is an American video game designer an acclaimed author, CEO of Schell Games and a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of <a title="Entertainment Technology" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Technology">Entertainment Technology</a>.</p>
<h3>Definitions</h3>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>JANE McCONIGAL</strong><br /></td>
<td><strong>GABE ZICHERMANN</strong><br /></td>
<td><strong>JESSE SCHELL</strong><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: justify;">
<td>“It is a blissful <strong>productivity</strong> acquired by the flourishing feeling,<br />that is, accomplishments in a game but only with a <strong>volunteering<br />attribute </strong>of the participant.” </td>
<td>“Games are the only<br /><strong>force</strong> in the universe<br />that can get people to take actions <strong>against their self-interest</strong> in a <br /><strong>predictable</strong> way without using force.” </td>
<td>“It is a <strong>problem solving situation</strong><br />that you enter into because <strong>you want to</strong>.” </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p align="left">I would be like to bring points of intersections between these three definitions.</p>
<div align="left">
<ol>
<li>
<div align="left">
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>VOLUNTEERING ATTRIBUTE VS. USE OF FORCE</strong>: The volunteering attribute is an efficient way to foster sustainable participation, as opposed to the use of force which makes a campaign less appealing.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="left">
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS</strong>: Games are a very responsive way of trying to accomplish problem solving as the person is engaged with the problem and willing to solve it.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>PRODUCTIVITY</strong>: There problem solving skills leads the participant to a desired outcome. </li></ol>
These points also give you a clear understanding of Reap Benefit who works along the same lines with the volunteer or participant to solve the problem of conservation.<br />But, does the usage of games actually produce behavioral change? If so, how do games provide this function? These are some of the questions we will try and attempt to answer in the next section.</div>
<h3 align="left"></h3>
<h3 align="left">Games as a Tool to Influence Behaviour</h3>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-9cb641a5-daab-08be-6d01-b8f612949133" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Playing games results in obtaining rewards in some form of the other. These rewards psychologically induce a positive emotional feeling in the participant. When the participant learns something through games and when that emotional feeling arises, he tries and incorporates the same solutions in the games to solving the real life problems. This brings out an improved result and problem solving ability. But what about the affordability of that solution? We need to understand ways to make it affordable because any task once done will not induce consistency in the behavior change. But the task repeated many times will improve or change the behavior over a long period of time. So, when the question of affordability (financial fear) is answered then the emotional feeling primarily can bring out change in the behavior of the individual. (Yongwen Xu, 2011).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">There are also some game mechanics that are to be kept in mind to change behavior while designing games apart from just the element of fun and affordability. So, we will now look at another authority involved in gamification in the upcoming section to explore these mechanics. We will also try and understand these mechanics in relation to Reap Benefit.</p>
<h3>Game Mechanics</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Seth Priebatsch is the creator of <a title="SCVNGR" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCVNGR">SCVNGR</a> and <a title="LevelUp" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LevelUp">LevelUp</a> social gaming sites. He has provided a list of game mechanics which could be necessary to understand games and why they produce particular changes for a better environment. These are:</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><em><strong>Appointment Dynamics</strong></em>: to bring players to do something at a pre-defined time and place.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><strong><em>Influence and status</em></strong>: any participant or group that is involved in the change-making process, is influenced by the presence of others because of the competition and the envy that leads them to carry forward the task</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><strong><em>Progression Dynamics:</em></strong> the success of the student is measured through the tasks by giving rewards. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><em>Communal Discovery</em></strong>: the entire group or community works towards making change. </li></ul>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Seth's model could be applied to the process of creating change that Reap Benefit uses, and this is illustrated through their experience of a student-run energy audit in the field. A set of students were assigned the task of doing an audit for the energy conservation and the energy usage of a Puma store. They were just given the base for the audit but the criteria for the audit was planned by them. The students were encouraged by the thought of <strong>getting rewards </strong>for the task. Kamal recalls that they had used games to make the children understand it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Relating this to Seth's Model, the children were given a <strong>pre-defined time and place</strong> for doing the task and were influenced both, by the element of<strong> competition</strong> between the students and also the idea of receiving a reward once the task is completed. The task only ends by obtaining a sense of <strong>communal discovery</strong> that, all together they can make change on a personal and team level. We understood Seth's model but we will try and comprehend deeper, the use of rewards for inducing behavioral change in the next section.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Rewards Mechanism</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Kamal commented on Reap Benefit's 2-3 months periodic reward mechanism. He believes that this makes students equal in position before starting every task.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"><strong>Kamal:</strong> <em>"We use a lot of things like rewards to motivate them to play a game (with us) and we personalize all these rewards based on the questionnaire that we do at the beginning where we subtly understand what they like." </em></p>
<p>This information which gives ideas of how to encourage each student to get the best performance out of them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>a) Extrinsic rewards: </strong>The extrinsic reward here, for example would be allotting points to various participants/ teams. Michael Wu, a chief scientist in subjects like digital technologies, says extrinsic rewards are like a jump start to intrinsic rewards.Once the student acknowledges them, they acquire a sense of ownership and innovation and are empowered to create new solutions. Hence, awareness is not created before the task but an output from the task.</p>
<p>Refer to Gabe Zichermann's video for more on the importance of gamification and the rewards mechanism.</p>
<p>.<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SwkbuSjZdXI" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">b) Intrinsic rewards: Apart from producing behavior change, gamification's can also indicate learning. One of the elements that facilitates learning would be:</p>
<dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Player Control</strong><em>: </em>A participant will have certain amount of control while gaming which would lead to a sense of responsibility and accomplishment. Learning could be intrinsic only if there is responsibility of gaining a reward through a task.</p>
</dl>
<p>There are many other elements that produce learning and they could be accessed <a href="http://www.yukaichou.com/">here.</a></p>
<h2>Human-Centric Model</h2>
<div class="pullquote">Human-centred systems aim to preserve or enhance human skills, in both manual and office work, in environments in which technology tends to undermine the skills that people use in their work<em>.</em></div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We will now answer the second part of the 'how' question and show another strategy for making change. Human centric systems do not use machines to create solutions to the problems but rather design the game with the importance of the 'user-friendly' element. This has been explored in a past post by Denisse. Access it <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/digital-storytelling-human-behavior-vs-technology" class="internal-link">here.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Reap Benefit's ‘transparent dustbin’ is a great model to illustrate this. The dustbin is transparent for people to see and then throw the waste in according to different types of waste. It is kept at an eye-level so that the waste already thrown inside can help the person perceive and throw his waste in the exact dustbin and to make it easily accessible for the public.</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/dustbin.jpg/image_preview" alt="transparent dustbin" class="image-inline image-inline" title="transparent dustbin" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">These human-centric approaches provide a consistent change in the behaviour of the individual because the method is user-friendly and make segregation easy. The objectives is to engage in unconscious behavioural change. The transparent dustbin is better explained by this audio byte of Kamal Raj:</p>
<p><br /><iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/147205714&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" height="166" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>Another innovation of Reap Benefit, is the compose mixture</p>
<p class="callout">Kamal says: <em><strong>"The idea was to throw something with it, like the degrade compost product we innovated and the waste would compost, without smell, without taking 3 months." </strong></em></p>
<p>This mix, by giving visual feedback could be accessible by anyone due to its low cost and easy-to-use method. So, these innovations justify and explain the benefits of human centric models and also produce many new ideas in the minds of the students( James,2010). I would like to explain this by a chain of ideas that arise while segregating plastic and non-plastic waste.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The participation in the structure (waste segregation model)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_arrowdown.jpe/image_preview" title="arrow" height="28" width="33" alt="arrow" class="image-inline image-inline" /><br /> The negatives of the model (harmful effects of mixing plastic in the model)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_arrowdown.jpe/image_preview" title="arrow" height="28" width="33" alt="arrow" class="image-inline image-inline" /><br /> Realizing the need for another mechanism (dustbins for different types of waste)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_arrowdown.jpe/image_preview" title="arrow" height="28" width="33" alt="arrow" class="image-inline image-inline" /><br /> Another idea to support the new mechanism (dustbins should be transparent and named)<br /> <img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_arrowdown.jpe/image_preview" title="arrow" height="35" width="33" alt="arrow" class="image-inline image-inline" /><br /> The need to spread this (start campaigning for the system)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Explaining this model in brief: the waste segregation model is the segregation of plastic and other waste. During this process the three ideas that arise are: a) the harmful effects of plastic, b) the need for a plastic waste dustbin and a non-plastic waste dustbin, and the last one, b) the transparency of the dustbin. Then the major question of <strong>spreading the model by using technology</strong> arises. This would be the model thought by the participant during the discussion of the usage of technology for sustainability.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But what is <strong>sustainability</strong> and how is it important? Complementing the technique of gamification and the human- centric approaches with technology to make it a sustainable solution is a challenge. This system may be adopted by all. But the aftermath of implementing this apparatus is a challenging question. In the next section we will comprehend the role of technology adding a more positive result to Reap benefit.</p>
<h2>The Role of Technology and Media</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This section will look at how Reap Benefit uses technology and media and then try and understand how the use of technology can make these solutions sustainable.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"><strong>Kamal:</strong> <em>"There are two aspects that are already existing- knowledge and the products. So, when someone starts the journey, technology enables us to be with them in this journey without us being there. Without the sharing of photos through digital media like facebook, keeping track of the journey would not be possible. We need technology to bridge the gap."<strong> </strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Information access is facilitated by the use of technology and digital media or social networking, as they share the systems with their online community. But, when this access is denied the only solution is to be a part of the in-tutor system and realize the positives of the same through experience. Technology takes Reap Benefit a step higher in its aim to make sustainable change by targeting youth, the main users of social network platforms.</p>
<h2>Making Change</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We started this post with an introduction to a very strong initiative- Reap Benefit. Techniques such as gamification and human-centric systems are used effectively by this organization to create maximum benefits. It focuses highly on the use of these strategies to induce behaviour modification in youth. We attempted to build a relationship between these techniques to answer whether they are sustainable, intelligible and accessible solutions to making change.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Summing up the 'WHO,WHERE AND HOW' question- We have only understood that, to use the opportunity and take charge before others do so, we need a 3-stage plan. We understood that the WHO means the target, the change agents who will lead the initiative and comprehend the need for change by themselves. The question of WHERE focuses on the idea of making change in the public space rather than in the private sphere which limits the extent of the change. We have summarized this only by bringing out the importance of technology to make change the largest priority of youth. The question of HOW is understood in this post by the use to affordable solutions.</p>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-9cb641a5-daab-ddf5-183f-233098a5b65d" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The problems faced by the environment call for solutions that are affordable and accessible. These two qualities of the solution would only make it sustainable.These solutions are met by various game elements in a game and the human centric approaches that engage the individual in problem solving by disseminating knowledge to them and informing them about the problems. This makes those solutions to problem-solving evaluatable through quantity and the quality of the result of the problem. Behavior change will be only possible by solutions that break the existing schemas in the society and create new innovations. (James,2010). Now, through sustainable, innovative solutions through these techniques we can make the dream of a clear and clean environment a reality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While this blog may help you gain a positive understanding about gamification it would certainly lead you to many more questions. In this digital age, we would surely have to ‘re-game-think’ the methodologies for change again and agai,n not only in terms of using unique techniques such as gamification but also in terms of accessibility of such techniques for change in the structural divisions in society.</p>
<h3>Footnotes</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Reward is one of the elements that drives the individual to adopt the gamification technique- the reward/feedback mechanism. You can acquire a profound reading on more of these elements that leads to further making-change here- http://www.yukaichou.com/.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A few more elements like the player control and communal discovery that indicates learning through Gamification could be found here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">More information on persuasive messages, strategies for changing behavior, rules for effective delivery, and how to manage the participants/audience in the making change initiative can be found-http://sustainability.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/Promoting_Sustain_Behavior_Primer.pdf</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">To hear a talk show of Yukaichou on TEDx about Gamification- check it here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Qjuegtiyc</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">To hear another talk show of Gabe Zichermann on TEDx about Gamification- check here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2N-5maKZ9Q</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The process of creating sustainability through gamification and technology, according to Rachel James, goes as follows: </li></ol>
<ol></ol>
<ul>
<li>Attracting attention by breaking the existing schemas (mental structures of preconceived idea, Jean Piaget,1926) This can be done by creating a mystery for them and then involving the individual in complex thought processing to change the schema. Story-telling could also induce emotional reactions to inspire or simulate them.</li>
<li>Persuade them through gamification </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Make the strategies for change very rigid which cannot be changed often and acknowledge what you deliver to your audience. </li></ul>
<h3>Sources</h3>
<ol>
<li>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">James, Rachel. “Promoting Sustainable Behavior- a guide to successful communication”. Web. August 2010. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Xu, Yongwen. ” literature review on web application Gamification and analytics”. Web. August 2011. </li>
<li>http://www.yukaichou.com</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Albornoz, Denisse. 'Methods for Social Change'. Web. February 2014. The link for the same is here- http://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-for-social-change. </li></ol>
<p>*******************************************</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">About Dipali Sheth:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Studying in my 3rd year at Christ University gave me the opportunity to intern at Centre for Internet and Society. This post has been a result of my internship for a month under the Making Change program at CIS. My interest in Research and New Media started the journey here and has only added to making Research my zeal in the near future.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/reaping-the-benefits-of-gamification'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/reaping-the-benefits-of-gamification</a>
</p>
No publisherdipaliResearchers at WorkNet CulturesMaking ChangeResearch2015-10-24T14:24:55ZBlog EntryData Lives of Humanities Text
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/data-lives-of-humanities-text
<b>The ‘computational turn’ in the humanities has brought with it several questions and challenges for traditional ways of engaging with the ‘text’ as an object of enquiry. The prevalence of data-driven scholarship in the humanities offers several challenges to traditional forms of work and practice, with regard to theory, tools, and methods. In the context of the digital, ‘text’ acquires new forms and meanings, especially with practices such as distant reading. Drawing upon excerpts from an earlier study on digital humanities in India, this essay discusses how data in the humanities is not a new phenomenon; concerns about the ‘datafication’ of humanities, now seen prominently in digital humanities and related fields is actually reflective of a longer conflict about the inherited separation between humanities and technology. It looks at how ‘data’ in the humanities has become a new object of enquiry as a result of several changes in the media landscape in the past few decades. These include large-scale digitalization and availability of corpora of materials (digitized and born-digital) in an array of formats and across varied platforms, thus leading to also a steady prevalence of the use of computational methods in working with and studying cultural artifacts today. This essay also explores how reading ‘text as data’ helps understand the role of data in the making of humanities texts and redefines traditional ideas of textuality, reading, and the reader.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>This essay by Puthiya Purayil Sneha was published in <em>Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India</em> (2020) edited by Sandeep Mertia, with a Foreword by Ravi Sundaram as part of the Series on Theory on Demand by Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.</h4>
<h4>Read the open access book <a href="https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/lives-of-data-essays-on-computational-cultures-from-india/" target="_blank">here</a>.</h4>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/data-lives-of-humanities-text'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/data-lives-of-humanities-text</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppResearchResearchers at WorkPublicationsDigital Humanities2020-12-23T13:07:43ZBlog EntryReclaiming the right to privacy: Researching the intersection of privacy and gender
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/reclaiming-the-right-to-privacy-researching-the-intersection-of-privacy-and-gender
<b>It was our privilege to be supported by Privacy International, UK, during 2019-2020, to undertake a research project focusing on reproductive health and data surveillance, and to engage on related topics with national civil society groups. Our partner organisations who led some of the research as part of this project are grassroots actors - Domestic Workers Rights Union, Migrant Workers Solidarity Network, Parichiti, Samabhabona, Rainbow Manipur, and Right to Food Campaign. Here we are compiling the various works supported by this project co-led by Ambika Tandon, Aayush Rathi, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay at the Centre for Internet and Society, India.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Previous research conducted by CIS on the subject of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in India observes that there is a complex web of surveillance, or ‘dataveillance’, around each patient as they avail of SRH services from the state. <strong>[1]</strong> In this project on ‘researching the intersection of privacy and gender’, we aimed to map the ecosystem of surveillance around SRH services as their provision becomes increasingly ‘data-driven’, and explore its implications for patients and beneficiaries.</p>
<p>Through this project, we were interested in documenting the roles played by both the public and the private sector actors in this ecosystem of health surveillance. We understand the role of private sector actors as central to state provision of sexual and reproductive health services, especially through the institutionalisation of data-driven health insurance models, as well as through extensive privatisation of public health services.</p>
<p>We supported studies on a range of topics that constitute the experience of sexual and gender minorities and women when accessing public health and welfare systems, including the treatment of trans persons by law and welfare systems in India, access to abortion and maternity benefits for low income women, access to ART treatments by PLHIV, and so on.</p>
<p>We found that many respondents had no information about welfare schemes despite being eligible, while many others were excluded from them because they did not have Aadhaar cards and other ID documents, or because of errors and inconsistencies in the same. Direct benefit transfer schemes also required mobile phone linkage and active Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts, which added another layer of requirements and excluded vulnerable populations. We also found that respondents had very little information about the storage and sharing of their data, which raises questions about the possibility of implementing complex consent architectures for digitised health data as imagined by the Indian government through policies such as the Non Personal Data Governance Framework. We found that populations that carry stigma are most likely to be excluded from health and welfare access as a result of data collection, including trans groups, PLHIV, and single women or adolescent girls seeking abortion.</p>
<p>Please find below the various works undertaken as part of this project. We hope these works will be useful for civil society organisations, grassroots organisations, and reproductive rights organisations.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Article</h3>
<p>Raina Roy. (July 18, 2020). Coronavirus: Kolkata’s trans community has been locked out of healthcare and livelihood. Scroll.in. <a href="https://scroll.in/article/968182/coronavirus-kolkatas-trans-community-has-been-locked-out-of-healthcare-and-livelihood" target="_blank">https://scroll.in/article/968182/coronavirus-kolkatas-trans-community-has-been-locked-out-of-healthcare-and-livelihood</a></p>
<p>Rosamma Thomas. (November 02, 2020). Citizen data and freedom: The fears of people living with HIV in India. GenderIT. <a href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/citizen-data-and-freedom-fears-people-living-hiv-india" target="_blank">https://www.genderit.org/articles/citizen-data-and-freedom-fears-people-living-hiv-india</a></p>
<p>Sameet Panda. (November 25, 2020). One ration card, many left behind. Indian Express. <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/one-ration-card-many-left-behind/" target="_blank">https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/one-ration-card-many-left-behind/</a></p>
<p>Sameet Panda (January 11, 2020). One Nation One Ration Card in Odisha - Only Pain, No Gain. Sanchar, page 6. <a href="https://sancharodisha.com/" target="_blank">https://sancharodisha.com/</a></p>
<p>Santa Khurai. (June 18, 2020). 'I feel the pain of having nowhere to go': A Manipuri trans woman recounts her ongoing lockdown ordeal. Firstpost. <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/india/i-feel-the-pain-of-having-nowhere-to-go-a-manipuri-trans-woman-recounts-her-ongoing-lockdown-ordeal-8494321.html" target="_blank">https://www.firstpost.com/india/i-feel-the-pain-of-having-nowhere-to-go-a-manipuri-trans-woman-recounts-her-ongoing-lockdown-ordeal-8494321.html</a></p>
<p>Shreya Ila Anasuya. (December 21, 2020). How India’s Healthcare System Lets Down Trans Men. Go Mag. <a href="http://gomag.com/article/heres-what-its-like-to-be-a-trans-man-in-india/" target="_blank">http://gomag.com/article/heres-what-its-like-to-be-a-trans-man-in-india/</a></p>
<h3>Policy Response</h3>
<p>Aayush Rathi, Aman Nair, Ambika Tandon, Pallavi Bedi, Sapni Krishna, and Shweta Mohandas. (September 13, 2020). Inputs to the Report on the Non-Personal Data Governance Framework. The Centre for Internet and Society. <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/inputs-to-report-on-non-personal-data-governance-framework/" target="_blank">https://cis-india.org/raw/inputs-to-report-on-non-personal-data-governance-framework/</a></p>
<h3>Report</h3>
<p>Anchita Ghatak. (December 30, 2020). Domestic Workers’ Access to Secure Livelihoods in West Bengal. Parichiti. <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/parichiti-domestic-workers-access-to-secure-livelihoods-west-bengal" target="_blank">https://cis-india.org/raw/parichiti-domestic-workers-access-to-secure-livelihoods-west-bengal</a></p>
<hr />
<h3>Endnotes</h3>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Aayush Rathi, <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/indias-digital-health-paradigm-foolproof" target="_blank">Is India's Digital Health System Foolproof?</a> (2019)<br />
Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon, <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/data-infrastructures-inequities-why-does-reproductive-health-surveillance-india-need-urgent-attention" target="_blank">Data Infrastructures and Inequities: Why Does Reproductive Health Surveillance in India Need Our Urgent Attention?</a> (2019)<br />
Ambika Tandon, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-december-23-2018-feminist-methodology-in-technology-research" target="_blank">Feminist Methodology in Technology Research: A Literature Review</a> (2018)<br />
Ambika Tandon, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/big-data-reproductive-health-india-mcts" target="_blank">Big Data and Reproductive Health in India: A Case Study of the Mother and Child Tracking System</a> (2019)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/reclaiming-the-right-to-privacy-researching-the-intersection-of-privacy-and-gender'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/reclaiming-the-right-to-privacy-researching-the-intersection-of-privacy-and-gender</a>
</p>
No publisherAmbika Tandon and Aayush RathiData SystemsReproductive and Child HealthResearchGender, Welfare, and PrivacyResearchers at Work2021-01-25T10:42:51ZBlog EntryBuying into the Aakash Dream - A Tablet’s Tale of Mass Education
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream
<b>The low-cost Aakash tablet and its previous iterations in India have gone through several phases of technological changes and ideological experiments. Did the government prioritise familiarity and literacy about personal technological devices over the promise of quality mass education generated by low-cost devices? This article by Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Jahnavi Phalkey (India Institute, King's College London) was published by EPW in the Web Exclusive section. Here is the unabridged version of the article.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Originally published by <a href="http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/17/web-exclusives/buying-aakash-dream.html">Economic and Political Weekly</a> on April 23, 2016. Below is the unabridged version.</p>
<hr />
<em>This research note is based on a project conducted as part of the Max Weber Foundation’s Transnational Research Group on "Poverty and Education in India," and draws from a paper recently published by the authors in History and Technology.</em>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>The Aakash tablet, hailed as the vanguard of India's “tablet revolution,” was unveiled at the United Nations. It was to showcase India's technological prowess but was quickly lamented as a failed “dream,” and as India's “object lesson” in how not to do technological innovation. The so-called failure of the device became a metonym for the government that backed it, and for the technology establishment of the country. While our longer paper <strong>[1]</strong> questions this notion of “failure,” in this note we wish to highlight the role played by the discourse and experiments in technologies of mass education in creating the practical context and the market conditions for low-cost tablets in India.</p>
<p>A 2011 report by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) claimed that although the initiation of the Aakash tablet project met with “skepticism and scorn,” over time it not only developed an affordable device aimed at students in India, but has produced an entirely new market niche of sub-100 USD tablets <strong>[2]</strong>. This ambitious statement appears to be vindicated by a recent report by IDC, an economic intelligence company, on the tablet market in India. The report notes that the market has grown in the previous year at an annual rate of 8.2%. More importantly, the two companies leading in market share are DataWind (20.7%) and Samsung (15.8%) <strong>[3]</strong>. Incidentally, after the first quarter of 2014, Samsung had the largest (22.5%) and DataWind the fourth largest (6.8%) share <strong>[4]</strong>. What is noteworthy here is not the rise of DataWind as the leading seller of tablets alone, but that it is MHRD that heralded this creation of a market niche in India for affordable tablets.</p>
<h3>Broadcasting Education: Satellite to Internet</h3>
<p>On May 30, 1974, American National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) launched an ATS-6 satellite that formed the central infrastructural component of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), one of the early initiatives to harness communication technology for primary and adult education. The SITE project involved broadcasting educational and informational audio-visual content, produced by All India Radio and Television, directly to televisions across 2400 selected villages located in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Rajasthan. Operating from August 01, 1975 to July 31, 1976, the Experiment was led by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and was supported by UNESCO, UNDP, UNCF, and International Telecommunication Union <strong>[5]</strong>.</p>
<p>The objective of the SITE project was inspired directly by the importance given to skill-development oriented higher education and adult education in the report of the first Education Commission (1964–1966). However, as Asif Siddiqi notes in a recent publication, the project performed a crucial task of establishing the Indian space research programme through a direct alliance with NASA, which held special geopolitical significance given the Chinese nuclear tests of 1964 <strong>[6]</strong>.</p>
<p>This experiment paved the way for development of INSAT, the first Indian satellite. The entanglement of the Indian space programme with the idea of national-level technological infrastructure for education has continued since. The EDUSAT, launched in 2004, was a collaborative project between ISRO and MHRD to drive satellite-based education across disadvantaged and remote regions of the country. In an audit report in 2013, however, the Department of Space declared that the project has failed, and highlighted three lacks in particular: network connectivity, content generation, and management structure <strong>[7]</strong>.</p>
<p>The earliest initiatives in India to put computers in schools, supplementing and supplanting the television screens, began in the 1980s. These efforts pre-dated extensive terrestrial communication fiber networks and relied almost completely upon the success of the Indian space programme. The UGC Countrywide Classroom, Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools, and Computer Literacy and Awareness Programme are the key examples from this time. The revised Programme of Action of the National Policy on Education (1986) reiterated the need for increased attention to upgrading education technology infrastructure, as well as the development of electronic content for the same. This led to the initiation of the ICT@Schools scheme beginning with the eighth Five Year Plan (1993-1998). Even after twenty years of the introduction of computers in schools across India, a 2006 report on education technology by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) noted that computer-based teaching and learning in an actual classroom setting remains more of a 'spectator sport' <strong>[8]</strong>.</p>
<p>With the advent of the internet, the MHRD started experimenting with internet-based delivery of distance education from 2003, beginning with the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). It did so alongside satellite-based distribution of educational content. NPTEL involved five Indian Institutes of Technology (Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, and Madras) developing openly available course materials for more than one hundred undergraduate courses in five engineering subjects, as well as courses in basic science. These course materials were later made part of the online learning portal called 'Sakshat,' which eventually became one of the pillars of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technologies (NMEICT), initiated during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007–2012). This portal marked the completion of a conceptual and technological shift from the satellite-based models of delivery of educational content, to an internet-based one.</p>
<h3>Making and Un-making of the Aakash Tablet</h3>
<p>With NMEICT, large-scale education technology initiatives of the Indian state moved away from the earlier emphasis on primary education and school-oriented computer literacy, to that on higher education and aids for self-learning. The plan for an affordable tablet computer was announced in mid-2010 as part of this Mission. This “low-cost access-cum-computing device” was aimed at bypassing the institutional, bureaucratic, and infrastructural barriers to access to quality higher education. It’s main audience were students in disadvantaged regions and non-elite institutions, as well as self-learners. The actualisation the device, however, were continuously delayed and blocked by conflicts between the governmental and non-governmental actors, strong skepticism from the media, and several changes in the state's approach to the project.</p>
<p>The first approach to the project was an international company that approached the MHRD in 2006, with a proposal to sell educational laptops for school students at 100 USD each. N.K. Sinha, then Mission Director of NMEICT, argued against the purchase. The MHRD saw this as an opportunity for developing an indigenous low-cost computer, and initiated a competition among the IITs to come up with a prototype for this device, which was won by the IIT Kanpur team led by Prof. Prem Kumar Kalra, then Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. The first publicly exhibited (2010) prototype of the device was the one developed in IIT Kanpur, which was priced initially at 35 USD.</p>
<p>The MHRD, however, soon decided to buy the device from a commercial manufacturer. The responsibility of procurement and testing went to IIT Rajasthan, under the leadership of Prof. Kalra who joined the newly established institution as its first Director. After the contract with HCL Infosystems was called off in January 2011, DataWind, a Canada and UK based company specialising in internet-access devices, won the new tender to produce the first version of the device. On 5 October 2011, the first version of tablet was launched, priced at Rs 2,500, and co-branded as Aakash and Ubislate: respectively for those bought and redistributed at a subsidised rate by MHRD, and those sold commercially by DataWind <strong>[9]</strong>.</p>
<p>An early controversy about the tablet, apart from its technical capabilities, was around the claim that they were produced and assembled in China. DataWind rejected the allegations and claimed that all the devices were assembled by Quad Electronics in its factory in Secunderabad, (then Andhra Pradesh). Within a year, however, DataWind got involved in serious conflict with IIT Rajasthan on one hand, and Quad Electronics on the other. The MHRD intervened again to change the approach by bringing in IIT Bombay (March 2012) as the new procuring and testing agency, thus removing IIT Rajasthan from the project. DataWind also found a new partner in VMC Systems, who started assembling the “kits” imported from China in its establishments in Amritsar and Delhi.</p>
<p>With M. M. Pallam Raju becoming the Minister of Human Resource Development in late 2012 by succeeding Kapil Sibal, one might say, the Aakash project gradually moved to what we know as its final form. At first, it was suggested that the state should entirely move out of the business of providing low-cost tablets as there is already a vibrant market. Later on, and with thought leadership from Prof. Rajat Moona, Director General of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, and others, it was decided that “Aakash” would become a brand name available for commercial manufacturers of affordable tablets that satisfy a minimum set of technical specifications <strong>[10]</strong>. The first draft of the specifications list was published in June 2013. The tendering process, however, got delayed, and eventually came to a near-permanent pause with the General Elections in 2014.</p>
<p>As of November 2015, the MHRD has again shown interest in the idea of a state-subsidised tablet computer for education. The tablet was now called Udaan, and aimed at girl students at the higher secondary level, priced at Rs. 10,000 (against Rs. 2,500 of Aakash), and distributed only to 1,000 students.</p>
<h3>Government Dream and Device Desire</h3>
<p>In an interview in late 2013, Kapil Sibal (then Union Minister of Communication and Information Technology, former Union Minister of Human Resource Development) shared that "[the] Aakash tablet was [his] dream but it was not fulfilled" <strong>[11]</strong>. Sibal, undoubtedly the key political driver of the project, in his admission to failure, raises deep concerns about the present state and the future of the technological infrastructure - and the imagination - for mass education in the country.</p>
<p>Tracing the transition of these technologies from SITE to Aakash, we continously find it difficult to delineate the state’s transforming and transformative agenda of mass education from that of building technological capability. At times, though, we wondered if the agenda for mass education did not become one that served the purpose of generating, for lack of a better phrase, a certain familiarity and literacy about personal technological devices among the population. The motivations and goals that informed these mammoth projects become more and more difficult to decipher when we look at the relatively poor attention given to the production of content. Careful monitoring and documentation of how such content is being received and utilised by the actual learners and their educators was not prioritised; and whenever undertaken, such exercises revealed the deep lack of pedagogic concerns at the heart of these education technology programmes.</p>
<p>Alongside the overwhelming narrative of <em>failure</em>, however, we cannot ignore the remarkable, but quiet, success of the project in normalising and framing the tablet computer as familiar, and almost essential, object for personal learning and development. Apart from presenting the tablet computer as an everyday media object, almost similar to the way television entered the households, the NMEICT and the Aakash project played a crucial role in normalising the notion of online self-learning, and thus that of the <em>online</em>, in the Indian public imagination. In an insightful comment, Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind, remarked that the Aakash tablet was not an “iPad for the poor”, it was the “the computer and Internet of the masses” – it was not selling a demo version of the real thing, it was shaping the very imagination <strong>[12]</strong>.</p>
<p>These stories, together, conspire to make us wonder if all this eventually amounts to create desires for devices; and that the educational and developmental rhetoric helped frame electronic devices as everyday and household objects. The consequences, as we see, cannot exactly be called unintended.</p>
<h3>References</h3>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Phalkey, Jahnavi and Sumandro Chattapadhyay. "The Aakash Tablet and Technological Imaginaries of Mass Education in Contemporary India." <em>History and Technology</em>, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2015. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341512.2015.1136142">http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341512.2015.1136142</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The History of Aakash
Low Cost Access cum Computing Device. Sakshat, October 05, 2011. <a href="http://archive.sakshat.ac.in/pdf/Final_Note_Aakash.pdf">http://archive.sakshat.ac.in/pdf/Final_Note_Aakash.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> International Data Corporation. "India Tablet Market Posts 8.2 percentage Annual Growth in 2015." March 21 (2016). <a href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP41123816">http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP41123816</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> Press Trust of India. "Tablet Market in India Shrank 32 Percent in Q1 2014 on YoY Basis: IDC." Gadgets 360, NDTV. May 28, 2014. <a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/tablets/news/tablet-market-in-india-shrank-32-percent-in-q1-2014-on-yoy-basis-idc-532253">http://gadgets.ndtv.com/tablets/news/tablet-market-in-india-shrank-32-percent-in-q1-2014-on-yoy-basis-idc-532253</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[5]</strong> Chander, Romesh, and Kiran Karnik. <em>Planning for Satellite Broadcasting: The Indian
Instructional Television Experiment</em>. Paris: The Unesco Press, 1976.</p>
<p><strong>[6]</strong> Siddiqi, Asif. "Making Space for the Nation: Satellite Television, Indian Scientific Elites, and the Cold War." <em>Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East</em>, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2015: 35–49./p></p>
<p><strong>[7]</strong> Department of Space. Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Government of India. Report
No. 22 of 2013 - Compliance Audit on Union Government (Scientific and Environmental Ministries/ Departments). New Delhi: Government of India, 2013: 23–53.</p>
<p><strong>[8]</strong> National Council of Educational Research and Training. <em>Position Paper of National Focus
Group on Educational Technology</em>. Government of India, New Delhi, 2006, 6.</p>
<p><strong>[9]</strong> Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 2011. “Shri Kapil Sibal Launches ‘Aakash’,
Low Cost Access Device.” Press Information Bureau, October 05. <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=76476">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=76476</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[10]</strong> Agarwal, Surabhi. 2013. “Govt Plans to License ‘Brand Aakash.’” Business Standard, June 19.
<a href="http://www.businessstandard.com/article/technology/govtplanstolicensebrandaakash
113061800902_1.html">http://www.businessstandard.com/article/technology/govtplanstolicensebrandaakash
113061800902_1.html</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[11]</strong> Press Trust of India. "Kapil Sibal: Aakash Tablet is My Unfulfilled Dream." Financial Express, December 24, 2013. <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/news/kapilsibalaakashtabletismyunfulfilleddream/1211284/0">http://www.financialexpress.com/news/kapilsibalaakashtabletismyunfulfilleddream/1211284/0</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[12]</strong> Kurup, Saira. 2011. “We Want to Target the Billion Indians who are Cut off.” Times of India, October 09. <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deepfocus/WewanttotargetthebillionIndianswhoarecutoff/articleshow/10284832.cms">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deepfocus/WewanttotargetthebillionIndianswhoarecutoff/articleshow/10284832.cms</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroAakashResearchEducation TechnologyInternet HistoriesResearchers at Work2016-04-25T08:04:28ZBlog EntryCall for Proposal: Big Data for Development – Initial Field Studies
http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/call-for-proposal-big-data-for-development-field-studies
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society, as part of a project with the University of Manchester and University of Sheffield, is inviting calls from researchers to undertake a brief initial study of a specific instance of use of big data for development in India. This is an exercise to build preliminary understanding of the landscape of big data for development in India, identify key research questions and priorities, and start developing connections with researchers interested in the field. The studies will be 6 weeks long - running from May to June 2016 - and the researchers are expected to produce a 3,000 words long report. We will support three field studies.</b>
<p> </p>
<h3>Study Process and Deliverable</h3>
<p>The researcher is expected to propose and undertake a 6 weeks long study – starting from <strong>May 09</strong> and ending on <strong>June 17</strong> – of an instance of big data is being used to inform, target, operationalise, monitor, or support developmental and/or humanitarian activity in India.</p>
<p>During this period, the researcher is expected to interview <strong>4-5</strong> persons directly involved in the big data for development project concerned, and <strong>2-3</strong> other persons to get a wider sense of the context of the project.</p>
<p>By the end of the 6 weeks period, the researcher is expected to submit a <strong>3,000 words</strong> long report. The report will be commented upon by Prof. Richard Heeks (University of Manchester), Dr. Christopher Foster (University of Sheffield), and Sumandro Chattapadhyay (CIS), and revised accordingly during the last weeks of June.</p>
<p>The individual reports will be published independently and as part of the larger project report, under Creative Commons <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Attribution 4.0 International</a> license. The authors will be attributed appropriately.</p>
<p>All researchers will take part in a work-in-progress meeting (held over internet) during last week of May or first week of June.</p>
<h3>Research Questions</h3>
<p>The interviews will focus on the following topics:</p>
<ul><li><strong>Innovation:</strong> What is the nature of the innovation being done by the use of big data? What technical systems and/or applications are being deployed and replaced/superceded? Who are key actors in this innovation process?</li>
<li><strong>Implementation:</strong> What is the grounded experience of implementing the big data technology? What are the key enablers and constraints being faced, both in the data collection stage, and the analysis and decision making stage?</li>
<li><strong>Value:</strong> What is the value being created, and how is it understood? Is it organisational value, or socio-economic value? Who is gaining this value?</li>
<li><strong>Ethics:</strong> What ethical concerns are emerging? Do they involve concerns about data quality, representation, privacy, or security? Is there concerns about a data divide being created among people who are represented in data and who are not, or among people who can gain value from the data and who cannot?</li></ul>
<h3>Application, Eligibility, and Remuneration</h3>
<p>Please submit the following documents to apply:</p>
<ul><li><strong>Proposal:</strong> A one page note on the big data for development project that you would like to study. Please share a brief description of the project and how you will study it, including the name/designation of key people you will speak to.</li>
<li><strong>Writing Sample:</strong> An article or a collection of articles, of not more than 8,000 words length in total.</li>
<li><strong>CV:</strong> A short CV, two pages or less.</li></ul>
<p>Please e-mail the documents to <strong>raw[at]cis-india[dot]org</strong> by <strong>Wednesday, May 04</strong>, 2016.</p>
<p>There is <strong>no eligibility criteria</strong> for submitting proposals. However, we will prioritise researchers living and studying big data for development projects in <strong>non <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cities">X-class</a> cities</strong>, that is in cities other than Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.</p>
<p>We will select <strong>three</strong> researchers, and will offer <strong>Rs. 35,000</strong> to each of them for this study. The amount will be paid in a <strong>single</strong> installment, <strong>after</strong> the draft field study report is submitted for comments.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/call-for-proposal-big-data-for-development-field-studies'>http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/call-for-proposal-big-data-for-development-field-studies</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroBig DataData SystemsBig Data for DevelopmentResearchResearchers at Work2016-04-28T07:28:23ZBlog EntryDecember 2011 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2011-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the newsletter issue of December 2011. This issue carries a special section on Freedom of Expression as there was much discussion regarding the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Kapil Sibal’s proposal for pro-active censorship of social media.</b>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives" class="external-link"><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS, India and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscapes of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and internet technologies, in emerging information societies. The collaboration has produced <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook">a four book collective</a> around ‘digital revolutions’ in a post Arab spring world, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers">a position paper</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report">a scouting report</a> and three international workshops in <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talking-back">Taipei</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/my-bubble-my-space-my-voice-workshop-perspective-and-future">Johannesburg</a> and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/santiago-workshop-an-after-thought">Santiago</a>.</p>
<h3>Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/the-digital-other">The Digital Other</a>: Nishant Shah raises his concerns that increasingly, Digital Natives are acting as pure consumers of technology and gadgets, and seem willing to do so. The blog post was published in DML Central, 14 December 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Events</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/digital-natives-contest">Digital Native Video Contest</a>, jointly organised by CIS and Hivos. Submission guidelines and FAQs are online. Submit your proposal online by 26 January 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/events/tweet-a-review">Digital AlterNatives Tweet-a-Review</a>, 17 – 26 December 2011: 'Digital Natives with a Cause?' Project invites readers to review essays from the 'Digital AlterNatives with a Cause', a four-book collective published by Centre for Internet & Society and Hivos.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Book Reviews</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/unpacking-from-shiny-packaging">Unpacking Digital Natives from their Shiny Packaging</a>: “The ‘Digital Natives’ concept is neither necessarily nor inherently positive, as YiPing Tsou highlights in her chapter Digital Natives in the Name of a Cause: From Flash Mob to "Human Flesh Search.” <i>—</i> <b>Argyri Panezi</b></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/on-natives-and-norms">On Natives, Norms and Knowledge</a>:<i> </i>“It is a text I strongly recommend, especially to those interested in the reasons behind contemporary policies that try to regulate digital activism such as the US SOPA Act.” <i>— </i><b>Philip Ketzel</b></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/twin-manifestations">Digital Native: Twin Manifestations or Co-Located Hybrids</a>: “Ben-David’s piece is a well-articulated and informed attempt to resolve two of the several conceptual fuzziness of the term Digital Native. She attempts this in a philosophical manner: trying to move away from the ontological who are Digital Natives? to an epistemological when and where are Digital Natives?”<i> </i><i>— </i><b>Samuel Tettner</b></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Pathways for Learning in Higher Education</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Pathways Project for Learning in Higher Education is a collaboration between the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). The project is supported by the Ford Foundation and works with disadvantaged students in nine undergraduate colleges in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, to explore relationships between technologies, higher education and the new forms of social justice in India.</p>
<h3>Workshop Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/facultyworkshop">The Digital Classroom: Social Justice and Pedagogy</a>: Nishant Shah captures some of the questions that were thrown up and discussed at the 2 day Faculty Training workshop for participant from colleges included in the Pathways to Higher Education programme, supported by Ford Foundation and collaboratively executed by the Higher Education Innovation and Research Application and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Post <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/blog/higher-education"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/blog/higher-education">Technology, Social Justice and Higher Education</a> by Nishant Shah, 7 December 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3><b> </b>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/events/pathways-third-faculty-workshop">Pathways 3rd Faculty Workshop & Regional Facilitators Meeting at CSCS</a>, 8–10 December 2011, CSCS, Bangalore, Nishant Shah participated in the workshop<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility" class="external-link"><b>Accessibility</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies. So far we have organised Right to Read campaigns in the four metro cities of <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/right-to-read-campaign-chennai">Chennai</a>, <span>Kolkata</span>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/right-to-read-campaign">Delhi</a> and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/mumbai-phase-of-right-to-read-campaign">Mumbai</a>, made a <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/front-page/blog/comments-on-copyright-and-print%20impaired">submission to amend the Indian Copyright to the HRD Ministry</a>, researched on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/front-page/making-mobile-phones-accessible/making-phones-accessible.pdf">accessible mobile handsets in India</a>, analysed the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/working-draft">Working Draft of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act</a>, and published a <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/front-page/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">policy handbook on e-accessibility</a> and a book on <span><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/universal-service-for-persons-with-disabilities">universal service for persons with disabilities</a></span><i>.</i></p>
<h3>Publications</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/universal-service-for-persons-with-disabilities">Universal Service for Persons with Disabilities</a>: Published by G3ict and CIS in cooperation with the Hans Foundation. The book is co-authored by Axel Leblois, Executive Director, G3ict, Deepti Bharthur and Nirmita Narasimhan.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/business-case-for-web-accessibility">The Business Case for Web Accessibility</a>: NASSCOM Foundation has published a handbook on web accessibility titled “Understanding Web Accessibility — A Guide to Create Accessible Work Environments”. Nirmita Narasimhan authored a chapter “The Business Case for Web Accessibility”<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Submission</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/accessibility-new-telecom-policy-2011">Accessibility in the New Telecom Policy 2011</a>: CIS was part of the 27 organisations that responded to the call for comments on NTP 2011. The submission was made to the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India on 9 December 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Interview</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/interview-with-nirmita">An Interview of Nirmita Narasimhan on ITU Portal</a>: ITU Girls in ICT is now online! ITU interviewed Nirmita and published her profile on their website.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Award</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/nirmita-nivh-award">Nirmita receives NIVH Award</a>: Nirmita Narasimhan received the NIVH Excellence Award from Justice AS Anand (retd), former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, on International Day of Persons with Disabilities at the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped in Dehradun on Saturday, 3 December 2011. The Tribune covered the award ceremony and published this in their newspaper on 3 December 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Upcoming Event</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/itu-tutorial-delhi">ITU Meeting and Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility</a></span>, organized by the International Telecommunication Union, India International Centre, 13 – 15 March 2012. CIS is hosting the workshop in collaboration with the ITU-APT Foundation. More information and registration are available at the <span><a href="http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/edrs/ITU-T/studygroup/edrs.registration.form?_eventid=3000348">ITU website</a></span>.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k" class="external-link"><b>Access to Knowledge</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Access to Knowledge is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents, and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. We prepared the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=960&qid=124241" target="_blank">India report for the CI IP Watchlist</a>, made <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=961&qid=124241" target="_blank">submission to the HRD Ministry on WIPO Broadcast treaty</a>, questioned the demonization of pirates, and advocated against laws (such as the PUPFIP Bill) that privatize public funded knowledge.</p>
<h3>Comments</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/ace-7-future-work-cis-intervention">CIS Intervention on Future Work of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement</a></span><br /> The seventh session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) was held in Geneva on 30 November and 1 December 2011. Pranesh Prakash participated in the event and made the intervention.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/ace-7-french-charter-cis-comment">Comment by CIS at ACE on Presentation on French Charter on the Fight against Cyber-Counterfeiting</a>: Pranesh Prakash responded to a presentation by Prof. Pierre Sirinelli of the École de droit de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 on 'The French Charter on the Fight against Cyber-Counterfeiting of 16 December 2009 during the seventh session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) held in Geneva<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Post</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/books-vs-cigarettes">CIS Hosts Scanned Version of George Orwell’s Books vs. Cigarettes</a>: Verbindingen/Jonctions (V/J), the bi-annual multidisciplinary festival organised by Constant took place on 1 December 2011. CIS hosted the scanned pages of the essay in public domain.</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness" class="external-link"><b>Openness</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Innovation and creativity should be fostered through openness and collaboration. The advent of<i> </i>Internet has radically defined what it means to be open and collaborative. The Internet itself is built upon open standards and free/libre/open source software. Our endeavour has resulted in a report on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/front-page/blog/open-government-data-study">open government data</a>, a report on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/front-page/online-video-environment-in-india">online video environment in India</a> and a <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/front-page/blog/people-are-knowledge">film on oral citations on the Wikipedia</a><i>.</i></p>
<h3>Award</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ept-award-for-open-access">Inaugural EPT Award for Open Access</a></span>: The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development is pleased to announce the winners of a new annual award to be made to individuals working in developing countries who have made a significant personal contribution to advancing the cause of open access (OA) and the free exchange of research findings. The winner of the inaugural award is Dr Francis Jayakanth of the National Centre for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India<i>.</i> </li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance" class="external-link"><b>Internet Governance</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society has defined internet governance as the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the internet. CIS partnered with Privacy International and Society in Action Group which has produced outputs in <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/privacy/privacy-banking" target="_blank">banking</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/privacy/privacy-telecommunications" target="_blank">telecommunications</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/privacy/consumer-privacy?searchterm=Consumer+Privacy+++How+to+Enforce+an+Effective+Protective+Regime+" target="_blank">consumer rights</a>,<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/privacy/privacy-media-law" target="_blank"> media law</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/privacy-sexual-minorities" target="_blank">sexual minorities</a>, etc., and submitted <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance" target="_blank">seven open letters</a> to Parliamentary Finance Committee on UID covering several aspects, feedbacks on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill" target="_blank">NIA Bill</a>, and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance" target="_blank">IT Rules</a><i>.</i></p>
<h3>Peer Review</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/streaming-on-your-nearest-screen" target="_blank">Now Streaming on Your Nearest Screen</a> by Nishant Shah, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Volume 3, Issue 1.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/internet-society-challenges-next-steps" target="_blank">Internet and Society in Asia: Challenges and Next Steps</a> by Nishant Shah, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 11, Number 1.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Book Review</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/historian-wins-over-biographer" target="_blank">The Historian Wins Over the Biographer</a><i> “In Walter Isaacson's eponymous biography of Steve Jobs, the multibillion dollar man who is credited with single handedly changing the face of computing and the digital media industry, we face the dilemma of a biographer: how do you make sense of a history that is so new, it is still unfolding.” </i><br />Nishant Shah's detailed review of Steve Jobs' biography was published in the Biblio Vol. XV Nos. 11 & 12, November- December 2011</li>
</ul>
<h3>Newspaper / Magazine Articles</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/spy-in-web" target="_blank">Spy in the Web</a> The government’s proposed pre-censorship rules undermine the intelligence of an online user and endanger democracy, Nishant Shah, Indian Express, 18 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/what-is-dilligaf" target="_blank">What is Dilligaf?</a> On the web, time moves at the speed of thought: Groups emerge, proliferate and are abandoned as new trends and fads take precedence. Nowhere else is this dramatic flux as apparent as in the language that evolves online, Nishant Shah, GQ India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/surrogate-futures-scattered-temporalities" target="_blank">Of Surrogate Futures and Scattered Temporalities</a>: Nishant Shah responds to Michael Edwards through this blog post published in the Broker on 27 December 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Interview</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/interview-with-anne-cavoukian" target="_blank">An Interview with Dr. Ann Cavoukian</a>: Elonnai Hickok interviews Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ontario, Canada<i>.</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/when-digital-spills-into-physical" target="_blank">When the digital spills into the physical</a>: Nishant Shah tells us why flash mobs are an interesting sign of our times, and not just a passing fad. MidDay published this interview in their newspaper on 18 December 2011<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Video</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/phishing-attacks-on-rise" target="_blank">Phishing Attacks on the Rise</a>: Sunil Abraham was on the TV Channel News 9 on 2 December 2011 speaking about two visual cues to distinguish between the fake and the real websites<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/web-censorship" target="_blank">India’s dreams of web censorship</a>, Financial Time's beyondbrics, 6 December 2011, Sunil Abraham was quoted in this post<i>.</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/did-he-didnt-he" target="_blank">Did He, Didn’t He</a> by Rahul Bhatia, Open Magazine (issue: 7-14 December 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/much-at-stake-for-tech-sector" target="_blank">Much at stake for tech sector in UID project</a> by Pranav Nambiar, Economic Times, 12 December 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/red-herring" target="_blank">On the net, red herring</a> by Javed Anwer, The Times of India, 4 December 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/twitter-facebook-lead-in-blogosphere" target="_blank">Twitter, Facebook take the lead in blogosphere as blog searches fall by half</a> by Ameya Chumbhale, Economic Times, 17 November 2011. Pranesh Prakash was quoted in this article<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/art-slash-activism" target="_blank">Exposing Data: Art Slash Activism </a>organised by Tactical Tech and CIS in Bangalore on 28 November 2011. Zainab Bawa, Ayisha Abraham, Ward Smith and Marek Tuszinsky gave a talk. Videos of the event are now online<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Upcoming Events</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/right-to-privacy-bill-conference" target="_blank">Privacy Matters — Analyzing the "Right to Privacy Bill"</a>: Privacy India in partnership with International Development Research Centre, Canada, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the Godrej Culture Lab, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore is organising "Privacy Matters", a public conference at IIT, Bombay on 21 January 2012<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/high-level-privacy-conclave" target="_blank">The High Level Privacy Conclave</a>: Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Society in Action Group, Gurgaon and Privacy International, UK is organizing the High Level Privacy Conclave at the Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place Greens in New Delhi on Friday, 3 February 2012<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy-symposium" target="_blank">All India Privacy Symposium</a><span>:</span> Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Society in Action Group, Gurgaon, Privacy International, UK and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is organizing the All India Privacy Symposium at the India International Centre, New Delhi on Saturday, 4 February 2012<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/dialogue-cafe" target="_blank">Dialogue Cafe @ Centre for Internet and Society</a>, 2 Dec 2011, Kavita Philip gave a talk.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><b>Special Section on Freedom of Expression</b></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We usually cover Freedom of Expression under Internet Governance. However, this month there has been much discussion regarding the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Kapil Sibal’s proposal for pro-active censorship of social media. This special section covers reportage and original content from CIS<i>:</i></p>
<h3>Newspaper / Magazine Articles</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/invisible-censorship" target="_blank">Invisible Censorship: How the Government Censors Without Being Seen</a> by Pranesh Prakash: The Indian government wants to censor the Internet without being seen to be censoring the Internet. The article was translated into Marathi and featured in Lokmat, 18 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/us-clampdown" target="_blank">US Clampdown Worse than the Great Firewall</a> by Sunil Abraham: If you thought China’s Internet censorship was evil, think again. American moves to clean up the Web could hurt global surfers. Sunil Abraham wrote this article in Tehelka, Volume 8, Issue 50, 17 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/unkindest-cut-mr-sibal" target="_blank">That’s the Unkindest Cut, Mr. Sibal</a> by Sunil Abraham: There’s Kolaveri-di on the Internet over Kapil Sibal’s diktat to social media sites to prescreen users’ posts. That diktat goes far beyond the restrictions placed on our freedom of expression by the IT Act. But, says Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society, India is not going to be silenced online. Deccan Chronicle, 11 December 2011<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Posts</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/online-pre-censorship-harmful-impractical" target="_blank">Online Pre-Censorship is Harmful and Impractical</a> by Pranesh Prakash: The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Kapil Sibal wants Internet intermediaries to pre-censor content uploaded by their users. Pranesh Prakash takes issue with this and explains why this is a problem, even if the government's heart is in the right place.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/press-coverage-online-censorship" target="_blank">Press Coverage of Online Censorship Row</a>: We are maintaining a rolling blog with press references to the row created by the proposal by the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology to pre-screen user-generated Internet content.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Radio Broadcast</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Social media sites refuse Indian censorship request: Sunil Abraham spoke to Radio Australia. Follow the broadcast <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/social-media-sites-refuse-indian-censorship" target="_blank">here</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Live Chat</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ibn-live-chat-with-pranesh" target="_blank">Is the govt bid to regulate content on the Internet a good thing?</a>: Pranesh Prakash answered questions freedom of expression vis-a-vis objectionable content live on CNN-IBN's chat feature, 7 December 2011<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/caught-in-web" target="_blank">Caught in the Web</a>: <i>“As it is the status of freedom of speech in India is in a bad shape. Sibal's new rules will only make it worse.”— </i><b>Sunil Abraham in Hindu Business Line</b>, 13 December 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/online-gag" target="_blank">Online gag: Existing rules give little freedom</a>: <i>“Our criticism is of the policy and not of the websites and Internet entities that are forced to err on the side of caution when faced by such notices.” — </i><b>Sunil Abraham in the Times of India</b><i>,</i> 9 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/facebook-google-tell-india-they-won2019t-screen-for-derogatory-content" target="_blank">Facebook, Google tell India they won’t screen for derogatory content</a>: <i>“Researchers sent mock take-down notices to seven sites, complaining about their content... six sites immediately deleted content. They did not even verify the validity of our flawed complaint. They over-complied.” — </i><b>Sunil Abraham in Washington Post</b>, 6 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/any-normal-human-being-would-be-offended" target="_blank">‘Any Normal Human Being Would Be Offended’</a>: <i>“</i><i>Indian law seems to state that it has global jurisdiction but that is not really true. An Indian court might give an order that is unenforceable in the United States or anywhere else.” — </i><b>Sunil Abraham in the New York Times</b>, 6 December 2011<i>.</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/it-inc-oppose-sibals-firewall-proposal" target="_blank">IT Inc oppose Sibal’s ‘great’ firewall proposal</a>: <i>“You wouldn’t want to end up with a situation where you are denied access to, say, the website of the University of Sussex because the address contains the word ‘sex’.” — </i><b>Nishant Shah in Indian Express</b>, 7 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/online-at-india" target="_blank">Online @ India</a>: <i>“I haven't yet heard of anybody in India going on a rampage because somebody in Pakistan started an 'India hate' page.” — </i><b>Nishant Shah in the Hindustan Times</b>, 10 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/private-censorship-making-online-content-disappear-quietly" target="_blank">How ‘private-censorship’ is making online content disappear, quietly</a>: <i>“Google’s self-reported compliance rate of 51 per cent shows that they are probably over-stepping the law in order to appease the Indian government’s requests.” — </i><b>Pranesh Prakash in FirstPost</b>, 15 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/chilling-it-act" target="_blank">Kapil Sibal to sterilise Net but undercover sting shows 6 of 7 websites already trigger-happy to censor under ‘chilling’ IT Act</a>, Legally India, 7 December 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this blog post.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/2018chilling2019-impact-of-india2019s-april-internet-rules" target="_blank">‘Chilling’ Impact of India’s April Internet Rules</a> by Heather Simmons, New York Times, 7 December 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/scrub-the-internet-clean" target="_blank">Govt wants to scrub the Internet clean</a>, Livemint, 7 December 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/techies-angered-over-censorship" target="_blank">India's Techies Angered Over Internet Censorship Plan</a>, NPR, 20 December 2011. Pranesh Prakash was quoted in this blog post.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-social-media-access-should-not-be-blocked-ban" target="_blank">Internet, social media access should not be blocked: Ban</a>, Oman Tribune, 10 December 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/minority-report-age" target="_blank">India entering the Minority Report age?</a>, ioL scietech. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internautas-indios-se-oponen" target="_blank">Los internautas indios se oponen a la censura a través de la Red</a>, Diario de Navarra, 7 December 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in the Spanish newspaper.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/technological-beasts-impossible-to-control" target="_blank">Technological beasts like Facebook, Orkut, YouTube & Google impossible to control</a> by Sunanda Poduwal & Kamya Jaiswal, Economic Times, 11 December 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in the article.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/google-vs-kapil" target="_blank">Google V/s Kapil Sibal</a> by Sundeep Dougal in Outlook, 8 December 2011. Pranesh Prakash's work at CIS has been extensively quoted in this blog post.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/india-bid-to-censor-net-draws-flak" target="_blank">India bid to censor Internet draws flak</a> Phil Hazlewood spoke to Sunil Abraham and published this article for AFP. France 24, Khaleej Times, Physorg.com, TimesLive, Bangkok Post, Yahoo News, MSN News, Emirates 24/7, Business Live and Jakarta Globe also carried the news on their websites, 9 December 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b><i> </i></b>Videos</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-censorship" target="_blank">Censorship — A Death Knell for Freedom of Expression Online</a>: On 8 December 2011<i>, </i>NDTV aired an interesting discussion on internet censorship. Shashi Tharoor, Soli Sorabjee, Shekhar Kapoor, Ken Ghosh and Sunil Abraham participated in this discussion with NDTV's Sonia Singh<i>.</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/censor-social-networking-sites" target="_blank">FTN: Should social networking sites be censored?</a>: Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal met the representatives of Facebook, Google and others seeking to device a screening mechanism. Sunil Abraham was on CNN-IBN from 10.00 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. speaking about freedom of expression in India<i>.</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/online-content-row" target="_blank">Debate: Online content row-1</a>: Sunil Abraham was on Times Now from 9.05 p.m. to 9.45 p.m. on 6 December 2011 speaking about freedom of expression in India<i>.</i><i> </i></li>
</ul>
<h3><b> </b>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/free-speech-online-in-india-under-attack" target="_blank">Free Speech Online in India under Attack? A Panel Discussion</a>, 21 December 2011. Achal Prabhala, Anja Kovacs, Lawrence Liang and Sunil Abraham gave lectures<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom" class="external-link"><b>Telecom</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. In this connection, Shyam Ponappa continues to write his monthly column for the Business Standard.</p>
<h3>Newspaper Article</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/healing-self-inflicted-wounds" target="_blank">Healing self-inflicted wounds</a> by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, 1 December 2011: A spate of dysfunctional actions and retrograde developments has led to an unimaginable mess for India. Can the damage to growth prospects be undone? Does it need to be? If so, how?</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
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</ul>
<p><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i><i> </i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2011-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-23T08:35:03ZPageNovember 2011 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2011-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the Centre for Internet and Society newsletter! In this issue we bring you the updates of our research, events, media coverage and videos of some past events organized by us during the month of November 2011.</b>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives" class="external-link"><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<h3>Key Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-and-politics-in-asia" target="_blank">On Fooling Around: Digital Natives and Politics in Asia</a><br /> by Nishant Shah, Director-Research<br /> Youths are not only actively participating in the politics of its times but also changing the way in which we understand the political processes of mobilisation, participation and transformation, writes Nishant. The paper was presented at the Digital Cultures in Asia conference at the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Links in the Chain</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/volume-8-issue-4.pdf" target="_blank">Analog Relics in the Digital Age</a>, volume 8, issue 4<br /> Guest Editor: Nilofar Ansher<br /> “The scale of inventions has not really leaped, so much as mutated. We had Twitter and Facebook ... (remember notice boards, community centers and pamphlets); they just weren’t so instant, hyperlinked and global in scale. We still use the medium of a mouthpiece and speaker to talk to each other long distance, the difference is in the changed aesthetics of the 21st century – it’s all squarish curves and scratch-proof glass that are more appealing today. Blackboards, writing material, listening devices and memory aids have undergone unprecedented transformations of function and usage, but it’s still about having a blank canvas to write upon with a chalk, pen, paper or iClick”, writes Nilofar in this issue of the Digital Natives newsletter.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Articles/Columns <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/in-search-of-the-other-decoding-digital-natives" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/in-search-of-the-other-decoding-digital-natives" target="_blank">In Search of the Other: Decoding Digital Natives</a>: Nishant Shah charts the trajectories of our research at the Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) and Hivos (The Hague, The Netherlands) to see how alternative models of understanding these relationships can be built. This blog post by Nishant Shah was published in DML central on 24 October 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Staff Quoted in the Media <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/write-stuff" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/write-stuff" target="_blank">The Write Stuff</a>, Deccan Chronicle, 14 November 2011. Nishant Shah has been quoted in this article.</li>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<h2><b>Pathways for Learning in Higher Education</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Pathways Project for Learning in Higher Education is a collaboration between the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). The project is supported by the Ford Foundation and works with disadvantaged students in 9 undergraduate colleges in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, to explore relationships between Technologies, Higher Education and the new forms of social justice in India.</p>
<h3>Article Published by the Media</h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/learn-it" target="_blank">Learn it Yourself</a>: The peer-to-peer world of online learning encourages conversations and reciprocal learning, writes Nishant Shah. The article was published by the Indian Express on 30 October 2011.</p>
<h3>Video of Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/mobility-shifts-2011" target="_blank">Mobility Shifts 2011 — An International Future of Learning Summit</a>: The summit was organised by the New School and sponsored by MacArthur Foundation and Mozilla. It was held from October 10 to October 16, 2011 at the New School, New York City. Nishant Shah participated in the summit and spoke on Digital Outcasts: Social Justice, Technology and Learning in India. The video of the event is online.</li>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility" class="external-link"><b>Accessibility</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>Publication</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/accessibility/e-accessibility-handbook-in-russian" target="_blank">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> (Russian Version) <br /> Edited by Nirmita Narasimhan<br /> The e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities is now available in Russian. The handbook is a joint publication of ITU, G3ict and the Centre for Internet and Society, in cooperation with the Hans Foundation. Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union wrote the preface. Dr. Sami Al-Basheer, Director, ITU-D wrote the introduction and Axel Leblois, Executive Director, G3ict wrote the foreword.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Post</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/accessibility/accessible-banking" target="_blank">The case for Accessible Banking</a> by Dinesh Kaushal.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k" class="external-link"><b>Access to Knowledge</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3>Key Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/jesters-clowns-pranksters" target="_blank">Of Jesters, Clowns and Pranksters: YouTube and the Condition of Collaborative Authorship</a><br /> by Nishant Shah, Director-Research, Centre for Internet and Society<br /> The idea of a single author creating cinematic objects in a well-controlled scheme of support system and production/distribution infrastructure has been fundamentally challenged by the emergence of digital video sharing sites like YouTube, writes Nishant Shah in this essay published in the Journal of Moving Images.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Posts</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/books-vs-cigarettes" target="_blank">CIS Hosts Scanned Version of George Orwell’s Books vs. Cigarettes</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Comments / Statement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/ace-7-future-work-cis-intervention" target="_blank">CIS Intervention on Future Work of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement</a>: The seventh session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) is being held in Geneva on November 30 and December 1, 2011. Pranesh Prakash intervened during the discussion of future work of the ACE with this comment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/ace-7-french-charter-cis-comment" target="_blank">Comment by CIS at ACE on Presentation on French Charter on the Fight against Cyber-Counterfeiting</a>: The seventh session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Advisory Committee on Enforcement is being held in Geneva on November 30 and December 1, 2011. Pranesh Prakash responded to a presentation by Prof. Pierre Sirinelli of the École de droit de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 on 'The French Charter on the Fight against Cyber-Counterfeiting of December 16, 2009' with this comment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/sccr-23-broadcast-cis-statement" target="_blank">Statement of CIS on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty at the 23rd SCCR</a>: The twenty-third session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is being held in Geneva from November 22, 2011 to December 2, 2011. Pranesh Prakash delivered this statement on a new proposal made by South Africa and Mexico (SCCR/23/6) on a treaty for broadcasters.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness" class="external-link"><b>Openness</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Content, Open Standards, Open Access to Law, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/blog/know-your-users" target="_blank">Know Your Users, Match their Needs!</a><br /> As Free Access to Law initiatives in the Global South enter into a new stage of maturity, they must be certain not to lose sight of their users’ needs. This blog post gives a summary of the “Good Practices Handbook”, a research output of the collaborative project Free Access to Law — Is it Here to Stay? undertaken by LexUM (Canada) and the South African Legal Institute in partnership with the Centre for Internet and Society. Rebecca Schild and Prashant Iyengar from CIS were part of the research team.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/events/open-access-to-academic-knowledge-at-the-iisc" target="_blank">Open Access to Academic Knowledge</a>, organised by the Indian Institute of Science and CIS at National Centre for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 2 November 2011. Tom Dane participated in this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/canadian-science-policy-conference" target="_blank">3rd Canadian Science Policy Conference</a>, organised by Canadian Science Policy Conference from16 to 18 November 2011 at the Ottawa Convention Centre. Sunil Abraham spoke in the session on Global Implications of Open and Inclusive Innovation. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Announcement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/announcement-of-wikimedia-india-program-trust" target="_blank">The Wikimedia India Program Trust</a>. A new entity, the “Wikimedia India Program Trust”, has been registered in Delhi. Sunil Abraham is one of the trustees. </li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance" class="external-link"><b>Internet Governance</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3>Comments / Submissions</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-on-finance-committee-statements" target="_blank">CIS Comments on Finance Committee Statements to Open Letters on Unique Identity</a>: The Parliamentary Finance Committee responded to the six open letters sent by CIS through an email on 12 October 2011. CIS has commented on the points raised by the Committee. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-national-policy-information-technology" target="_blank">Comments on the National Policy of Information Technology</a>: The NPIT 2011 has the laudable goal of making India a ‘knowledge economy with a global role’ by developing and deploying ICT solutions in all sectors to foster development within India and at a global level. CIS appreciates this initiative of the Department of Information Technology and offers brief comments to strengthen the draft. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-draft-national-policy-on-electronics" target="_blank">CIS Comments on the Draft National Policy on Electronics</a>: CIS submitted its comments to the request for comments put out by the Department of Information Technology on its draft 'National Policy on Electronics'.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Statement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/india-statement-un-cirp" target="_blank">India's Statement Proposing UN Committee for Internet-Related Policy</a>: India made its statement at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, its proposal for the UN Committee for Internet-Related Policy was presented.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Podcast</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/professor-balaram-talks-open-access" target="_blank">Professor Balaram talks Open Access</a> : Tom Dane spoke with Professor P Balaram, Director of the Indian Institute of Science about the Open Access movement. A podcast of the interview is online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/ijlt-cis-lecture-series-report" target="_blank">The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series — A Post-event Report</a> : The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series was organised by the Indian Journal of Law and Technology and CIS on the 21st and 22nd of May 2011 at the National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore. The main theme for this year was Emerging Issues in Privacy Law: Law, Policy and Practice. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Essay in Peer Reviewed Journal</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/material-cyborgs-asserted-boundaries" target="_blank">Material Cyborgs; Asserted Boundaries</a> <br /> by Nishant Shah, Director-Research <br /> Nishant explores the possibility of formulating the cyborg as an author or translator who is able to navigate between the different binaries of ‘meat–machine’, ‘digital–physical’, and ‘body–self’, using the abilities and the capabilities learnt in one system in an efficient and effective understanding of the other. The essay was published in the European Journal of English Studies, Volume 12, Issue 2.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Articles/Columns</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/what-is-dilligaf" target="_blank">What is Dilligaf?</a> On the web, time moves at the speed of thought: Groups emerge, proliferate and are abandoned as new trends and fads take precedence. Nowhere else is this dramatic flux as apparent as in the language that evolves online. While SMS lingo – like TTYL (Talk To You Later) and LOL (Laughing Out Loud)– has endured and become a part of everyday language, new forms of speech are taking over. This article by Nishant Shah was published in GQ India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/book-of-jobs" target="_blank">The Book of Jobs</a> The man who made the computer personal, who changed the face of the digital media industry, who was inspired by Zen philosophy to create an eight-billion-dollar empire, Steve Jobs, died last month. Just a few weeks before his death, in the midst of his painful illness, he told Walter Isaacson, the man chosen to write his authorised biography, “I really want to believe that something survives”. And Isaacson wrote him a fairy tale which will make sure that Jobs will be remembered beyond the gizmos and gimmicks, writes Nishant Shah in this article published in the Indian Express on 12 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Staff Quoted in the Media <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/facebook-tracking-footprints" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/facebook-tracking-footprints" target="_blank">Is Facebook tracking your virtual footprints?</a> by Sheetal Sukhija in MidDay, 22 November 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/m-governance" target="_blank">M-governance gains momentum</a> by Vasudha Venugopal in the Hindu, 20 November 2011. Nishant Shah was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/bill-could-kill-internet" target="_blank">SOPA: The bill that could kill the Internet</a> by Suw Charman-Anderson in Firstpost.Technology, 16 November 2011.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/broadband-long-way-to-go" target="_blank">Broadband user base still has a long way to go</a>, by Leslie D’Monte & Deepti Chaudhary in Livemint, 15 November 2011. Sunil Abraham has been quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/maids-guards-get-fingerprinted" target="_blank">‘Not mandatory’ but maids, guards get fingerprinted</a> by Hemanth Kashyap in Bangalore Mirror, 9 November 2011. Sunil Abraham has been quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/netizen-report" target="_blank">Netizen Report: Transparency Edition</a> by Rebecca MacKinnon in Global Voices Online, 7 November 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/blocking-content-google-gets-more-requests" target="_blank">Blocking online content: Google gets more requests than govt</a> by Pallavi Polanki in Firstpost.com, 2 November 2011. Pranesh Prakash has been quoted in this article.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Posts <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/sources-cis-funding" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/sources-cis-funding" target="_blank">Sources of CIS Funding</a> by Pranesh Prakash on 9 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/p2p-throttling-and-dns-hijacking" target="_blank">TRAI urged to take action against P2P throttling and DNS hijacking</a> by Anand on 9 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/art-activism" target="_blank">Exposing Data: Art Slash Activism</a> organised by Tactical Tech and CIS at CIS office in Bangalore on 28 November 2011. Ward Smith and Stephanie Hankey (Co-founders of TTC), Ayisha Abraham (Filmmaker, Srishti School of Art Design) and Zainab Bawa (Research Fellow, CIS) gave a lecture. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/droidcon-india" target="_blank">Droidcon India, first Android Conference in Bangalore</a>, organised by CIS in collaboration with Droidcon.com, Bangalore Android User Group, MobileMonday Bangalore and Android Advices on 18 and 19 November 2011 at the MLR Convention Centre, Bangalore. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop" target="_blank">Western Ghats Portal: Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics</a> organised by the Western Ghats Portal team at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, 25 November 2011. Sunil Abraham spoke in the session on Scientific Commons and Policy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/names-not-numbers" target="_blank">Names Not Numbers Mumbai</a>, 26 November 2011. Nishant Shah spoke in a panel on “The New Digital Individual: Is New Technology Liberating or Enslaving?”. The event was organised by Editorial Intelligence and partners which included the British Council and Financial Times, BBC World News, Mumbai first, Vodafone, Trident and Godrej India Cultural Lab.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Upcoming Events</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/dialogue-cafe" target="_blank">Dialogue Cafe @ Centre for Internet and Society</a>, 2 December 2011, Centre for Internet & Society, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/high-level-privacy-conclave" target="_blank">The High Level Privacy Conclave</a>, 3 February 2011, Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place Greens New Delhi, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. This is a closed-door meeting. For participation, get in touch with Elonnai (<a href="mailto:elonnai@cis-india.org">elonnai@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy-symposium" target="_blank">All India Privacy Symposium</a>, 4 February 2011, India International Centre, New Delhi. This is a public meeting. For participation, get in touch with Elonnai (<a href="mailto:elonnai@cis-india.org">elonnai@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Video</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/events/facebook-resistance" target="_blank">Facebook Resistance Workshop at CIS</a>. This was a workshop for people to learn on how to think beyond the rules and limitations of Facebook, to tweak and play around the features and design to generate useful, creative, and funny concepts and explore how this creative intervention can be turned into a real software developed by the Facebook Resistance. </li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom" class="external-link"><b>Telecom</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<h3>Column</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-path-breaker" target="_blank">Telecom Path-Breaker?</a> (by Shyam Ponappa): Does the draft National Telecom Policy-2011 reflect true brilliance or smoke-and-mirrors? It will be a game-changer if a shared network is implemented effectively, writes Shyam Ponappa in this article published in the Business Standard on 3 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=456&qid=46981" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Follow CIS on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=457&qid=46981" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Join the CIS group on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=458&qid=46981" target="_blank">Facebook</a>\</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Visit us at <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=459&qid=46981" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2011-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-24T02:37:09ZPageDWRU, BBGS & MKU - The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Invisible Workers of the Household Economy
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/dwru-bbgs-mku-covid19-invisible-household-workers
<b>Domestic Workers Rights Union (DWRU), Bruhat Bangalore Gruhakarmika Sangha (BBGS), and Manegelasa Kaarmikara Union (MKU) have prepared a report on the invisibilisation of domestic workers under the Covid-19 pandemic and a set of demands directed at the government and resident welfare associations (RWAs) for better, dignified and just treatment of domestic workers in Karnataka. We at CIS are proud to contribute to and publish this work as part of the ongoing 'Feminist Internet Research Network' project supported by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/dwru-bbgs-mku-covid19-invisible-household-workers-report" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<p><em>This report is authored by Geeta Menon, and edited by Aayush Rathi (CIS) and Ambika Tandon (CIS).</em></p>
<hr />
<h3><strong>Introduction</strong></h3>
<p>Up until the first phase of the imposition of lockdown in India, while restrictions were enforced, domestic workers went to work as usual. Domestic workers were aware of the announcements of precautions, but the
employers insisted they come for work disregarding any concerns for workers' safety.</p>
<p>During the phase of strict imposition of the first lockdown, covering the time from March 24, 2020 to the first week of May, several corporate employees “worked from home”. While pictures of employers’ families spending family time, and learning to clean and cook, circulated widely on social media and in press, domestic workers lived in cramped conditions with the fear of rations running out.</p>
<p>In the first 2 weeks of May, a survey of nearly 2400 domestic workers in Bengaluru was conducted by Domestic Workers Rights Union (DWRU), Bruhat Bangalore Gruhakarmika Sangha (BBGS), and Manegelasa Kaarmikara Union. Some of the findings from the survey are below:</p>
<ul><li>2084 (about 87%) of the workers were told not to come for work since the lockdown in March and were not sure if and when they would be called to work again.</li>
<li>341 workers in the areas surveyed by BBGS (87%) and 150 workers in the areas surveyed by Manegelasa Kaarmikara Union lost their jobs entirely during the lockdown.</li>
<li>91% of workers lost their salaries for the month of April.</li>
<li>50% of all workers above the age of 50 lost their jobs during the lockdown.</li></ul>
<p>The report also showcases the tyranny and hypocrisy of resident welfare associations (RWAs) and employers. The period of relaxation of the lockdown has again seen RWAs issuing directives that are demeaning to domestic workers and pose insurmountable barriers to domestic workers’ ability to work. For example, several RWAs issued emails advising residents to ask domestic workers to minimise or avoid usage of the lift and take the stairs instead. They also discouraged domestic workers from waiting in the common areas in between shifts. RWAs also invaded domestic workers’ privacy by mandating the disclosure of personal information without any protocols in place to keep this information secure.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/dwru-bbgs-mku-covid19-invisible-household-workers'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/dwru-bbgs-mku-covid19-invisible-household-workers</a>
</p>
No publisherGeeta MenonCovid19ResearchNetwork EconomiesResearchers at WorkDigital Domestic Work2020-06-19T12:34:22ZBlog EntryBrindaalakshmi.K - Gendering of Development Data in India: Beyond the Binary
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/brindaalakshmi-k-gendering-development-data-india
<b>This report by Brindaalakshmi.K seeks to understand the gendering of development data in India: collection of data and issuance of government (foundational and functional) identity documents to persons identifying outside the cis/binary genders of female and male, and the data misrepresentations, barriers to accessing public and private services, and
informational exclusions that still remain. Sumandro Chattapadhyay edited the report and Puthiya Purayil Sneha offered additional editorial support. This work was undertaken as part of the Big Data for Development network supported by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Part 1 - Introduction, Research Method, and Summary of Findings: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/brindaalakshmi-k-gendering-of-development-data-in-india-beyond-the-binary-1" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Part 2 - Legal Rights and Enumeration Process: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/brindaalakshmi-k-gendering-of-development-data-in-india-beyond-the-binary-2" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Part 3 - Identity Documents and Access to Welfare: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/brindaalakshmi-k-gendering-of-development-data-in-india-beyond-the-binary-3" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Part 4 - Digital Services and Data Challenges: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/brindaalakshmi-k-gendering-of-development-data-in-india-beyond-the-binary-4" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<p>India has been under a national lockdown due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic since late March 2020. Although transgender persons or individuals who do not identify with the gender of their assigned sex at birth, fall into the eligibility category for the relief measures announced by the State, the implementation of the relief measures has seen to be inefficient in different states [1] of the country [2]. Many transgender persons still do not have proper identification documents in their preferred name and gender that can help them with claiming any welfare that is available [3].</p>
<p>Historically, the situation of transgender persons in India has been so, even prior to the present pandemic. A qualitative research study titled <em>Gendering of Development Data in India: Beyond the Binary</em> was undertaken during October 2018 - December 2019, to understand the gendering of development data in India, collection of data and issuance of government (foundational and functional) identity documents to persons identifying outside the cis/binary genders of female and male, and the data misrepresentations, barriers to accessing public and private services, and informational exclusions that still remain.</p>
<p>The interviews for this study were conducted in late 2018 and this report was completed in the beginning of 2020, after India went through an extended national debate on and finally enactment of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act during 2019. Three key observations from this study are presented in this blog post. Although these observations were made prior to the release of the draft rules of the new law, it is important to note that the law along with the draft rules in its present version will likely aggrevate the data and social exclusions faced by the transgender community in India.</p>
<h4>Observation 1: The need for data has sidestepped the state’s responsibility to address the human rights of its people</h4>
<p>The present global development agenda is to <em>leave no one behind</em> [4]. The effort to leave no one behind has shifted the focus of the state towards collecting data on different population groups. The design of and access to welfare programmes relies heavily on the availability of data. The impact of these programmes are again measured and understood as reflected by data. This shift in focus to data has led to further exclusion of already disenfranchised groups including the transgender community [5]. The problem with this lies in the framing of the development discourse as one that demands data as the prerequisite to access welfare benefits.</p>
<p>However, there are significant issues with the data on transgender persons that has been fed into different national and state-level databases, beginning with the census of 2011. For the first time, census of 2011 attempted to enumerate transgender persons. However, the enumeration of transgender persons for the census of 2011 has been severely criticised by the transgender community due to lack of</p>
<ul>
<li>Clear distinction between sex and gender in the census data collection process,</li>
<li>Community consultation in designing the enumeration process, and</li>
<li>Inclusion of all transgender identities, among others.</li></ul>
<p>However, this flawed data set is being used as the primary data for fund allocation across different states for transgender people’s inclusion, note respondents. Further, any person identifying outside the gender of their assigned sex at birth faces the additional burden of proving their gender identity to access any welfare benefit. However, cisgendered men or women are never asked to prove their gender identity. The need for data from a marginalised population group without addressing the structural problems has only led to further exclusion of this already invisible group of individuals, note respondents. Further, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 was passed despite the severe criticisms from the transgender community, human rights activist groups [6] and even opposition political parties [7] in India for several reasons [8].</p>
<h4>Observation 2: Replication of existing offline challenges by digital systems in multiple data sources, continues to keep transgender persons excluded</h4>
<p>Digitisation was supposed to remove existing offline challenges and enable more people centric systems [9]. However, digital systems seem to have replicated the existing offline challenges. In several cases, digitisation has added to the complexities involved.</p>
<p>The replication of challenges begins with the assumption that digital processes are the best way to collect data on transgender persons. Both level of literacy and digital literacy are low among transgender persons in India. According to a report by the National Human Rights Commission [10], nearly 50% of transgender persons have studied less than Class X. This has a significant effect on their access to different rights.</p>
<p>Access to mobile phones is assumed to bridge this access gap to online systems and services. However, observations from different respondents suggest otherwise. Additionally, due to their gender identity, transgender individuals face different set of challenges in procuring valid identification documents required to enter data systems, note respondents. This includes but not limited to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Lack of standardised online or offline processes to aid in changing their documents and vary within each state in different documents.</li>
<li>Procuring any identification document in preferred name and gender requires existing identification documents in given name and assigned gender, in both online and offline processes. However, due to the stigma with their gender identity, transgender persons often run away from home with no identification document in their assigned name and gender.</li>
<li>With or without an existing ID document, individuals have to go through a tedious offline legal process to change their name and gender on different documents.</li>
<li>Information on such processes, digital or otherwise are usually available only to individuals who are educated or associated with a non-profit organisation working with the community. The challenges are higher for individuals with neither.</li></ul>
<h4>Observation 3: Private big data is not good enough as an alternative source of evidence for designing welfare services for transgender persons</h4>
<p>Globally, public private partnerships for big data are being pushed through different initiatives like Data Collaboratives [11] and UN Global Pulse [12], among others. These private partnerships are being seen as key to using big data for official statistics, which can then aid in making welfare decisions [13]. However, the respondents note that the different private big data sources are not good enough to make welfare decisions for various reasons including but not limited to:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Dependency on government documents:</strong> Access to any private service system like banking, healthcare, housing or education by any individual requires verification using some proof of identity. The discrimination and challenges in procuring government issued identification documents impacts the ability of transgender persons to enter private data systems. This in turn impacts their access to services.</li>
<li><strong>Misrepresentation in data:</strong> The dependency of private services on government issued documents / government recorded data, and hierarchy among such documents/data and the continued misrepresentation of transgender people, impacts the big data generated by private service providers. Due to the stigma faced, many transgender persons avoid using public healthcare systems for other medical conditions. The heavy dependency on private health care and lower usage of public health systems, results in insufficient big data on transgender persons, created by both public and private medical care and hence cannot be used to design health related welfare services.
</li><li><strong>Social media data issues:</strong> Different websites and apps also use social media login as the ID verification mechanism. Since not all transgender persons are out to their family and friends about their gender identity, they often tend to have multiple social media accounts with different names and gender to protect their identity. When open about their gender identity, harassment and bullying of transgender persons with violent threats or sexually lucid remarks are quite common on social media platforms. Online privacy therefore continues to be a serious concern for them. Disclosing their transgender status also enables the system to predict user patterns of a vulnerable group with potential for abuse, note respondents.</li></ul>
<p>In conclusion, the present global pandemic has further amplified the inherent flaws in the present data-driven welfare system in the country and its impacts on a marginalised population group like transgender persons in the country. Globally, gender in development data is seen in binary genders of male and female, leaving behind transgender individuals or those who do not identify with the gender of their assigned sex at birth. So the dominant binary gender data conversation is in fact leaving people behind. With the regressive Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 and its rules, this inadequacy in the global development agenda related to gender equality is felt at an amplified scale.</p>
<p>Building on the work of Dr. Usha Ramanathan, a renowned human rights activist, I say that data collection and monitoring systems that tag, track, and profile transgender persons placing them under surveillance, have consequences beyond the denial of services, and enter into the arena of criminalising for being beyond the binary [14]. The vulnerabilities of their gender identity exacerbates the threat to freedom. With their freedom threatened, expecting people to be forthcoming about self-identifying themselves in their preferred name and gender, so as to ensure that they are counted in data-driven development interventions and can thus access their constitutionally guaranteed rights, goes against the very idea of sustainable development and human rights.</p>
<p> </p>
<h4>References</h4>
<p>[1] Kumar. V (2020, May 13). In Jharkhand, a Mockery of 'Right to Food' as Lockdown Relief Measures Fail to Deliver. The Wire. Retrieved from: <a href="https://thewire.in/food/lockdown-jharkhand-hunger-deaths-corruption-food" target="_blank">https://thewire.in/food/lockdown-jharkhand-hunger-deaths-corruption-food</a></p>
<p>[2] Manoj. C.K. (2020, April 24). COVID-19: Thousands pushed to starvation due to faulty biometric system in Bihar. DownToEarth. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/food/covid-19-thousands-pushed-to-starvation-due-to-faulty-biometric-system-in-bihar-70681" target="_blank">https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/food/covid-19-thousands-pushed-to-starvation-due-to-faulty-biometric-system-in-bihar-70681</a></p>
<p>[3] G. Ram Mohan. (2020, May 01). Eviction Fear Heightens as Lockdown Signals Loss of Livelihood for Transgender People. The Wire. Retrieved from: <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/transgender-people-lockdown-coronavirus" target="_blank">https://thewire.in/rights/transgender-people-lockdown-coronavirus </a></p>
<p>[4] UN Statistics (2016). The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2016. United Nations Statistics. Retrieved from: <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/leaving-no-one-behind" target="_blank">https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/leaving-no-one-behind</a></p>
<p>[5] Chakrabarti. A (2020, April 25). Visibly Invisible: The Plight Of Transgender Community Due To India's COVID-19 Lockdown. Outlook. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/opinion-visibly-invisible-the-plight-of-transgender-community-due-to-indias-covid-19-lockdown/351468" target="_blank">https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/opinion-visibly-invisible-the-plight-of-transgender-community-due-to-indias-covid-19-lockdown/351468</a></p>
<p>[6] Knight Kyle. (2019, December 05). India’s Transgender Rights Law Isn’t Worth Celebrating. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/06/indias-transgender-rights-law-isnt-worth-celebrating" target="_blank">https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/06/indias-transgender-rights-law-isnt-worth-celebrating</a></p>
<p>[7] Dharmadhikari Sanyukta. (2019). Trans Bill 2019 passed in Lok Sabha: Why the trans community in India is rejecting it. The News Minute. August 05. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/trans-bill-2019-passed-lok-sabha-why-trans-community-india-rejecting-it-106695" target="_blank">https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/trans-bill-2019-passed-lok-sabha-why-trans-community-india-rejecting-it-106695</a></p>
<p>[8] Editorial. (2018, December 20). Rights, revised: on the Transgender Persons Bill, 2018. The Hindu. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/rights-revised/article25783926.ece" target="_blank">https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/rights-revised/article25783926.ece</a></p>
<p>[9] Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. (2018). National e-Governance Plan. Retrieved from: <a href="https://meity.gov.in/divisions/national-e-governance-plan" target="_blank">https://meity.gov.in/divisions/national-e-governance-plan</a></p>
<p>[10] Kerala Development Society. (2017, February). <em>Study on Human Rights of Transgender as a Third Gender</em>. Retrieved from: <a href="https://nhrc.nic.in/sites/default/files/Study_HR_transgender_03082018.pdf" target="_blank">https://nhrc.nic.in/sites/default/files/Study_HR_transgender_03082018.pdf</a></p>
<p>[11] Verhulst, S. G., Young, A., Winowatan, M., & Zahuranec, A. J. (2019, October). <em>Leveraging Private Data for Public Good: A Descriptive Analysis and Typology of Existing Practices</em>. GovLab, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University. Retrieved from: <a href="https://datacollaboratives.org/static/files/existing-practices-report.pdf" target="_blank">https://datacollaboratives.org/static/files/existing-practices-report.pdf</a></p>
<p>[12] Kirkpatrick, R., & Vacarelu, F. (2018, December). A Decade of Leveraging Big Data for Sustainable Development. UN Chronicle, Vol. LV, Nos. 3 & 4. Retrieved from: <a href="https://unchronicle.un.org/article/decade-leveraging-big-data-sustainable-development" target="_blank">https://unchronicle.un.org/article/decade-leveraging-big-data-sustainable-development</a></p>
<p>[13] See [11].</p>
<p>[14] Ramanathan. U. (2014, May 02). Biometrics Use for Social Protection Programmes in India Risk Violating Human Rights of the Poor. UNRISD. Retrieved from: <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/sp-hr-ramanathan" target="_blank">http://www.unrisd.org/sp-hr-ramanathan</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/brindaalakshmi-k-gendering-development-data-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/brindaalakshmi-k-gendering-development-data-india</a>
</p>
No publisherBrindaalakshmi.KWelfare GovernanceData SystemsBig Data for DevelopmentResearchGender, Welfare, and PrivacyTransgenderResearchers at Work2020-06-30T10:26:40ZBlog EntryRaina Roy and Abhiraj Bag - Kolkata’s trans community has been locked out of healthcare and livelihood
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/raina-roy-abhiraj-bag-transgender-community-kolkata-covid19-healthcare-livelihood
<b>Over six months into the outbreak of Covid-19 in India, it has become clear that the pandemic does not affect everybody equally. It has amplified the sufferings of the already-marginalised trans community. Raina Roy spoke to 10 trans persons and trans rights activists in Kolkata over the course of the past few months to better understand the situation. The piece was transcribed by Abhiraj Bag and edited by Kaarika Das and Srravya C, researchers at the Centre for Internet and Society, India. This work is part of a project at CIS on gender, welfare and surveillance, supported by Privacy International, United Kingdom. </b>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Originally published by <a href="https://scroll.in/article/968182/coronavirus-kolkatas-trans-community-has-been-locked-out-of-healthcare-and-livelihood" target="_blank">Scroll</a> on July 28, 2020.</em></p>
<p>Raina is a founder of <a href="https://bdssamabhabona.org/" target="_blank">Samabhabona</a> (Baishamya Durikaran Samiti), a trans-led organisation in Kolkata working with trans rights since 2013. Abhiraj is a trans rights activist based in Kolkata.</p>
<hr />
<p>Over six months into the outbreak of Covid-19 in India, it has become clear that the pandemic does not affect everybody equally. It has amplified the sufferings of the already-marginalised trans community. We spoke to 10 trans persons and trans rights activists in Kolkata over the course of the past few months to better understand our situation as a community.</p>
<p>Several members of our community have lost their livelihoods due to the lockdown and remain unemployed for over three months now. Those engaged in sex work and begging have no respite in sight for the foreseeable future. As a community, we are more likely to be unemployed as traditional employment opportunities are inaccessible to us. Our health concerns are also diverse, as we grapple with gender dysphoria alongside other psychosocial issues. Covid-19 has exacerbated these inequalities and effectively locked us out of livelihood as well as healthcare.</p>
<h3>An alienating system</h3>
<p>When it comes to accessing institutional healthcare, visiting hospitals can be a daunting ordeal for trans men and trans women, as we frequently encounter discrimination and stigmatisation from healthcare providers.</p>
<p>Even in emergency cases such as accidents, medical attention is delayed due to confusion whether the patient should be admitted to the male or female ward. Finding compassionate healthcare providers is difficult, especially in government hospitals. Most often, they are not sensitised to trans-health issues.</p>
<p>Such experiences have alienated us from the healthcare system and left several members of the trans community reluctant to seek medical help.</p>
<p>Access to general healthcare has further worsened with Covid-19, as many are unable to seek emergency medical assistance. With no sustainable source of income and deteriorating health condition, elderly trans persons are hit with a double whammy. Despite their failing health, there is presently no provision for routine health check-up which they can avail. The reluctance to consult a healthcare service provider has increased due to the added risk of infection.</p>
<h3>SRS services are city-centric</h3>
<p>Many in the community had scheduled their sex reassignment surgery or SRS and started taking the necessary hormonal medication. However, because of Covid-19, they have now had to postpone their surgery indefinitely. This uncertainty further aggravated distress together with issues of hormonal imbalance. Due to loss of income, many are resorting to alternative cheap hormonal medication and without proper medical supervision, its consequence could be harmful.</p>
<p>Those who have undergone SRS or are currently on hormone replacement therapy often experience side effects such as rise in blood pressure and blood sugar levels, urinary tract infection, and other immunity-compromising problems. To treat these side-effects, a patient may need to consult an endocrinologist, gynaecologist or urologist. However, such specialists are only available at district hospitals. At the sub-district level, we may be able to consult a gynaecologist at best. An endocrinologist or urologist would be available only if we travelled to the district hospitals or medical college hospitals.</p>
<p>A lockdown spanning over three months, restrictions on travel and closure of public transport have made the city-centric, SRS-related healthcare systems inaccessible to the transgender persons in smaller towns and villages. Pre-Covid-19, a few NGOs and community-based organisations provided sexual health services. However, they were unable to continue their services during the lockdown. This has adversely impacted the trans community’s access to sexual health services.</p>
<p>So far, two trans women have been tested positive for Covid-19 in Kolkata. Thanks to the intervention from activists and other allies, they were quarantined in the female ward when they tested positive. Both were asymptomatic and are presently self-isolating at home. Within the trans community, there is inadequate awareness about Covid-19 testing protocols and procedures. The saving grace has been the dedicated provisioning of ten beds at the MR Bangur Hospital, specifically reserved for transgender persons.</p>
<h3>Community care</h3>
<p>The most hard-hitting impact of Covid-19 is undoubtedly on the mental health of our community. Often faced with social stigma and physical abuse, we take refuge in the comfort of each other’s support. In the absence of familial ties, community support is vital for our well-being. However, Covid-19 and the consequent lockdown measures, has distanced us from our only source of support and solace – community interaction and meet-ups.</p>
<p>Although digitally mediated communication has somewhat helped in coping, it is not as effective or cathartic as an in-person conversation. This has increased the susceptibility of substance abuse in the community. Parallelly, there has been a considerable rise in domestic violence cases too. Even under normal circumstances, we are more likely to encounter intimate partner violence, but are skeptical to seek redressal as the law-enforcing institutions – both judiciary and the police – are biased against us.</p>
<p>At hospitals, the constant misgendering that we face at the hands of healthcare professionals can be traumatising. Aparna Banerjee, a trans-person in Kolkata, said that this trauma has only worsened during Covid-19, when frontline healthcare workers are not sensitised about trans health. To escape this trauma, some trans women have resorted to unscientific castration, leading to urinary tract infection and kidney-related problems. Gender dysphoria also puts the trans community at a higher risk of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal tendencies.</p>
<h3>The political milieu</h3>
<p>Such strains on our mental and physical health come at a time when we are already distressed by the thought of being disenfranchised. The latest National Register of Citizens list in Assam had excluded many trans persons, as they couldn’t establish family ties, for being disowned by their families. And if they were included, their gender was incorrectly stated.</p>
<p>With the 2019 Transgender Person Act coming into force, a District Magistrate is given the authority to recognise a person as trans. This defies the right to self-identify, as upheld in the 2014 NALSA judgement. The current provision also necessitates providing proof of surgery and has no consideration for gender incongruence. The burden of providing proof of surgery is unnerving, especially for someone who has just transitioned.</p>
<p>As such, the cumulative impact of the 2019 Transgender Person Act and the Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizen mandate could lead to a significant part of the community being disenfranchised. In resisting this coercive pronouncement, we staged a protest in Kolkata earlier this year.</p>
<h3>What can be done</h3>
<p>The health and well-being of the trans community has suffered decades of institutional neglect and the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified this suffering. Remedial policy measures have been long due and cannot be delayed any further. Shelter homes have been one of our long-standing demands, to ensure safety and care for the transgender community, particularly the elderly. It is important that such shelter homes are democratic spaces, and not religious centres, that are welcoming of trans persons from different walks of life.</p>
<p>Secondly, healthcare systems, both public and private, need to be more trans-friendly – doctors, nurses and other staff in hospitals and healthcare centres need to be sensitised and trained to identify and understand the healthcare needs of transmen and transwomen. Recruitment of more transgender people as health workers would go a long way in treating transgender patients more humanely, with support and care.</p>
<p>Measures to contain the spread of the pandemic should include increased testing of transgender persons, and tracking the testing and infection rates among trans persons. Relief measures aimed at addressing the economic crisis need to acknowledge the loss of livelihood in the trans community and provide adequate financial support and compensation. Finally, it is important that governments, both at the centre- and state-level, pay heed to our demands and include representatives from the trans community while formulating policies that impact our lives in significant ways.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/raina-roy-abhiraj-bag-transgender-community-kolkata-covid19-healthcare-livelihood'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/raina-roy-abhiraj-bag-transgender-community-kolkata-covid19-healthcare-livelihood</a>
</p>
No publisherRaina Roy and Abhiraj BagGenderCovid19ResearchGender, Welfare, and PrivacyResearchers at Work2020-08-01T14:54:16ZBlog EntryIFAT and ITF - Protecting Workers in the Digital Platform Economy: Investigating Ola and Uber Drivers’ Occupational Health and Safety
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety
<b>Between July to November 2019, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi office, conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers. CIS is proud to publish the study report and the press release. Akash Sheshadri, Ambika Tandon, and Aayush Rathi of CIS supported post-production of this report.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-report/" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Press Release: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-press-release" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<h3>Press Release, August 25, 2020</h3>
<p><br />Between July to November 2019, IFAT and ITF conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers.</p>
<p>Some of the most startling findings from the survey are below:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is a complete absence of social security and protection—a glaring 95.3% claimed to have no form of insurance, accidental, health or medical. This reflects the inability of workers to invest in their own health. This partly is a result of declining wages—after paying off their EMIs, penalties and commission to the companies and having less than Rs. 20,000 left at the end of the month.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Only 0.15% of the respondents reported to have access to accidental insurance, which is the bare minimum companies like Ola and Uber should have provided to their drivers.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Uber and Ola provide no assistance with regard to harassment and violence while drivers are on the road. Ola or Uber for the most part do not intervene if there is any intimidation from traffic police or local authorities, incidents of road rage, violent attack by customers or criminal elements that endanger drivers’ lives, accidents while driving etc.<br /><br /></li>
<li>On average drivers spend close to 16-20 hours in their cars in a day. 39.8% of the respondents spent close to 20 hours in their vehicle in a day, and 72.8% of the respondents from Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad drive for close to 20 hours a day. Due to long hours, 89.8% of the respondents claim they get less than 6 hours of sleep.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Health issues arising directly as a result of conditions of work is affecting the day-to-day lives of workers. Backache, constipation, liver issues, waist pain and neck pain are the top five health ailments that app-based transport workers suffer from due to their work. 60.7% respondents identified backache as a major health issue.</li>
</ul>
<p>App-based drivers/driver partners work in a very toxic and isolated work environment. Drivers can’t exit their current occupational status even if they want to because they are shackled in debts and outstanding EMIs. As a result, they race every day to complete targets so that they may earn just enough to pay these liabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The work these drivers are engaged in cannot be considered to be within the ambit of decent work and in reality, is representative of modern slavery. The algorithm of the companies they work for, pits them against their peers in order to maximize profit, while at the same time denying them social security or protection and essentially refusing to acknowledge them as employees.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Drivers working in various cities and working for different app-based platforms have complained about the lack of transparency in how these app-based companies determine fares, promotional cost, surge pricing, incentives, penalties and bonuses. There is little to no information on how rides are being fixed or are being allocated. There also isn't any effective grievance redressal mechanism to resolve any of the issues faced by workers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The apathy of the state and the exploitation by app-based companies have brought the transport and delivery workers in a precipitous position across the globe. This is underlined and explained by the absence and lack of any social security or protection for the workforce, there are some other issues that the workforce is battling during the Covid-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Hear our voices and address our demands.</p>
<p>- <em>Shaik Salauddin</em></p>
<p>National General Secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT)<br /> Phone: +91 96424 24799</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</strong><br /> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/connectifat/" target="_blank">connectifat</a><br /> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/connect_ifat" target="_blank">@connect_ifat</a><br /> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1AxGq0Fb_A_O_Ey44eiPg" target="_blank">Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety</a>
</p>
No publisherIndian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi officeDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkDigital LabourCovid19ResearchPlatform-WorkFeaturedHomepage2021-06-29T06:53:47ZBlog Entry