{"id":599,"date":"2019-09-28T18:21:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T18:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annual-reports.itforchange.net\/Annual-Report\/?page_id=599"},"modified":"2019-10-07T10:54:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T10:54:45","slug":"2018-19-digital-rights-development-democracy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/annual-reports.itforchange.net\/Annual-Report\/2018-19-digital-rights-development-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Rights and Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Overview<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Directors’ Note<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Our Team<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Thematic Areas<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 1. <\/span>Data and the Digital Economy<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 2.\u00a0<\/span>Digital Rights and Democracy<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 3. Prakriye<\/em> Field Centre<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 4.\u00a0ICTs and Education<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 5.\u00a0Gender Justice in the Digital Society<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Financial Statements<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Digital Rights and Democracy<\/span><\/p>

Exploring the intersections of digital rights debates with democratic politics, especially in post-colonial societies in the global South, has been a constant focus of our research, advocacy and field-building efforts. In times of data governmentality and the automated public sphere, building an inclusive democracy which furthers citizen voice and meaningful participation for those at the margins, is what we strive towards. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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<\/i> When IT for Change approached me about a potential partnership with AVAS on this program, I knew at once that our youth in the urban poor communities that AVAS worked in would be enabled with knowledge and skills that would go a long way in empowering their communities. The journey that followed has been nothing short of inspiring and humbling. The end goal is to see our youth become a power to reckon with in context of achieving a better India. <\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Anita Reddy<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
AVAS<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/strong>Spoorthi<\/em> \u2013 A spatial data system for the inclusive cities agenda<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Digital literacy training for data stewards<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In 2018-19, we made significant headway with our action research project Spoorthi<\/i> that seeks to build a proof-of-concept for a community-based spatial data system\u00a0 for inclusive local governance in urban poor neighbourhoods. The project, supported by the United National Democracy Fund (UNDEF), is being implemented in east Bengaluru in partnership with two other city based organizations, the Association for Voluntary Action and Service (AVAS<\/a><\/u>)<\/span> and the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>

As part of this intervention, 24 young women and men from the urban poor neighborhood of G. Baiyappanahalli have received training on digital literacy, basic data analytics<\/u><\/a> <\/span>and the importance of civic engagement, in order to equip them to play a leadership role in data-supported problem solving and grievance redressal in their communities. In partnership with this cohort of \u2018data stewards\u2019, the project has been working to set up a community based spatial data platform that systematically tracks community grievances pertaining to Water, Sanitation and Access to Health (WASH) services. Built on baseline data, collected by stewards through a digitally mediated survey, the platform provides data on various community parameters and household level information in the WASH sector. In January 2019, a prototype version of the platform was demonstrated to an external project review team and was received positively.<\/p>

A heightened awareness of digital tools, data based techniques and urban governance mechanisms was reflected in the stewards\u2019 keen enthusiasm in initiating a data campaign for improving transportation services in their community in March 2019. Stewards not only actively spearheaded the process of a perception survey through which the issues of public transportation in the area were mapped, but also collectively brainstormed advocacy strategies on how their demands for improved bus services could receive a sympathetic and supportive hearing from the concerned officials at the local transport authority.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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<\/i> Right from the baseline survey, I was able to understand the problems faced by the community. These interactions helped me create a bond with them, which is important for my work. The\ndata campaign was also very interesting. I was able to understand the problems faced by students and the working population while commuting in the area. It was disappointing to see that they had to spend a lot of time and money just to travel from one place to another. I was very happy when I got an opportunity to represent the grievances of the community in front of the authorities. I hope to take the learnings from the project forward and make a larger impact in society. <\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Arjun.S<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Steward, Spoorthi Project <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Bot Populi<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

A critical strategic intervention we made in the year 2018-19 was the establishment of an alternative media platform, Bot Populi. This space is dedicated to looking at all things digital from a social justice and global South perspective. In partnership with the Just Net Coalition and five other organizations invested in a progressive politics of social and economic justice, Bot Populi has been conceptualized as a media space to foreground the missing global South perspective in the digital and data rights sphere.
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In 2018, we explored raising resources for the initiative and were able to bring together some funding to kick-start the project and assemble a part-time team at IT for Change to work on this. By January-February 2019, the project team developed a mock-up for the media space, outlining initial design and content elements, which was presented to the collaborating organizations and advisers at a side-meeting within the Just Net Coalition workshop program in March 2019. IT for Change will be working to formally launch Bot Populi in June 2019 in Tunis at the RightsCon summit.<\/span><\/p>

Writing and publications <\/span><\/strong><\/p>

Through academic research, writing and other inputs, IT for Change continued to make critical interventions in the areas of digital rights, democracy and communication for social change \u2013 deepening our connections with leading media and communication scholars in London School of Economics, University of Sydney and University of Cambridge. We were invited by Loughborough University to join a global network of scholar-activists working on the public sphere to propose new ways to think about emerging publics.
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We introduced the idea of \u201cinstitutional listening\u201d as a way of conceptualizing the new regimes of citizen rights needed to translate voice into the right to be heard in datafied democracy. The unique Southern perspective that IT for Change brings to the debate on digital rights has garnered much appreciation. In April 2018, Anita Gurumurthy was invited to speak at a public event organized by the University of Sydney, where she made a presentation on interrogating the digital rights debate from a Southern standpoint.\u00a0 Anita Gurumurthy was also invited to deliver a keynote at the Conference on Data justice organized by the Data Justice Lab, Cardiff University in May 2018, centred on the theme of exploring social justice in the age of datafication.<\/span><\/p>

We also made a lot of headway in terms of writing for peer reviewed journals and contributing to edited volumes. We\u00a0 authored a paper on Democracy and the Algorithmic Turn- Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward<\/a><\/span> for the July 2018 edition of the Sur International Journal of Human Rights, which outlined the ways in which democracy is being remade through datafication. This essay was translated into Spanish<\/a><\/span> and Portugese <\/a><\/span>as well.<\/p>

We also contributed a commentary on the political practice of empowerment in digital times from the Southern perspective, to a Routledge publication on Power, Empowerment and Social Change that is scheduled for release in late 2019. Additionally, we were selected to contribute to a forthcoming edited book by the University of Minnesota Press on the Global Debates in the Digital Humanities where\u00a0 we are constructing theory ground-up, bringing in insights from the work of our field centre in Mysuru with adolescent girls on intergenerational leadership and grassroots citizenship.<\/p>

Events (National)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

We have been invited to participate in key academic and research conferences at the national level by civil society think tanks and mainstream institutions. <\/span><\/p>