Annual Report 2023-24 Banner Image

IT for Change
Annual Report

2023-2024

About the Organization

The Problem

Dominant approaches to digital technologies are steeped in ideologies of market fundamentalism and have displaced the cornerstone ethics of participation, social justice, and gender equality.

How We're Different

At IT for Change, we believe that progressive development sector actors must come together to influence the techno-social structures that are redefining our societies. We seek to build bridges across different sectors to strive towards a digital society that is equitable.

What We Do

Our work, straddling Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Tech and Digital Economy, the Digital Public Sphere, Feminist Digitality, Education and Technology, and more, pushes the boundaries of theory and practice to explore new horizons for development justice.

A Note from the Directors

In the digital realm change is a constant. The ebb and flow of the field demands alacrity in directions, agendas, and strategies. At IT for Change, we have attempted to make sense of, and respond with agility to, the ever-shifting frames of the digital, keeping alive the political project that is digital justice.

Even by the old normal that demanded careful attention to techno-social upheavals, both big and small, the past year marks a tectonic shift. For one, the tech discourse moved decisively into the space of public discourse. The racialized and gendered margins powering artificial intelligence (AI) value chains, the colossal energy footprint of Big Data, the dreadful hate churned out by algorithmic social media circuits, the near-impossible enormity of bridging inequities in digital cultural capital are now a part of public discourse. They are also at the center of policy preoccupations.

Our Impact

1

Crafting the Lexicon of Equity and Justice in the Digital Policy Discourse

Digital policy stands at a critical juncture as Big Tech's corporate dominance intensifies amid global crises and deepening social disparities. Through our work, we strive to shape agendas for digital policy discourse that serve the 99% by tackling historical inequalities, human rights abuses, ecological injustices, and the deterioration of pluralism in public discourse, focusing on perspectives from the Global South.

We believe it is essential to move beyond calls for corporate responsibility toward digital governance frameworks that center distributive justice and substantive equality. In the past year, we contributed to shaping a lexicon of social inclusion through discursive interventions that emphasized the state's duty to uphold the public right to participation and promoted a decolonial approach to data governance. We also advocated for public-led digital innovation and the recognition of technology as a public good, particularly in education.

A development agenda in the Global Digital Compact

Today, digital society is built on the failed principles of neoliberalism, which has undermined sustainable development, while benefiting Big Tech. In this context, as the UN prepares for the adoption of the Global Digital Compact (GDC), seeking a fair and sustainable digital society, we actively participated in all of its consultations, contributing our insights to ensure that the final text of the GDC reflects a post-neoliberal macroeconomic policy framework. In our advocacy, we urged the GDC to recognize states' rights to regulate cross-border data flows, ensure international public funding for digital infrastructure in the Global South, and establish global commitments to uphold labor and environmental rights.

Further, underscoring the need to safeguard rights, we engaged with an interim report released by the UN Secretary-General's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Advisory Body on governing AI for humanity. In our inputs, we recommended a rights-based approach towards AI governance, specifically one that seeks to address historical and contextual injustices.

Stepping up our efforts to build a digital society that benefits the people and the planet, we convened the Global Digital Justice Forum (GDJF), an international advocacy network that amplifies civil society voices from the margins. The GDJF has actively engaged in the consultation processes related to the Pact of the Future and the GDC, consistently advocating for a widely deliberated and inclusive process to evolve a binding human rights-based global digital constitutionalism that can serve the people and the planet. The work to deepen the impact of the GDJF is high on our priority list.

Emerging Southern voice in global digital cooperation

Throughout the year, we received appreciation and legitimacy from civil society and people-led movements in the Global South for our work, which is now being used widely by various actors for an alternative, people-led digitalization. We are being increasingly recognized as the ‘go-to’ organization by UN agencies and policymakers from different countries seeking forward-looking thinking on data and AI governance, and a pro-people perspective on the digital economy. This is further evidenced by our recent invitation from the Diplo Foundation and the UN Tech Envoy to lead training sessions for UN Permanent Mission representatives on the GDC and digital governance. We also conducted a similar training program for the Diplo Foundation.

Further, we made our presence felt at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2023, where among other engagements, we critically examined the GDC’s potential to address global governance gaps in digital cooperation. The event attracted the attention of the co-chairs of the GDC process, government representatives from Rwanda and Germany, as well as international organizations such as UNCTAD, UNESCO, and veterans from the IGF community.

 

A shift to democratic integrity in platform governance

This year we pushed the envelope of information integrity agendas in key forums, furthering our work on platform regulation. Platform capitalism has fundamentally transformed the conditions of public discourse. Reckoning with this reality, we developed insights and advocated for expanding the information integrity debate beyond platform responsibility. Our work addresses the structural obstacles to achieving communicative justice for all and fostering a vibrant and pluralistic public sphere.

One significant outcome of these efforts has been our engagement with the United Nations Department of Global Communications. We submitted recommendations during a consultation initiated by the UN body, and we are pleased to share that several of our suggestions have been incorporated into the first-ever UN Guiding Principles for Information Integrity. These recommendations address transparency, conflict of interest in state requests to platforms, internet shutdowns imposed on the public, responsibility of states to support public interest media, and obligation of platforms to promote an environment that encourages diverse and pluralistic discourse.

We are actively working to inform the information integrity agenda of the G20 under the Brazilian presidency. As part of our involvement with the T20, the think tank engagement group for the G20, we served as co-chair of Sub-Track 5 within the Task Force on Inclusive Digital Transformation. We submitted policy briefs on various topics, including the governance of computational resources, social media regulation, and the pitfalls of a techno-deterministic approach to digitization. Our inputs were incorporated into the final statement developed by the Inclusive Digital Transformation Task Force, which helped shape the Think20 Brasil Communiqué for G20 leaders in 2024.

As the battles over platform governance intensify, our effort to defend the democratic public sphere will need to be as vigorous as well-researched.

The ABC of decolonial data governance

As part of our advocacy for decolonial principles of data governance that prioritize distributive justice and resource sovereignty, we provided inputs that informed sections of UNCTAD’s Issue Paper on Data for Development. Our inputs addressed the neocolonial dynamics of the data economy, which exacerbate the Global South's dependency on Big Tech and the Global North. We examined critical issues such as unequal access to digital resources; infrastructure and misinformation challenges; the role of the data economy in the green transition; data ethics; inadequate legal frameworks, and the impact of social media on democracy. In our inputs, we emphasized the importance of a Global South perspective, advocating for frameworks that address the political, economic, and ecological implications of digitalization while prioritizing human rights and ecological considerations. Getting a foot in the door to shape UNCTAD’s report was an important opportunity, one that comes at a time when international frameworks on the digital economy are gathering momentum. UNCTAD remains a critical space for our collaboration and advocacy.

Public digital innovation as core to the SDGs

The dominant innovation model driven by venture capital primarily serves the interests of Big Tech. Through our work, we argued for a fundamental rethink on digital innovation, advocating for a transition towards publicly accessible digital innovation ecosystems. To fully leverage science, technology, and innovation (STI) in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we need new public financing methods and more flexible international Intellectual property (IP) rules. Relying only on public-private partnerships and market-driven tech transfers is not enough; we must focus on developing key digital infrastructures in developing countries to accelerate SDG progress.

As members of the UN 10-Member Group of High-Level Representatives supporting the UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism, we raised concerns about Big Tech in our contributions to a key report that informed the UN STI Forum in 2023. The report offers recommendations directed at the UN Secretary-General, member states, and stakeholders to enhance the role of science, technology, and innovation in sustainable development for current and future generations, including the creation of innovation capabilities in the South to use and develop AI.

The ideology of public innovation needs to be mainstreamed with systematic effort in the coming years.

EdTech as a public good

In response to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Karnataka established the State Education Policy Commission (SEPC) to develop its education policy. Our contributions to six of the 11 task forces of the Commission underscored the importance of viewing technology as a public good, especially in the educational realm, that facilitates access and participation for all.

Public education is fundamental to establishing a just and equitable school system, and 'public EdTech' is equally critical for advancing educational equity and accessibility. Through our work, we advocated for free and open technologies in EdTech, including both software and content, while emphasizing the necessity for teachers and schools to retain ownership and agency over the digital tools and platforms they utilize.

Beyond state-level collaboration, our partnership with the University of Calicut allowed us to extend our reach nationally. We organized workshops for higher education faculty to deepen their critical understanding of the pitfalls associated with the platformization of education, a trend that exacerbates inequity and undermines autonomy within the education system. Over the past year, we engaged with more than 500 faculty members across India, highlighting the challenges posed by this trend and advocating for 'public EdTech' as a viable alternative.

In the era of large-scale privatization of education, the uphill task of centering public EdTech becomes a vital area of work.

2

Building the Right to Digital Infrastructure — Byte by Byte

The Silicon Valley adage, 'move fast and break things' has influenced the mindset of those shaping our digital economy and society, where innovation often hinges on reckless experimentation and profit-driven motives. This approach neglects the need for responsible and inclusive innovation pertinent to the majority. Through our efforts, we not only challenged the dominant paradigm but also advocated for alternative imaginings of the digital transition that prioritize democratic and accountable digital public infrastructures, built with a commons approach and grounded in public interest. We advanced this vision by fostering communities of practice through various means, including our landmark 'Roots of Resilience' conference on the platform cooperatives movement. We also undertook participatory action research, employing co-design approaches to develop bottom-up digital infrastructures with field partners, also collaborating actively with public education systems.

A democratic and accountable digital public infrastructure model

This year we expanded our initiatives on digital public infrastructures (DPI), placing a strong emphasis on gender equality and distributive justice. Our understanding of DPI draws from the United Nations Development Program’s evolving definition, which characterizes it as a network of open technology standards serving the public interest. In this context, we launched a new project with the University of Western Australia. The project connects ongoing debates in traditional sectors, like healthcare and agriculture, with the emerging challenges of digital transformation, emphasizing the importance of digital interventions as tools that can benefit people.

In parallel, we published a paper titled, ‘Gender by Design: Principles for Gender-responsive Public Digital Infrastructure’. The paper examines the National Rural Livelihoods Mission and outlines the principles for thinking ‘gender by design’ in both the development and implementation of DPIs, and offers a set of pathways toward maximizing gender justice outcomes in public service delivery.

At the national level, we worked with academics and civil society groups to co-author a T20 policy brief on DPI governance, grounded in participatory governance, democratic principles, rights, and strong legal frameworks. Our contribution significantly influenced the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, which underscored the importance of “safe, secure, trusted, accountable, and inclusive digital public infrastructure.” This marked a major step toward global recognition for a just vision of technological transformation.

Integrating commons and public infrastructure for greater impact

Our work on public infrastructures has been significantly influenced by a meaningful engagement with the concept of the digital commons. One of the year's standout moments was our international conference, ‘Roots of Resilience - Building Platform Cooperatives for Sustainable and Feminist Local Economies.’ This exciting event was organized as part of our EU-funded project, 'Re-wiring India's Digitalising Economy for Women's Rights and Well-being,' and was held in collaboration with the Kerala Digital and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

The conference was a tremendous success bringing together over 150 diverse civil society organizations, academics, researchers, engineers, policymakers, and designers from across the world to explore alternative worker-led and cooperative-based digital innovation pathways.

In the lead-up to the conference, we hosted two pre-conference events, around the themes of ‘The Digital Opportunity for Collective Futures’ and ‘Co-op Tech and the Digital Commons.’ These events helped shape critical discussions for the conference, focusing on the need to define digital platform models that prioritize data commons, shared ownership, and democratic governance.

From the learnings of the conference emerged the Thiruvananthapuram Declaration on a New Innovation Ecosystem for Our Collective Digital Futures, a powerful manifesto for a new digital economy model. It outlines a five-point agenda aimed at achieving our shared goal of a just, inclusive, and equitable digital future. The Declaration’s success paralleled that of the conference, as it was endorsed by 60+ institutions and individuals from across the world. The Declaration has been translated into 11 Indian and foreign languages and has been downloaded 400+ times from our website.

Further, we partnered with Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) to co-organize Freedom Fest 2023, a four-day event celebrating free, open, and public software. As part of the event, we co-organized the ‘Digital Education Enclave 2023,’ which saw participation from 10 state-level education departments and pioneering EdTech programs. Raising awareness about these programs will be a key focus for us in the coming year.

The right digital infrastructure for inclusive education

Language learning serves as a crucial foundation for all learning. Effective language acquisition requires immersion in a language-rich environment that includes diverse resources, extending beyond traditional textbooks. However, such immersive opportunities are often limited in most schools. Additionally, conventional language instruction tends to prioritize reading and writing over listening and speaking, resulting in inadequate language skills among students. Consequently, many struggle with fundamental tasks, such as retelling a story.

To address these challenges, we initiated the Kathe Khajane Program in partnership with the Karnataka Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT). The program aims to enhance language learning through digital-enabled storytelling. The program is groundbreaking as it focuses on audio-only stories emphasizing listening (and speaking). The program was also successfully institutionalized within the state education system, through enabling government school teachers in audio production and storytelling. More than 200 high-quality audio stories were produced by teachers in Kannada, English, Urdu, and Marathi as a result of our workshops. The program marks a paradigm shift, moving teachers from being mere consumers of technology, to becoming creators.

The audio stories were created with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools and published as Open Educational Resources (OER), ensuring broad access and reducing reliance on proprietary software. Upholding the 'public software for public systems' principle, the stories were also made available to teachers via an offline-capable FOSS podcast app.

Today, the education system is transitioning from blackboards to audio-visual technologies. As children are increasingly accustomed to technology, it's crucial for teachers to stay updated. This program has been highly beneficial in that regard.

Arun Kumar, Assistant Teacher, Belagavi.

Tune in here to watch what other teachers had to say about the program.

For the people, of the people: Bottom-up digital infrastructure

In furthering our commitment to empowering women in the digital economy, we collaborated with our field partners — SEWA, Vrutti, and LabourNet — to conduct participatory action research focused on developing alternative platform models. We envision these models as co-designed with the constituencies our partners serve, firmly rooted in the socio-economic, digital, and political contexts in which they operate. Throughout the year, we undertook multiple rounds of fieldwork at each of our partner sites in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

With SEWA, we developed a techno-institutional blueprint for a sustainable, federated data cooperative, focused on women farmers' rights and interests. We applied this model to analyze SEWA’s digitalization efforts in Kheda and Tapi districts in Gujarat, exploring the challenges and potential of platforms addressing the diverse realities of farmer cooperatives. This evolving understanding has inspired SEWA to pursue new digital initiatives tailored to its members' specific needs and skills.

With Vrutti, we spent five months conducting ethnographic research to develop a framework for sustainable livelihoods in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu. This led to a two-day workshop where stakeholders — including frontline workers, designers, software engineers, and implementation teams — collaborated to refine Vrutti’s digital system and create a fair, financially sustainable path for its farmer-producer companies.

At LabourNet’s Bengaluru sites, we conducted the first round of a longitudinal survey to understand women’s aspirations in the beauty sector and inform our analysis of a fair gig work ecosystem. Our baseline study drew out crucial insights into women's enthusiasm for using digital apps for work, their struggles with balancing paid and domestic responsibilities, and their concerns about personal data and work conditions. We also continued collaborating with LabourNet to develop an inclusive digital gig ecosystem, including regular consultations to refine their digital app.

3

Nurturing a Feminist Digital Praxis

There is an urgent need to recenter feminist principles of equity, inclusivity, and social justice as we forge a path toward a fair, democratic, and transparent digital society. Throughout the year our efforts focused on embedding these principles within digital and legal frameworks to address gender unfreedoms and systemic inequities. We engaged with key global debates to shape policies addressing online gender unfreedoms and advancing critical feminist perspectives on the digital economy.

Zero tolerance to gender unfreedoms online

This year we stepped up our efforts to address gender inequities online, particularly focusing on tackling the persistent challenges faced by women and gender minorities in digital spaces. Our engagement with the UN Human Rights B-Tech project was a critical part of this work, as we advocated for technology companies to adopt gender-responsive due diligence practices. Grounded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we emphasized the need for businesses to address the specific risks that digital technologies pose to gender equity and freedom.

We also built a vital line of engagement with the Coalition Against Online Violence. Together with global partners, we created a working group on platform regulation and accountability and pushed for more effective solutions to reduce online abuse, which disproportionately targets women and gender minorities.

In another significant effort, we shared our inputs with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on online hate speech. We highlighted the compounded impact of online hate speech on women and gender minorities, advocating for more accountable and inclusive digital frameworks to protect those most vulnerable. We are happy to share that our inputs provided valuable insights for the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on contemporary forms of racism, with a specific focus on online hate speech, for the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. We remain deeply committed to carrying this work forward.

Survivor-centered approaches in the courtroom

In November 2023, we hosted one of our key events of the year in New Delhi, where we released our research report and a judicial resource guide addressing online gender-based violence (OGBV). Judicial attitudes toward OGBV are a key measure of access to justice for survivors and indicate whether those navigating complex legal procedures feel respected and heard.

Our research report offers a detailed analysis of how OGBV cases are treated in Indian courts, highlighting gaps and recommending improvements. It underscores the necessity for courts to acknowledge the severity of OGBV, enhance victim privacy protections, and hold online platforms accountable for their role in such incidents. The report's findings garnered extensive coverage by national news agencies, effectively igniting discussions on essential legal reforms and establishing a solid foundation for future advocacy and policy change.

Meanwhile, our judicial resource guide equips judges and lawyers with crucial frameworks for implementing gender-sensitive practices in legal proceedings. By providing in-depth case studies, legal typologies, and rights-based solutions, it aims to move the judicial system towards more survivor-focused approaches, enhancing the legal community's ability to handle such cases effectively.

Our report and resource guide were very well-received by judges and the legal community at large. We are also collaborating with the Delhi Judicial Academy to share our learnings from our study, marking a significant step forward in addressing OGBV through enhanced judicial understanding and practice.

Feminist visions of AI

As frontier technology evolves rapidly, throwing up significant ethical concerns, we firmly advocated for integrating feminist and human rights principles into AI governance frameworks. This approach is crucial for ensuring that the benefits of AI are distributed inclusively and equitably. We got a chance to highlight this perspective at Decidim Fest 2023 in Spain, where we engaged in a panel examining AI and data governance through feminist and decolonial lenses, spotlighting the advocacy of feminist organizations from the Global South working with impacted communities.

Building on this, we contributed to a High-Level Symposium to provide our inputs on a UNESCO report on ‘Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.’ This is the first global normative instrument to lay the ethical foundations for AI systems, and in our contribution, we highlighted the need for a feminist and human rights approach to AI governance.

Additionally, continuing our engagement with UNESCO to collaborate on AI policymaking, we took part in various international panel discussions to explore how NGOs can aid in the collaborative implementation of AI ethics and governance. In these discussions, we also addressed gaps in mainstream AI ethics discourse and advocated for moving beyond rhetoric and techno-solutionism to tackle the socioeconomic inequalities exacerbated by AI. The societal-scale assimilation of AI will need vigilance and continuous inquiry for us to stay ahead of the curve on AI policymaking.

School of Feminist Digital Justice

For the September 2023 edition of the School of Feminist Digital Justice, we collaborated with our close ally, DAWN, as part of their School of Feminist Economics to analyze the current global expansion of extractivist capitalism, data-driven economies, and the rise of digital platforms. This edition of the School featured a combination of in-person classes, synchronous discussions via Zoom, email exchanges, and pre-recorded sessions.

Established in 2018, the School of Feminist Economics serves as a dedicated training space that investigates how economic dynamics and digital mechanisms perpetuate inequalities. The School aims to cultivate critical reflections on issues such as global financial capitalism, corporate capture, digital economics, public policy financing, the future of work, and experiences of resistance, all from a feminist economics perspective.

Feminist futures: Empowering girls, the Kishori Club way

 

This year, as part of our Hosa Hejje Hosa Dishe (H2HD) project, we expanded our Kishori Club program to 150 schools across two districts in Karnataka. Kishori Clubs, led by female teachers in government schools, are designed to be safe spaces for adolescent girls. The curriculum, shaped by a feminist perspective, promotes self-determination and agency among the clubs’ participants. Covering topics like gender, patriarchy, health, body image, Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), and cyber safety, the modules equip girls with essential skills to navigate adolescence. Teachers in these 150 schools are key contributors, shaping the program through co-creation workshops. Their insights and discussions enrich the curriculum, fostering mutual accountability toward adolescent empowerment.

We tracked the impact of the Kishori Clubs over the year by analyzing teachers' reports and audio recordings of the girls' feedback. The findings of our endline study (forthcoming) are encouraging as they reveal the girls' evolving perspectives on the issues that were addressed.

Further, our Nan Voice Nan Choice (my voice, my choice) podcast showcases the girls' bold and candid voices, addressing questions that range from the everyday, like “Can I eat eggs while menstruating?” to more complex ones, such as “Why does patriarchy still exist in society?” Their fearless opinions on these issues shine throughout our podcast episodes.

4

Forging coalitions, sustaining communities

In an era where local issues are intricately connected to global digital realities, fostering connections between grassroots efforts and worldwide movements is essential. Addressing complex challenges such as digital justice, workers’ rights, and gender equality demands a cohesive strategy that integrates initiatives across various levels of engagement. As the Secretariat for the Global Digital Justice Forum, we amplified marginalized voices, actively shaping agendas for equitable digital futures. Through strategic collaborations and policy interventions, we advocated for progressive workers' rights, influencing regulations in India and contributing to international dialogues on the digital economy. Concurrently, we strengthened grassroots partnerships through initiatives like Kishori Adda and Kishori Media Champions, providing a feminist counter-narrative in the digital space for adolescent girls and cultivating a vibrant community that addresses cyber safety and gender stereotypes.

A global coalition on digital justice

We are pleased to report significant progress in the Global Digital Justice Forum, for which we serve as the Secretariat. Since its inception, the Forum has expanded its membership and played a crucial role in advancing a people- and planet-centered digital justice agenda on the global stage. It has become a vital platform for unifying progressive civil society efforts and strengthening civil society participation in global digital governance.

The Forum emerged from a civil society strategy meeting that IT for Change, along with Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the Third World Network (TWN), convened in Penang, Malaysia, in March 2024. This gathering brought together diverse stakeholders committed to tackling the pressing challenges of the digital landscape, and the Forum was envisioned as a space for coordinated, multi-scalar actions to advance digital justice for the Global South, with a focus on key processes such as the 2024 Summit of the Future, the GDC, and the WSIS+20 Review.

Since its formation, the Forum has actively engaged in discussions on the implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) commitments and has addressed emerging challenges in the digital economy, such as corporate consolidation, precarious labor, and the growing digital infrastructure divide. Through ongoing dialogue and strategic contributions, the Forum has influenced key global policy processes, including the Joint Questionnaire for the CSTD’s 20-Year Review of WSIS Implementation and the structural elements of the GDC. These interventions have raised awareness on critical issues like digital monopolies, online violence, and the unsustainability of current digital models while advocating for inclusive, forward-looking priorities.

Solidarity with platform workers

We are pleased to share that our efforts to advance workers’ rights through strategic collaborations and influential interventions have reaped rich rewards both at national and international levels.

We collaborated with the National Law University of India to organize a roundtable on ‘Ensuring Algorithmic Accountability in the Platform Workplace.’ The roundtable gathered scholars, trade union representatives, lawyers, and civil society organizations from India and abroad to develop an effective legal framework for protecting workers’ rights under algorithmic management on digital labor platforms. Importantly, it provided us with an opportunity to influence sub-national governments, including the government of Karnataka, working on state-specific regulations to protect workers in the food delivery and ride-hailing sectors.

To delve into understanding workers’ data rights better, we co-organized a successful one-day dialogue in Brussels this year, with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, titled ‘Worker Data Rights in the Digital Economy.’ The event witnessed the participation of around 30 experts from the EU policy community, trade unions, civil society, and digital rights researchers. We plan to leverage the insights gained from the event to share perspectives with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and build alliances with trade unions to advance workers’ rights worldwide.

We also engaged with representatives from the Government of the Netherlands in The Hague to discuss the concept of ‘Right Digitalization.’ Officials from the departments of Trade, Supply Chains, and others requested a session on data governance, highlighting the growing recognition of our expertise in this area.

We have been strategically shaping digital policies across India through impactful interventions. For instance, we contributed to the public consultation on the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers Bill, which has since become law. Our submission emphasized the importance of prioritizing workers’ rights, advocating for universal social security and access to transaction data to enable meaningful worker-platform engagement.

Kishori media champions: Girls lead the way

In rural India, women and girls face marginalization not only in the socio-political sphere but also in the digital realm. Prakriye, our field center in Mysuru, has developed innovative techno-social strategies to address this digital divide. This year, we launched the Kishori Media Champions program, piloting it in two villages.

The program equips adolescent girls (Kishoris) with media and digital skills while raising awareness on key issues like gender, patriarchy, health, nutrition, rights, and future aspirations. We engaged with Kishoris from Doddahejjuru and Kalihundy villages, creating safe spaces for discussion. Recognizing that mobility is often restricted by societal norms and caste lines, we designed assignments that encouraged the girls to explore their villages, interact with community leaders, and document their experiences through photography. Our Namma Maathu forums of women’s collectives were instrumental to the program’s success. The support and the trust we have built with these communities over time were crucial to the program's implementation.

The projects undertaken by the girls exemplify their agency and initiative. A group from Doddahejjuru created a film addressing the issue of child marriage, conducting interviews with a teacher to shed light on its risks, while another group documented the history of their village school. In Kalihundy, the girls utilized the Kishori Media Champions platform to capture the essence of a local festival and advocate for improved bus services.

The Kishori Media Champions program has effectively mobilized adolescent girls, bringing them together for training and equipping them with skills to advocate for their education. The girls have found a powerful voice to share their own stories.

Building an online community for adolescent girls: Kishori Adda

The online world offers adolescent girls new freedoms, from accessing information to connecting with friends by creating, ‘liking,’ and sharing content. However, it also reinforces negative body image issues. Kishori Adda, our Instagram handle, was designed as a digital hangout for adolescent girls, to leverage the excitement of social media and create a counter-narrative to commonly found social media negativity.

Building Kishori Adda as a vibrant digital community was challenging, as social media favors popular content regardless of its nature. Through experimentation, we developed a strategy that challenges stereotypes while using engaging tools like viral trends, popular music, bold colors, polls, quizzes, and campaigns; allowing us to stay true to feminist principles while creating content that engages our young audience.

Our content resonates with adolescent girls, addressing topics such as cyber safety, technology, gender stereotypes, health, nutrition, feminist history, and career aspirations. We are pleased to share that Kishori Adda now has 470+ followers, has launched campaigns on equality and patriarchy, and has garnered over 149,000 impressions in the past year.

Event Highlights

Throughout the year, we were involved in key global policy events, convened critical roundtables and conferences, and participated in international forums to contribute key messages on digital justice in its many forms. Here are some highlights:

Read and endorse the Thiruvananthapuram Declaration here.

Roots of Resilience - Building Platform Cooperatives for Sustainable and Feminist Local Economies

30 November - 2 December 2023

To explore the potential of platform cooperatives in promoting feminist futures, climate justice, and sustainable agriculture, we co-organized an international conference in Thiruvananthapuram, India. Platform cooperatives are democratically owned and governed digital platforms that provide a means for individuals and communities to cooperatively own and manage digital services. The conference examined how these models can be leveraged to empower local collectives, self-help groups, producer organizations, worker collectives, etc. The conference was an astounding success, which witnessed the participation of 150+ practitioners, activists, academics, engineers, and designers from 13 countries! A highlight of the conference was the unveiling of the Thiruvananthapuram Declaration - A New Innovation Ecosystem for our Collective Digital Future.

Read a paper based on the discussions during the roundtable here.

Roundtable on Reframing AI Governance through a Political Economy Lens

28 June 2023

In collaboration with the Transnational Institute, we co-organized a one-day hybrid roundtable in Amsterdam to examine the building blocks of a transformative approach to AI governance. The event brought together an interdisciplinary community spanning academia, civil society, policymakers, and development theorists to unpack the political economy considerations in AI governance and discuss new institutional arrangements to advance AI as a catalyst of generative and accountable economies and societies.

Watch the recording of the event here.

Internet Governance Forum 2023

8-12 October 2023

Our proactive engagement at UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2023 became a cornerstone of impactful policy influence. By strategically co-organizing two high-impact sessions and actively participating in key events in Kyoto, we worked alongside influential stakeholders to promote in-depth discussions on essential policy issues, including digital justice, governance frameworks, and transnational activism. The highlight of our engagement was the Day ‘0’ pre-event we co-organized, titled ‘A Global Compact for Digital Justice: Southern Perspectives.’ The event aimed to craft a Global Digital Compact (GDC) championing digital justice, particularly in the majority world. The event was well received and attracted co-chairs of the GDC process, government officials from Rwanda and Germany, as well as international organizations such as UNCTAD, UNESCO, and veterans from the IGF community.

Engage with the guide here and view the report here.

Forging a Survivor-centric Approach to Online Gender-based Violence

4 November 2023

Showcasing our impactful work on online gender-based violence (OGBV), we hosted a launch event in Delhi, to release two key outputs: a research report and a judicial resource guide. The guide aims to transform institutional perspectives on OGBV by providing frameworks for judges and lawyers to adopt gender-sensitive approaches, offering training modules for the legal community, and contributing to judicial training curricula. Meanwhile, the report presents our findings from a study analyzing OGBV cases adjudicated in Indian courts, highlighting the need to address the trivialization of OGBV in courtrooms.

From WSIS to Now: What Next for Digital Justice?

3-5 March 2024

Recognizing the imperative for civil society to critically assess its interventions and recalibrate strategies to effectively counter the trajectories of digital injustice, we co-convened a civil society strategy meeting in Penang, Malaysia. The meeting aimed to forge alliances among different civil society networks to have a broader canopy – a meta alliance of alliances – in preparation for the Global Digital Compact process and WSIS+20 Review. This effort successfully culminated in the establishment of the Global Digital Justice Forum, an international advocacy network that amplifies civil society voices from the margins and fosters dialogue and coordination among diverse stakeholders.

Watch the recording of the session here.

Freedom Fest 2023

12-15 August 2023

We partnered with Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) to participate in Freedom Fest 2023, a four-day celebration of free and open-source digital technologies. As part of the event, we co-organized the ‘Digital Education Enclave’, where pioneering EdTech programs developed in Kerala were showcased. Representatives from as many as 10 state-level education departments participated in the event. Building on our work in this theme, we plan to create awareness of these EdTech programs and their underlying principles across the country.

Collaboration Footprint

We have worked alongside, and are associated with 100+ CSOs, academic institutions, union federations, private-sector entities, and government and multilateral bodies across the globe. Here is a glance at our list of collaborations for the year:

Networks

We also anchor, and are closely involved with various policy, advocacy, and research networks on global digital justice issues. Here is a glance at the key networks we are part of:

APRCEM South Asia Working Group

Campaign of Campaigns

Data Governance Network

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era

EdTech Watch

Fair Green and Global Alliance

Gender and Trade Coalition

Global Digital Justice Forum

Global Policy Forum

Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

Global Trade Justice Network

Joint Action Committee Against Foreign Retail and E-commerce

Just Net Coalition

Make Amazon Pay

National Coalition on Education Emergency

OECD Watch

Our World Is Not For Sale

People’s Working Group on Multistakeholderism

Platform Cooperativism Consortium

Platform Governance Research Network

Right Digitalisation Network

RTE Forum

Transform Health Coalition

Projects & Publications

Throughout the year, we were involved in key global policy events, convened critical roundtables and conferences, and participated in international forums to contribute key messages on digital justice in its many forms. Here are some highlights:

The Essential IT for Change Resource List: 2023-24

RESEARCH OUTPUTS

Centring Rights in the Platform Workplace. Shreeja Sen, Sreyan Chatterjee, Sonakshi Agarwal, and Amoha Sharma.

Creating Sustainable Data Cooperatives in the Global South: Frameworks for Institutional Support. Ranjitha Kumar, Viraj Samir Desai, and Natasha Susan Koshy.

Forging a Survivor-Centric Approach to Online Gender-based Violence. IT for Change.

The Judiciary's Tryst with Online Gender-based Violence: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Cases and Prevalent Judicial Attitudes. Malavika Rajkumar and Shreeja Sen.

Study of the 'Little KITEs' Program Implemented by Kerala. IT for Change.

ADVOCACY STATEMENTS

The Thiruvananthapuram Declaration on a New Innovation Ecosystem for Our Collective Digital Futures. IT for Change, Platform Cooperativism Consortium, and Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council.

POLICY BRIEFS

Gendering the G20 Information Integrity Agenda. Merrin Muhammed Ashraf, Malavika Rajkumar, and Julia Powles.

Inputs to the Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023. IT for Change

IT for Change's Inputs to OHCHR on Online Hate Speech. Anita Gurumurthy, Malavika Rajkumar, and Merrin Muhammed Ashraf.

Input to the UN Human Rights B-Tech Project. Malavika Rajkumar, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf, and Anita Gurumurthy.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Justice in the Post-public Sphere: The New Challenge for Global Communication Governance. In Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series. Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami.

A Gender-transformative Digital New Deal. In Bridging Divides, Dismantling Power Structures! Linking Feminist Development Policy and Digital Transformation. Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami.

MEDIA ARTICLES

How Theatre Techniques Can Help Students Learn in The Hindu. Reha Sharma and Jobin M. Kanjirakkat.

Mother Tongue First in Deccan Herald. Gurumurthy Kasinathan.

Rights Concerns Ignored in Data Law in Deccan Herald. Sreyan Chatterjee and Shreeja Sen.

Tackling Sexism in Schools and Colleges in Deccan Herald. Gurumurthy Kasinathan and Anusha Hegde.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

The Digital Economy is Broken but it’s Not Too Late in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Anita Gurumurthy.

FROM THE DATASYN VAULT

Creative Platform Workers in South Korea Face a Unique Catch-22 in Bot Populi. Ahlem Faraoun.

Towards Fairer Horizons: Cooperativist Solutions to Tackle Platform Capitalism in Bot Populi. Viraj Desai.

What’s Public about India’s Digital Public Infrastructures? in Bot Populi. Eshani Vaidya.

PODCASTS

On Digital Citizenship in the Learning Matters Podcast. Marzia Ibrahim.

Nan Voice Nan Choice. Hosa Hejje Hosa Dishe, IT for Change.

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Girls Adda Video Series. Hosa Hejje Hosa Dishe, IT for Change.

Interview with Dr. Sylivia Karpagam on Understanding Food Groups and their Role in Nurturing Kishoris. Hosa Hejje Hosa Dishe, IT for Change.

Interview with Chandani Zinath Begum on Her Journey Towards Empowerment and Agency. Hosa Hejje Hosa Dishe, IT for Change.

Interview with Poorna Ravishankar on Understanding the Democratic Values of the Indian Constitution. Hosa Hejje Hosa Dishe, IT for Change.

Kishori Club Resource Repository. IT for Change.

Massive Open Online Course for Kishoris. Hosa Hejje Hosa Dishe, IT for Change.

Financial Statements

 

BALANCE SHEET AS ON 31 MARCH 2024

All amounts are in INR (rounded)

2022-23 Liabilities 2023-24 % of total 2022-23 Assets 2023-24 % of total
39,447,696 Organisation Stabilisation Fund 50,342,308 30 2,661,069 Fixed Assets 2,118,207 1
270,000 Corpus Donation 579,203 0 175,461,357 Current Assets, Loans and Advances 165,729,804 98.0
26,491,576 General Fund 31,985,424 19 795,428 Receivables 1,166,256 1
2,661,069 Asset Fund 2,406,320 1
103,719,163 Advance Account 77,166,159 46
6,328,350 Sundry Payables 6,534,851 4
178,917,854 Total 169,014,266 100 178,917,854 Total 169,014,266 100

 

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

All amounts are in INR (rounded)

2022-23 Expenditure 2023-24 % of total 2022-23 Income 2023-24 % of total
44,152,997 Personnel Costs 48,990,734 61 64,647,410 Funds Received 67,428,185 84
15,501,548 Operating Costs 14,207,475 18 5,385,875 Interest on Term Deposit & Savings Bank Account 10,253,208 13
4,397,514 Administration Costs 5,046,625 6 1,167,378 Income to the extent of Depreciation transferred from Asset fund 971,095 1
1,167,378 Depreciation 971,095 1 0 Withdrawal from Asset Fund 10,600 0
4,811,231 Excess of Income over Expenditure 5,503,841 7 15,975 Donation 153,026 0
4,811,231 Appropriation towards Organizational Expenses 5,503,841 7 3,559,509 Professional Fee and Other Income 14,07,498 2
65,752 Interest on IT Refund 0 0
74,841,899 Total 80,223,612 100 74,841,899 Total 80,223,612 100