From the Community Network Exchange to narratives from our Soochnapreneurs, this week was packed with events, launches and accolades. Here are some updates on this week's TypeRight:

This has been another packed and exhilarating week at our offices here. At the heart of our work at DEF is our mission to eradicate information poverty, bridge the digital divide, and bring internet connectivity to communities at the margins. The world may be slowly opening up after two hard-hit years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the impacts remain, and several of the pandemic time's ways seem to be here to stay. An already unequal field of digital access saw inequalities deepen as work and education took faster leaps to the digital.

Attempting to tackle these, we at DEF, along with several like-minded organisations and individuals across the world, turned to Community Networks.

What are community networks, and why are we so excited about them? We have already talked about it in detail in one of our previous chapters of TypeRight:

Chapter Twenty Five: Connectivity, Affordability, People and Policy- Say Hello to Community Networks for Rights

India is grappling with socio-economic exclusion stemming from the uncritical imposition of technology such Aadhar, biometric, and mobile number on marginalised communities. There is enough empirical evidence available in the public domain that shows Aadhar, a 12-digit unique ID card that has been mandated to access social welfare programmes, has been causing socio-economic distress for the underserved communities due to structural issues such as poor internet connectivity, unstable electricity supply, and limited access to information. COVID–19 has exacerbated this unequal access of information as it has forced the world to shift its operations to the digital space and widened the cracks of the inequitable society that makes up the marginalised people in neglected settings. 

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As our previous article explains, in a predominantly centralised internet distribution setup, community networks offer a decentralised means of telecommunications, built and operated by the people to bring the internet to areas otherwise lacking connectivity. The issue linked above has delved into detail on how CNs are viable, sustainable, and necessary for the state of connectivity in the country today. That issue also looked into DEF's Smartpur and Soochnapreneur projects, and how they are helping build connectivity.

This week's TypeRight will go forward from Chapter Twenty Five, which already explains what CNs are, and instead, this time will talk about the various projects being showcased in CNX 2022.

In each session, one or more practitioners from a Community Network (CN) site will be reporting from the ground. While they are reporting, they will engage people from the local community who would be giving a context of their locality, network infrastructure, their local usage needs and the impact. It will be the local community’s story told by the locals themselves.

This year's CNX is going to be spread across five online sessions over five months: on the 29th of June, July, August, September and October, taking into account the pandemic, travel restrictions and 'zoom fatigue'. You can find the detailed information in the flyer here.

One of the people walking the talk on CN is a refugee from Myanmar who has set up a CN in Manipur.

Another will be from Nuh, Haryana, a district trailing behind in social and developmental indices, showing how connectivity has enabled women there to overcome their difficulties:

Visit here for stories from the communities that were part of previous CNXs:

And register and stay tuned in for updates from Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Malawi, Myanmar, Manipur (NorthEast India), Tumkur (South India), Chirala (EastCoast India), Nuh (North India), Nepal, Pakistan and other parts of India.

Register here.

Other DEF Updates

From our DEF Dialogues with street performers, this latest conversation with Ishamudin Khan

From Artha Global's brownbag discussion on digital literacy and the future of the internet:

Along with Fourth Wave Foundation in India, and five other organisations across the US and Morocco, DEF is part of Aspen Institute's Digital Equity Accelerator cohort.

Another accolade, our Covid Digital Emergency Relief Program launched during the pandemic has won recognition at the United Nations' World Summit on Information Society.

These images from our Soochnapreneurs in Assam's Tea Garden on Environment Day.

Also, we are on RightsCon 2022, which is happening online this year. Join us for a community lab session on Unbridled AI powered systems in governance: experiences, insights, and shared confusions:

Through our project, we are mapping the instances of exclusions and biases in the AI-powered systems in India by interacting with three sets of stakeholders; the policymakers, the developers and the impacted communities. We are also attempting to identify the gaps at policy levels as well as at the design level to create better represented and inclusive AI-powered systems in governance. We would like to share some insights from this study, facilitate a session jointly with representatives of the impacted communities and civil society representatives, get feedback from the representatives from other digitising countries across the world and share patterns, confusion and suggestions.

This week in Hyderabad's Maulana Azad National Urdu University, DEF co-organised a conference on Gender and Inclusion, along with CDPP, Goonj and Safa.

Among other topics and events, a team of our Soochnapreneurs from different parts of the country joined in and shared their experiences, hurdles and achievements in setting up a digital centres in their village. All of them women, and mostly from marginalised communities, are now independent, earning, and serving up thousands of their community members every month by imparting digital literacy skills, computer training, and updates on government schemes on welfare.

"Everything has gone digital, and people in the village are not aware of the schemes, we have to tell them and most often also help them apply as well," says Sushma Kumari, from Jharkhand who runs two centres. Babita from Nuh, Haryana says, " I train a hundred women from my village, and there are several such women like me. Most of them had no prior access to even a mobile phone." Noori Khatun from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh remembers how she had to go house to house to try and convince families to get their daughters enrolled in the centre to learn digital skills. Many of them are now doing jobs in nearby cities working with computers, she says. Fauzia from Bihar runs a centre that works as an ISP building and managing networks in several villages around her, providing them with connectivity. They also train people from each village to maintain and manage these networks later.

You can watch the full session, Entrepreneurial Challenges: Solutions from Soochnapreneurs here: The stories that you will hear through the link below will mesmerise you about how digital adaptation among motivated village girls can impact large scale change.

In Other News

The earlier amendments to the IT rules has been withdrawn by the central government. They have sought new comments:

Here is a report from the Internet Freedom foundation on the IT Rules amendment:

In related news to IT rules, a panel has been formed to take decisions regarding social media content:

However, this editorial points out as to how that could not be a solution:

And meanwhile, people are still facing legal and police action for speech on social media.

A recent CAG performance audit of the UIDAI reveals concerning things:

Faulty Biometrics, Duplication, Errors: What CAG Audit Report Says About Aadhaar Regime

In its first-ever performance audit of the Aadhaar body, the national auditor touches upon five major issues that have dominated debates surrounding the unique identification programme.

thewire.in

Related, this press release came a week back warning people of misuses of Aadhaar:

Kerala's KFON project to bring connectivity to more people and address the digital divide has taken one step further:

Until we return next week with more updates and stories, catch up on Digital Footprints, our monthly newsletter, here:

Building a Resilient Tomorrow

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