In the last two decades, Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) has brought out a variety of publications, including research, advocacy and impact-driven reports, books, papers, etc., related to technology and its impact on society, including misinformation, internet shutdowns, and the role of social media in people’s lives. The publications cover various aspects of digital empowerment and technology for social good, and advocate for policies and programmes that support digital inclusion. The publications by DEF, and those in collaboration with like-minded knowledge partners and think tanks have provided valuable insights and practical guidance on how technology can be made accessible, especially in rural India to facilitate the digital and financial inclusion of women, children, marginalized and unconnected communities. We carry below a list of some of the latest publications, which are a culmination of extensive fieldwork activities involving working with communities, especially in rural areas, to provide them with digital tools, skills, and resources. This includes setting up Community Information Resource Centres (CIRCs), providing digital training to individuals and groups, and promoting the use of digital technologies for social and economic empowerment.
Arpita Kanjilal
COVID-19—FOLLOWING THE MIGRANTS HOME: PLIGHTS, STRUGGLES AND ASPIRATIONS
By Abner Manzar
Centre for Development Policy and Practice with support from Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2022,
pp. 186, ` 599.00
COVID-19—Following the Migrants Home: Plights, Struggles and Aspirations captures the journey of 30 migrant labourers who were forced to return to their villages with the onset of the COVID pandemic. The author Abner Manzar documents their lives for a span of 14 days. As part of DEF’s effort to provide relief for these labourers on Haryana-Delhi highway, Abner was among those who set up camps, distributed food, water, and other essentials to these migrant workers on their way to their native villages. The major occupations of these labourers include tailoring, weaving, construction work, vegetable selling, etc., and their places of domicile spanned from Uttar Pradesh to Telangana. The book documents the overnight loss in livelihood that families underwent and the tremendous financial crisis the lockdown brought in the lives of such families. Opening our eyes to the plight of the migrants during the pandemic, Manzar, through personal interviews, points at the inhumanity of the employers and landlords who had rendered these workers homeless at the time of a global health and economic crisis.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/The-Migrants-Book.pdf
PRELUDE TO THE DIGITAL FUTURE: CREATING A DIGITAL IMPETUS FOR A ROBUST RURAL ECONOMY
Edited by Osama Manzar
Centre for Development Policy and Practice, 2022, pp. 134, ` 350.00
Prelude to the Digital Future: Creating a Digital Impetus for a Robust Rural Economy is a collection of essays edited by Osama Manzar highlighting the state of economic affairs in rural India. The book presents a case for digitizing these small trade practices in order to introduce small-scale traders to entrepreneurship. The essays are by 18 experts in the field who focus on questions like hindrances in the growth of entrepreneurship, and how to create a digital ecosystem according to the local sensibilities of the people. Furthermore, it offers practical ideas for the recovery of the rural economy post pandemic, and how to empower rural women entrepreneurs in the process. The edited volume offers insights into undoing the bane of not being connected that those rural economies in India suffer from.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Prelude-to-the-Digital-Future.pdf
DIGITAL LEAPFROGS: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS RESHAPING CONSUMER MARKETS IN INDIA
By Vijay Mahajan
HarperCollins India, 2022, pp. 288, ` 389.00
A part of the book titled Digital Leapfrogs: How Technology is Reshaping Consumer Markets in India delves into how Digital Empowerment Foundation’s joint effort with NOKIA to create smart cities helped deal with crisis moments in the pandemic. DEF’s digital intervention and research into consumer behaviour practices helped it to mitigate issues in sectors like education, healthcare, financing, livelihood, governance and entertainment. Starting from raising awareness about the pandemic to even providing reliable communication tools, this report summarizes it all.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Digital-LeapFrogs.pdf
#SOOCHNAPRENEURS: THE NEW AGE ENTREPRENEURS
By Malavika S
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2022, pp. 30, ` 250.00
#Soochnapreneurs: The New Age Entrepreneurs is a report documenting the journey of those women who have successfully been incorporated in DEF’s initiative of the same name. Published in 2022, this report explores the intention behind the initiative of Soochnapreneur, which is to empower women in rural areas in digital technology. The intention is two-fold: to make the said individual autonomous and also to enable her to help her community in bridging the digital gap. The report covers the stories of women from various places where DEF functions—Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, for example.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/SOOCHNAPRENEUR-STORIES.pdf
COMMUNITY RADIO IN INDIA: UNSUNG HEROES IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
By Ritu Srivastava
Jadeite Solutions Pvt. Ltd. & Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2021, pp. 81, Free to Download
Community Radio in India: Unsung Heroes in the Time of Covid-19 by Ritu Srivastava is a documentation of Community Radio (CR) services across far off regions in India during the pandemic. The report carries out a survey of CRs in North, East, West, Central parts of the country, interviews staff in the stations, and explores how these Radios were crucial in disseminating information to digitally unconnected regions, especially during the pandemic where the whole country was under the shackles of the digital divide. The report also documents the importance of these CRs in tackling fake news and spreading awareness about COVID-19 to the masses in local languages.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/report.pdf
EXISTING LANDSCAPE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT ONLINE: A SURVEY BY DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION
By Vidisha Lal & Anoushka Jha
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 27, Free to Download
Existing Landscape of Sexual Harassment Online: A Survey by Digital Empowerment Foundation was an online survey carried out with around 150 participants across four States. The survey aimed to find out the perception of bullying by regular internet users, how they had reacted to it, whether they had taken any legal steps in its prevention, how effective they were, and what solutions they had in mind to counter it.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Online-Bullying.pdf
ROTI KAPDA MAKAN YA INTERNET?
By Anoushka Jha
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 9, Free to Download
Roti Kapda Makan ya Internet? is a survey conducted by DEF in 2020. The survey was carried out in over 50 villages across four States where rural respondents ranked food, clothing, shelter, employment, mobile and internet respectively in their order of importance. This survey’s aim was to point out DEF’s work in rural areas to reduce the digital divide and bring internet access to marginalized and underserved people.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Roti-Kapda-Makan-Ya-Internet.pdf
GOAL: EVALUATION STUDY
—DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION’S GOING ONLINE AS LEADERS (GOAL)
By Soma Wadhwa & Devutty Retnakaran
India Development Foundation, 2020, pp. 25, Free to Download
GOAL: Evaluation Study, a research report, evaluates the findings of the survey on the GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation which aims to train mentees, tribal women, to become digitally and financially autonomous. The above reports the result of the same after women from rural and tribal communities were trained digitally for over a year in order to become digital leaders.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GOAL-Evaluation-Study.pdf
DIGITAL DIVIDE: INDIA INEQUALITY REPORT 2022
By Apoorva Mahendru, Mayurakshi Dutta & Pravas Ranjan Mishra
Oxfam India, 2022, pp. 66, Free to Download
Digital Divide is a brief report published in 2020 on the inaccessibility to ICT that looms in India currently. It links socio-economic inequality to digital divide and assesses the adverse consequences of it in sectors like education, health, and financial inclusion. Furthermore, it attempts to define what digital divide actually entails and what it means to privatize the technology sector.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2.-Digital-Divide-India-Inequality-Report-2022.pdf
BETWEEN RIGHTS AND RISKS: LIFE AND LIBERTY IN AN INTERNET DARK KASHMIR
By Safwat Zargar
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 34, Free to Download
Between Rights and Risks: Life and Liberty in an Internet Dark Kashmir authored by Safwat Zargar and published by DEF in 2020 talks about the Internet shutdown that took place in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 just before the Union Government scrapped the special status given to Kashmir by Article 370. The report goes on to talk about the aftermath of this act of the Government, the adverse effects it had on the entrepreneurial sector, healthcare, education fields and also the tourism sector. The report is a series of interviews of affected individuals and the author’s field observations too.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/kashmir-longest-internet-shutdown.pdf
BUILDING PARTICIPATORY INSTITUTIONS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY THROUGH ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN RURAL INDIA: LESSONS FROM DEF’S SOOCHNASEVA AND SOOCHNAPRENEUR MODEL
By Anulekha Nandi
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2019, pp. 19, Free to Download
Building Participatory Institutions for Public Service Delivery through Access to Information in Rural India talks about the various obstacles one faces in their access to social protection. The paper argues that structurally enabling eligible candidates for social protection is a long-term project and very time consuming. Taking the example of DEF’s initiatives at digital literacy in rural pockets of India, the author points out the importance of such immediate interventions through measures like Soochnapreneur to give rights to those eligible to receive government entitlements.
https://defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sustainability%20and%20Development%20Conference%20Paper%202019_%20Print%20%20.pdf
A LAST MILE ACCESS TO INFORMATION INITIATIVE: A GENDER ASSESSMENT OF WELFARE SCHEME SERVICE DELIVERY IN FIVE INDIAN STATES THROUGH SOOCHNAPRENEUR
By Aparna Priyadarshi
Digital Empowerment Foundation, pp. 91, Free to Download
A Last Mile Access to Information Initiative: A Gender Assessment of Welfare Scheme Service Delivery in Five Indian States through Soochnapreneur examines the gender dynamics in the service delivery by the DEF-initiated Soochnapreneur centre in rural areas. The study takes place in five States: Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Bihar. It conducts research on the most demanded public services by women in rural India and how far Soochnapreneurs have been able to cater to the demands in all the above-mentioned States.
https://defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/a-last-mile-access-to-information-initiative.pdf
SOCIAL MEDIA IN A NETWORKED WORLD
By Osama Manzar & Udita Chaturvedi
India International Centre, 2019, pp. 10, Free to Download
Social Media in a Networked World co-authored by Osama Manzar and Udita Chaturvedi is a case study of how inclusion of Digital Tools in Civil Society operations will enable it to have a wider and effective reach.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DEF-Chapter_Social-Media-in-a-Networked-World.pdf
DIGITISATION: BENEFITS AND COSTS OF DIGITISATION INTERVENTIONS IN RAJASTHAN
By Ritu Srivastava and Eshita Mukherjee
Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2018, pp. 47, Free to Download
Digitisation: Benefits and Costs of Digitisation Interventions in Rajasthan is a cost-benefit analysis report of connecting rural households to National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN). The report states that the expenditure incurred to connect all Gram Panchayats to Broadband Network is huge, yet the resultant benefits of the same make the effort and the expenses worth it.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Digitisation-in-Rajasthan.pdf
SOCIAL MEDIA, DISINFORMATION, AND DEMOCRACY IN ASIA: COUNTRY CASES—OCTOBER 2020
Asia Democracy Research Network (ADRN), 2020, pp. 292, Free to Download
Social Media, Disinformation, and Democracy in Asia: Country Cases—October 2020 is a report published by Asia Democracy Research Network (ADRN) for the year 2019-20. In this volume, Digital Empowerment Foundation has contributed the case study of India where disinformation is studied as a hindrance to democracy. The chapter explores the curious case of misinformation spread on social media platforms among netizens that is responsible for the lopsided media attention received by electoral parties in India.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Social-Media_ADRN_Sepcial-Report-Final-2.pdf
CHANDERIYAAN: WEAVING DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT INTO THE INDIAN HANDLOOM INDUSTRY
By Bishakha Majumdar, Sriparna Basu & Shilpi Jain
WDI Publishing, 2018, pp. 19, Free to Download
Chanderiyaan: Weaving Digital Empowerment into the Indian Handloom Industry is about the ‘Chanderiyaan’ initiative by Digital Empowerment Foundation. The essay explores the initial plan of the initiative to digitally empower the handloom sector of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh and goes on to talk about whether Chanderiyaan is ready to become a self-sustainable unit apart from DEF.https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/chanderiyaan-weaving-digital-empowerment-indian-handloom-industry-inspection_copy-1_NoCopy.pdf
COVID-19: THE NEW NORMAL—HOW TO SURVIVE A NEW WORLD ORDER
Edited by Dushyant & Osama Manzar
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 135, ` 300.00
COVID-19: The New Normal—How to Survive a New World Order contains insightful essays by 17 renowned authors about the acute transformation the world has undergone post the pandemic. The volume focuses on the shift to online media and the changes entailed in the lives of people at the individual as well as community or national level. Some authors in the volume explore questions about the effect of the pandemic on governance in general and electoral politics. Others ask about how this would create a crisis in the employment sector. There are more pressing questions as to how an overwhelming shift to digital technology would affect education at primary as well as higher levels. Going a step further, the volume also takes up case studies where online food delivery businesses had to acclimatize their services to the need of the hour. Case study of a Panchayat in Bihar is also presented here where the author points out the pitiable state of digital divide that this country underwent during the pandemic. Apart from this, the volume also highlights the shift in the meanings of sexual harassment at the workplace and human communication that became evident during the lockdown.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The-New-Normal-Full-Book-by-DEF.pdf
COVID-19: THE NEW NORMAL—HOW TO SURVIVE A NEW WORLD ORDER
Edited by Dushyant & Osama Manzar
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 135, ` 300.00
Digital Infrastructure Finance: Issues, Practices and Innovations is a case study published by G20 and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in 2022. Among other success stories, DEF has an acknowledgement to that effect where its initiative of Wireless for Communities or W4C has been mentioned as being crucial in facilitating wireless communication to erstwhile unconnected communities. As a result, these communities have been financially uplifted and economically included in the digital platforms giving a boost to their local businesses.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/G20-Compendium-DI-Financing-final-2.pdf
THE VALUE OF INTERNET OPENNESS IN TIMES OF CRISIS: OFFICIAL OUTCOME OF THE UN IGF COALITIONS ON NET NEUTRALITY AND COMMUNITY CONNECTIVITY
Edited by Luca Belli, Nikhil Pahwa and Osama Manzar
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 149, Free to Download
The Value of Internet Openness in Times of Crisis: Official Outcome of the UN IGF Coalitions on Net Neutrality and Community Connectivity is a collection of essays by various authors about the need to build sustainable open internet access all across the world in countries like South Africa, Latin America, India, and certain regions in France. The volume facilitates a rich exchange of strategies and reports from across the regions where such projects have been implemented or are currently underway. The volume would prove to be a huge help at the policy-making level to ensure fair access to internet in rural regions where the digital divide is stark.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/THE-VALUE-OF-INTERNET-OPENNESS-IN-TIMES-OF-CRISIS.pdf
DATA RIGHTS FOR COMMUNITIES
By Asheef Iqubbal
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 52, Free to Download
Data Rights for Communities is an information piece by Asheef Iqubbal published by DEF in 2020. The piece talks about how data is collected from the internet sites and used and what are the users’ rights associated with it. It talks about popular sites like Facebook, Paytm, Flipkart, Amazon, etc., to inform us about the various ways in which the users’ data get stored in each of these platforms which reflects in the kind of behaviour-appropriate suggestions we receive from these sites.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/data-rights-for-communities-algorithm-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-english.pdf
PROTESTS IN THE TIMES OF SOCIAL MEDIA: A CASE OF FARMERS’ AGITATION—
INSTRUMENTALISING SOCIAL MEDIA TO COUNTER POPULAR NARRATIVE
By Asheef Iqubbal & Sana Alam
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2021, pp. 45, Free to Download
Protests in the Times of Social Media: A Case of Farmers’ Agitation—Instrumentalising Social Media to Counter Popular Narrative is a study of the Farmers’ Agitation following the introduction of three new farm laws by the Government of India. The report, published in 2021, talks about the role of media in covering these protests which gradually grew from the local to the national level, in organizing offline as well as online rage, its initial obliteration of the issue, etc.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Farmers-Protests-Report.pdf
COWIN: AN EXCLUSIONARY VACCINATION PROCESS BY DESIGN?
By Sana Alam & Asheef Iqubaal
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2021, pp. 11, Free to Download
COWIN: An Exclusionary Vaccination Process by Design? is a fact-based opinion piece on the introduction of the COVID vaccine to millions of Indians through a digital portal, COWIN, when most of the country faces an acute digital divide.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Draft-3_COWIN-An-Exclusionary-Vaccination-Process-By-Design_7-July-2021.pdf
FOOD DELIVERY WORKERS IN INDIA: EMERGING ENTREPRENEURS OR INFORMAL LABOUR?
By Asheef Iqubbal
DEF COVID-19 Ground Report Series, Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2021, pp. 17, Free to Download
Food Delivery Workers in India: Emerging Entrepreneurs or Informal Labour? is a short research on Swiggy and Zomato food chain workers in the current informal economic setup in India. The report talks about the kind of risks involved in the job, the absence of any sort of social protection and problems workers face due to low wages and lack of incentives.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/swiggy-zomato-delivery-workers-india-entrepreneurs-labour.pdf
RIGHT TO KNOW: INDIA’S INTERNET AVANT GARDE
By Andrew Garton
Digital Empowerment Foundation with support from Australia India Institute, pp. 99, Free to Download
Right to Know: India’s Internet Avant Garde by Andrew Garton is a report on his observations about rural life in India and the severe digital divide he noticed while making the movie Ocean in a Drop. This report offers insights into the state of affairs when it comes to access to ICT in rural India and Digital Empowerment Foundation’s initiatives in the same direction and the challenges faced by the organization on field.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Right-to-Know.pdf
UNDERSTANDING INSTITUTIONAL AI (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE): SECTORAL CASE STUDIES FROM INDIA
By Anulekha Nandi
Digital Empowerment Foundation, 2020, pp. 44, Free to Download
Understanding Institutional AI: Sectoral Case Studies from India is a working paper by Anulekha Nandi that focuses on the state of AI in India and explores the uses of AI to varying degrees in the fields of education, health, and law enforcement.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AI_GNI_Framework_Report_22-June-2020.pdf
DIGITISATION: COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF DIGITISATION INTERVENTIONS IN ANDHRA PRADESH
By Ritu Srivastava & Eshita Mukherjee
Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2018, pp. 21, Free to Download
Digitisation: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Digitisation Interventions in Andhra Pradesh by Ritu Srivastava and Eshita Mukherjee is a cost-benefit analysis report of connecting rural households to National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN). The report states that the expenditure incurred to connect all Gram Panchayats to Broadband Network is huge, yet the resultant benefits of the same make the effort and the expenses worth it.
https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Digitisation-in-Andhra.pdf