“My brother thought I was making a children’s diaper” said Shreemati Devi, a digital entrepreneur involved in the production of Smartpads. Smartpad is a re-usable sanitary pad. As Shreemati explained the benefits of using it a group of young boys stood around us listening to her. However, as they realized what she was talking about…
Located about 50 kilometers from Lucknow, Saidanpur is nowhere close to the capital in terms of development and education. The entrance into the village is with the ruins of various havelis that are about 150 to 200 years old. DEF’s digital center is located in one such dilapidated but refurbished ruins of a haveli. Noori…
Schools in India have finally re-opened after a long break because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To fight the pandemic and the deep digital divide that has come about and become obvious because of it, DEF set up a digital literacy classroom, Digigyan in a government senior secondary school in Karnawas, Haryana. DEF’s team from Delhi…
I saw a group of girls practicing embroidery at DEF’s digital centre in Chinna Kondur, Telangana. Deepika, the embroidery trainer who was herself a student earlier has been training girls for the last 2 years. The embroidery training enables these girls to earn a livelihood for themselves. This allows them freedom and helps them make…
Over the last seven years DEF has created a network of SoochnaPreneurs who serve their villages by providing digital services like access to government entitlements, digital financial services, tele-health services and computer classes. During the pandemic they became more active and spread information related to COVID-19, social distancing, the importance of masks and vaccination. In…
DEF’s centre in Chinna Kondur, Telangana is located at the main chowk of the village making it accessible to all. Jagdish and Vamsi, the project officers for DEF in the region took me around the village. An old woman saw us walking on the street and she shouted “Vamsi!!”, we turned and walked to her…
DEF held a stakeholder’s discussion on “The role of the Internet and international Internet-related public policy in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 and possible future pandemics” on 13th August 2021. The discussion focused on low access and connectivity issues, whether new internet applications in the Internet of Things (IoT) and other platforms can be accelerated to overcome…
India is a diverse geopolitical and socio-economic country, where a significant population of people are specially abled. The majority of them face economical exclusion, resulting in dependency on others. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the condition of people with disabilities has turned worst and chances of economic inclusion have fallen drastically. There are schemes run by…
Akhtari had never thought of raising her children alone, but the death of her husband put her through difficult times. With three children to look after and earn a living in Jakhopur village located in Alwar, Rajasthan was undoubtedly a daunting task. With the support from her community people, Akhtari learnt about a scheme run…
Chaitanya Bharati, a young woman from a small town of Andhra Pradesh grew up seeing her father working hard as a daily wager. Being the only child, she was not sure how she would be able to carry the responsibilities of her aging parents, in a society where boys are the only hope. Nevertheless, she…
