By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 DEF x ARISE Campaign In July 2025, the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), in partnership with the ARISE (Accountability and Responsibility in South’s Ecosystems) Community, formally launched a collective civil society campaign focused on platform accountability. This initiative responds to the growing urgency to address the unchecked…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In the industrious town of Golaghat, Assam, one woman’s quiet determination is reshaping how rural women access not just markets, but also the rights and schemes meant for them. Pronita Bora, once a handloom entrepreneur selling her vibrant weaves only to neighbours and passersby, has grown…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In Malibari, a quiet village in Bihdia Jajikona Block of Assam’s Kamrup district, a quiet transformation is taking root. At the center of this change is Sajiya Choudhury, a woman who has made it her mission to connect rural women with the opportunities that government schemes…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In the quiet village of Lohagarh in West Bengal’s Birbhum district lives Fatema Khatun—a woman whose quiet determination has stitched together not only her own path to independence, but also new possibilities for other women in her community. Born into a poor family, Fatema’s early years…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In the quiet village of Pakhamela in Assam’s Kamrup district, a silent revolution is being stitched together—thread by thread, woman by woman. At its heart is 30-year-old Chayarani Malakar, once a homemaker who thought her life would always be confined to chores and survival. “I knew…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In the quiet villages of Assam, digital services were once a distant dream. Residents often had to travel nearly 15 kilometers to access something as basic as a pension form or a ration card application. For many, especially women, the cost, time, and effort involved meant…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In many parts of India, conversations around menstruation remain hushed, hidden behind layers of stigma and taboo. But in a small yet powerful gathering, a group of women is changing this narrative. SlumSoccer, in collaboration with Sport for Good City Delhi and Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF),…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In the village of Babudih in Bokaro, Jharkhand, lives a woman whose story is as much about resilience as it is about transformation. Sumitra Bala Devi, was married off in childhood but refused to let circumstances clip her wings. With her husband, a driver, struggling to…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 In the quiet lanes of rural Uttar Pradesh, where access to government services and digital knowledge often feels out of reach, a young woman is steadily rewriting the story. Her name is Reena Ji. A BA second-year student with a calm determination in her voice, Reena…
By Digital Empowerment Foundation Published on: August 31, 2025 This month’s newsletter is a reminder that the story of digital transformation is as much about people as it is about technology. Across rural India, women are breaking barriers and reshaping the narrative of empowerment. For them, a smartphone, a printer, or an internet connection is…