Today, we are delighted to write to you about a very special initiative that Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) launched this International Women’s Day. On March 8, 2018, DEF laid the foundation of GOAL or Going Online as Leaders, a Digital Mentorship Initiative for Tribal Women Leadership.
GOAL has been conceived as an initiative to identify and select 100 urban women leaders, all experts in their respective fields, and link each one of them to five tribal girls who will be trained in digital literacy by our ground staff and mentored by the women leaders to become village-level women leaders and agents of change. By the end of this year-long project, the 100 women leaders, who will hold expertise in their respective domains — from business, education and health to politics, arts and entrepreneurship—will inspire, guide and encourage 500 tribal girls and women to become village-level digital young leaders across 50 locations of India.
During the course of the 12-month project, the young girls will be trained in functional digital literacy; equipped with basic digital tools; and nurtured to instill life skills, leadership qualities, advocacy skills and entrepreneurial attitude. The mentorship and digital training of the girls will be supported by DEF’s pre-established Community Information Resource Centres (CIRCs) located in the vicinity of these tribal areas. Trainers from these CIRCs, which are well equipped with digital infrastructure and online or offline resources to provide a conducive physical environment for learning, will facilitate the digital literacy of the girls through a dedicated digital literacy curriculum; while the 100 women leaders will mentor the girls remotely through fortnightly audio or video-based calls, WhatsApp-based messages and Facebook and Instagram updates.
If you, too, are a woman keen to inspire and mentor five tribal girls, join our initiative; click here to become a mentor. The initiative also seeks from the urban women leaders to contribute Rs. 5000 each, which would go towards digitally empowering five tribal girls @ Rs. 1000 per girl for a year. We would also encourage you to share about this unique initiative in your offline and online networks to truly build a pool of encouraging urban women leaders who will, over the course of 12 months, mentor 500 young tribal girls to become leaders in their village.
On March 17, 2018, DEF hosted its fifth DEFdialogue with Nazia Erum. Nazia Erum is the author of the bestselling book, ‘Mothering a Muslim’, which has opened up prime-time discussions on television, columns in newspapers, and reams of reviews. It has been called an ‘important book’ for our times that ‘fills a gap in Indian literature’’. Nazia’s daughter gets excited every time she sees the Indian flat fluttering in the sky on the streets of Delhi. Nazia is worried how will she answer her daughter if, one day, she returns home from school with a question from a friend, “Am I a Pakistani?” Read More
DEF team member Ravi Guria recently travelled to Deoria in Uttar Pradesh to mentor a group of young aspiring social entrepreneurs. He recalls his experience here. “I didn’t know where Deoria was when I first heard that I had to make a trip there. I was told that it is near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. When I shared with others that I’m going to Deoria, they immediately affirmed, ‘Oh! Uttar Pradesh’. I was embarrassed not knowing something that was common knowledge for all around me. I was traveling to Deoria to mentor a bunch of young aspiring social entrepreneurs.” Read More
Indian Public Library Movement and DEF organised the State Public Library Conference in Telganana in collaboration with the Government of Telangana and the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU). Held at MANUU on January 18-19, 2018, the theme of conference was ‘Transforming Public Libraries in India: Opportunities and Challenges in Digitising Information, Content and Services’. It aimed to bring together relevant stakeholders to exchange views in an effort to develop strategies to digitally transform public libraries into 21st century information, content, knowledge and resource centres.
Digital literacy course pass outs from Community Information Resource Centre (CIRC) Nichlagarh, Rajasthan, have formed a youth club that frequently organises community activities. Last month, the youth club conducted a tablet-based survey to map families that are eligible for and in dire need of benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. They also mobilised the community to make them aware of the services they can avail at the CIRC. By the end of the survey, a total of 53 families were marked ‘in need’, and the youth club helped them fill applications, which were later submitted to the authorities by the CIRC staff.
Supported by Oracle and CAF India, CIRC Angara has been actively encouraging more and more children to enroll for digital literacy classes and build their capacities for tomorrow and strengthen their access to information today. So far, the centre has trained more than 400 boys and girls in basic digital literacy, and provided information about government schemes to hundreds of men and women through MeraApp, a mobile application specially designed by DEF to serve community members with access to government schemes. The centre is especially credited for having built a strong community support.
Internet Saathi, an initiative of Google and Tata Trusts, has entered into its second phase with DEF with the launch of Digital Livelihood, aimed at providing digitally-enabled employment opportunities to the Saathis across Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. In this phase, 432 Saathis from Bihar and 340 from Madhya Pradesh are being trained to conduct tablet-based surveys to gather data from 18,528 persons on four core subjects—health, agriculture, FMCG and media & digitalisation—in partnership with Kantar, a data research consultancy. Every Saathi will be required to conduct 24 surveys in two subjects across two villages.
Last month, DEF and Pradan organised a three-day orientation workshop in Kesla, Madhya Pradesh, for village-level youth under the latter’s Yuva Shastra programme, an initiative focused on the holistic development of youth through capacity building and training programmes. The workshop aimed at infusing a sense of community-understanding, practising self-reflection and motivating them to recognise their interest areas and strengths to achieve a dignified career. The activity-based workshop forced the youth to think and reflect on their ideas and actions. It was attended by 35 young girls and boys residing around CIRC Bhoura in Madhya Pradesh.
Rinki Bakoriya, an entrepreneur at CIRC Doudi in Madhya Pradesh, is leading her village towards transformation by empowering the community with simple but integral information services. From a small digital infrastructure hub, she offers a range of services to community members, including digital literacy, access to digital services, and information about government schemes and entitlements. This has built a reputation for her, and the community hold her in high respect. Most recently, she informed the villagers about relevant government schemes for irrigation and even helped several of them submit applications for the same. Read More
A training of trainers was organised in Kanchipuram from March 14-16, 2018 under DEF’s KanchiLoom project, an initiative of DEF and Nokia to digitally empower the weavers of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. In this ToT, participants were familiarised with advanced-level social media and Internet use, using IEC methodology that focused on the needs of the trainers to further train relevant stakeholders in their community. The workshop explored how weavers and youth in the clusters can use, influence and shape social media platforms and social networking channels for effective and reliable communication with potential global customers.
DigiPreraks or volunteers of the DigiSupport project, an initiative of Axis Bank and DEF, across 30 villages in 15 states have completed a three-month-long Digital Financial Literacy Awareness Campaign. DigiSupport is phase two of the DigiPrayas initiative that enabled rural villages to access digital tools and spread awareness on e-banking services through village-level community leaders. DigiSupport, on the other hand, aims at empowering financially excluded communities to digitally access and consume financial products, services and information through rural digital interventions. Read More
International Women’s Day was celebrated with much enthusiasm on March 8 in Alwar city of Rajasthan at the local Police Adhiveshan Bhawan, which saw a participation from different civil society bodies, government representatives and women from rural and urban parts of the district. Several organisations that work with women had put up their stalls at the venue to create greater awareness about pertinent issues related to women. DEF’s SoochnaPreneur team in Alwar, too, participated in the celebrations where they raised awareness about the various government schemes and entitlements available for women and girls. Read More
Digital Citizen Summit is back. The 2018 edition will be held in Delhi in September. This year, we’d like strong participation from different stakeholders, especially technologists, engineers and security experts. In order to accommodate the growing issues, we have expanded the themes to include Access and Inclusion; Internet Freedom and Civil Liberties; Data Privacy, Encryption and Security; Feminist Internet; Online Media, Misinformation and Fake News; Digital Citizenship and Accountability; Innovation and Sustainable Development Goals. We invite you to propose a session under any of the following tracks here.
DEFdialogue with Nazia Erum
The Revolution Song
Heal the World
Decentralised governance has been the soul of India’s flourishing democracy, but now a movement is seeking to bring the citizens at the forefront of policymaking for better governance, better public services, and to shape local budgetary decisions. Bengaluru-based non-profit Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy is making efforts to improve the quality of life in urban areas by catalysing a systemic change through participatory forms of governance. Founded in 2001 by Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati Ramanathan, the NGO started as a movement to enable citizen involvement Read More
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