Networking for freedom online and offline: protecting freedom of information, expression and association on the internet in India since 2011
Digital Empowerment Foundation initiated Internet Rights project in 2011 to advocate ‘Internet Access For All’ at the national level. As its first step of the project, DEF & the Association for Progressive Communication jointly submitted their first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2011 focusing on Internet rights as a basic human right and making the Internet an effective tool for access to right to information in India.
The project aims to address the specific areas of concern – right to information, Internet & information access, Internet governance, Internet regulation, content specifications, cyber law, and appropriate policy frameworks. The project brings out critical aspects of the Internet with relation to human rights, right to information and how the Internet has been utilised by different sectors of societies, marginalised and underdeveloped communities to address their issues.
The Internet Rights programme has evolved since then, with the addition of the APC-IMPACT project. IMPACT stands for “Networking for freedom online and offline: protecting freedom of information, expression and association on the Internet in India, Malaysia and Pakistan.”
There are five key objectives of the Internet Rights project, which are in close correlation to those of the IMPACT project:
• Build awareness among target groups of the critical importance of protecting and promoting human rights on the Internet as a pre-condition for democracy and the exercise of civil and political rights
• Strengthen understanding among target groups of how restrictions of human rights on the Internet are implemented (including the rights to freedom of expression, privacy, and freedom of assembly), how these rights are being threatened at technical and regulatory levels by both States and corporations, and what techniques they can use to communicate more securely and safely online
• Provide human rights defenders (our primary target groups) with knowledge, tools and support to respond to rights violations and advocate for the long term protection of human rights on the Internet
• Facilitate and support multi-stakeholder networks that can respond to threats to human rights on the Internet and build stronger human rights cultures on the internet in each of the three countries
• Facilitate strategic linkages between national, regional and global advocacy for human rights on the Internet through making use of opportunities presented by the Internet Governance Forum and the UN’s Human Rights Council, among others.
Website: www.internetrights.in
Research & Advocacy
We understand that DEF can only achieve its goals with the full support of all stakeholders, including the government, industry, civil society organisations and ordinary citizens. This requires advocacy campaigns; and advocacy in turn requires research and knowledge support. Projects in this programmatic area, therefore, address the twin needs of advocacy and research.
Contact Details
Celebrating the achievements of ordinary women doing extraordinary work from various walks of life
Red Rickshaw Revolution, a Vodafone Foundation’s initiative, was first started in 2013 as an auto rickshaw journey from Delhi to Mumbai to celebrate the achievements of 50 inspirational women and raise funds for three NGOs working towards women empowerment.
The 2014 journey started on November 28, 2014, with the objective of covering nine states — Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal — and unveiling another 20 extraordinary women. Nine states were selected for this journey. This journey featured 20 elected women leaders in the panchayat,
The stories of women achievers found during this journey have been compiled into a book titled Red Rickshaw Revolution. The project now stands completed as of December 31, 2016.
Additionally, the Revolution also led to the inauguration of 20 dCIRCs (digital Community Information Resource Centres) in partnership with Vodafone Foundation. These centres have registered community members under Intel Easy Steps programme but at the same time Google video learning tools were also used hand-in-hand as audio-video theory classes.
Website: www.redrickshawrevolution.in
Research & Advocacy
We understand that DEF can only achieve its goals with the full support of all stakeholders, including the government, industry, civil society organisations and ordinary citizens. This requires advocacy campaigns; and advocacy in turn requires research and knowledge support. Projects in this programmatic area, therefore, address the twin needs of advocacy and research.
Contact Details
Ritu Srivasvata
ritu.sri@defindia.net
The rapid growth of mobiles and the Internet have changed the ways in which communication and development take place. It is strongly perceived that the subject of mobile as a tool for social and behavioural change is an emerging area among stakeholders in communication for development space. ‘Mobile Phone as a Tool for Social & Behaviour Change’ is a joint effort of UNICEF India and DEF to explore various projects where women, adolescent girls and youth have effectively used mobiles in areas of health, education, sanitation, environment and monitoring and training of frontline workers. Trying to examine the prospects of ‘Mobile Phone as a Tool for Social & Behaviour Change’, DEF and UNICEF India organised a two-day consultation on, 9th and 10th May 2013 in New Delhi. The second part of the project attempts to scale up at a wider level and provide solution-based tools to various ongoing challenges surrounding the issue of women, adolescents, youth, girls, children and sectors across health, education, nutrition, and empowerment. This project attempts to study concerns around MSBC and create a formidable platform to provide knowledge on diverse MSBC implemented projects and help in developing partnerships between state governments and MSBC players.
Objectives
- Deliberation on the key aspects of communication for development; issues therein and how new tools and technology like mobiles are used for their redress;
- Consultation among the invited stakeholders (from ground, policy and implementation fields) the scope and opportunity for deployment and use of mobile tools and various platforms for empowerment of primary stakeholders as means of communication and information;
- Discussions, learning, exchanging and ideating on best practices using the mobile for social and behavior change in India;
- Attempt of scaling up of such practices to existing and new locations in order to reach out to the participant groups;
- Bringing out a research paper as an outcome of the consultation to address communication challenges, scope and opportunity to use and deploy mobile technology and platform in communication processes for social and behavior change; existing best practices; scope to scale up existing practices in partnerships and so on.
Focus Area
Assess the capacity of Mobile phone as a social and behavioral change maker especially for women and adolescent children
Impact
- A total of 25 case studies covered under review of case studies
- More than 150 stakeholders/ government/ academia/telecom operators and civil society groups have participated in several consultations.
- 4 consultations with UNICEF state offices conducted in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
- More than 50 case studies presented in these consultations
- 470 stakeholders participated in 4 consultations
Website : www.msbcindia.org
Research & Advocacy
We understand that DEF can only achieve its goals with the full support of all stakeholders, including the government, industry, civil society organisations and ordinary citizens. This requires advocacy campaigns; and advocacy in turn requires research and knowledge support. Projects in this programmatic area, therefore, address the twin needs of advocacy and research.
Contact Details
Ritu Srivastava
ritu.sri@defindia.net