Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) through its flagship programme Chanderiyaan has been demonstrating the power of digital intervention to improve the financial status of traditional artisans of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh and creating a model for traditional-skill based clusters for over 10 years now. But the Covid-19 pandemic and the country-wide lockdown adversely affected the weaver’s…
Fifty kilometers from Trichy is a town called Musiri which is home to over 5000 weavers. They make silk and cotton sarees or veshti. However, many shifted to powerloom and those who could not afford are struggling to make their ends meet. So much so that, a powerloom weaver earns around Rs.65 per saree and…
Ramabai lives with her two boys, Sitaram and Radhe, in Madhya Pradesh. The sole breadwinner due to her husband’s untimely death, she struggles to make ends meet. Working as a wage laborer, she wishes to provide the best education to her sons and is prepared to fight her way through anything. To make her living…
The lockdown induced pandemic has made life tougher for everyone, but especially for underprivileged communities living in digital darkness. Jasub Mirana is one among thousands of people who grew financially weak amid the pandemic. A poor 51-year-old labourer from Barmer, Rajasthan, he was unable to avail any government scheme due to lack of documents. With…
Krishna Ram lives with his wife in Barmer, Rajasthan. He has no children and has already been retired for a year and so. There were mistakes in his Aadhaar card, because of which he was not able to receive his pension. Since the problem were beyond his understanding, he had already given up on this…
STEM is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where academic concepts are integrated with real-life lessons. STEM literacy helps in inculcating leadership skills, computational thinking and problem-solving skills in the girls and thereby exposing them with the opportunity of hands-on and real-world learning experiences, thus, breaking gender stereotypes. Tamil Nadu’s Karimnagar district is home to a…
Digital Empowerment Foundation has made a conscious effort to work for the enablement and mass digital empowerment of marginalized and vulnerable communities across the nation. A digital evangelist for over 18 years, our various initiatives have equipped communities with access to information and brought them out of digital darkness. On the path towards connectivity, DEF…
DEF’s Covid-19 Relief Warriors worked tirelessly across backward and rural areas to help build community engagement, trust and provide aid. A team of 10,000+, provided food relief kits, access to information on government schemes, banking and digital services, across 600 locations. They further helped raise awareness about Covid-19, enabled women entrepreneurs and distributed masks, hand…
The COVID -19 pandemic affected social, economic, institutional and governance settings in an immeasurable way. In India, it has put a spotlight on economic inequalities and fragile social safety net which forced the vulnerable communities in rural parts, daily wage earners, vendors, shopkeepers etc. to bear the economic brunt of the crises. Reverse migration of…
Breaking the mould of the stigma associated with menstruation has always been challenging especially in rural areas. According to the National Family Health Survey, 62% of women in rural areas use cloth, old rags, muds or leaves for menstrual protection. This situation exists not only due to lack of awareness on menstrual hygiene but also…
