#Contest: Digital Access
Digital access is a force for change, with the pandemic making it indispensable in the field of health, education, and finance.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a paradigm shift, especially in the field of education. Schools and colleges were compelled to start schooling online. The internet, thus, enabled students to be in touch with their academics despite a country-wide lockdown. With online education having become a new norm, its benefits have become more evident. Online education is location agnostic, helping students and teachers juggle studies with careers and other personal commitments. This flexibility can be especially attractive to women, whose working hours are often reduced because of childcare reasons in the stereotypical world. E-learning is also beneficial from the perspective of non-traditional students working full-time.
Furthermore, the internet allows individuals to access opportunities near and far by clicking a few buttons. It also enables them to connect with other people with similar interests, irrespective of their location on the planet. Youth Ki Awaaz, as an online writing platform, is the perfect example of this assertion. It gives the youth a window to voice their ideas, work, and experiences, which in turn strike a chord with somebody else, making a difference, no matter how small.
In addition, the social media network has changed the trajectory of civil rights protests and the fight for social justice. “Social media allows us to see a reality that has been visible to some people and invisible to others,” says Omar Wasow, a professor at Princeton University. In 2020, the incident of police brutality against George Floyd was brought to light by Darnella Frazier and a few other witnesses who videotaped the horrifying incident. Through technology, communities across the globe came together, igniting historic protests, to fight against racial injustice.
In the present-day world, another major development that access to the internet has brought about is awareness towards previously shushed matters, such as LGBTQIA+ rights, access to sex education, period poverty, and more. Moreover, as more and more people become aware, meaningful change follows. From launching e-petitions for policy change in Latvia to monitoring the effectiveness of public service through social media in Paraguay and Brazil, the youth are using technology, social media, and the Internet to make a difference.
In July 2020, when the world was in turmoil due to the global pandemic, I founded a non-profit organization called “Samarth NGO” with a former classmate.
Using Instagram as our primary communication platform, we urged youth from all over India to record a brief video of themselves, appreciating healthcare workers. We, then, shared it as a tribute to the aptly titled “corona warriors” on National Doctors’ Day. We went on to conduct webinars, spreading awareness about the importance of menstrual hygiene, sex education, gender equality, and body positivity. We also used our platform to conduct storytelling workshops for orphaned children at the ‘Welfare Home for Children’.
Our most recent project, titled “Project Pratibha”, gave our volunteers a platform to use their talents to raise money for underprivileged girls through online workshops during the summer of 2022. Our volunteers organized 10 intriguing workshops including but not limited to coding, public speaking, kathak, baking, and crocheting. Consequently, we were able to raise Rs. 10,000, 100% of which was used to donate flour, textbooks, stationery, and sanitary napkins to girls’ orphanages in New Delhi.
The internet helped my vision reach the world. It helped me uplift those who didn’t have the same resources as me. Unfortunately, it is also true that those who don’t have the same resources as me have visions of their own that await discovery. They wish to be artists, philanthropists, writers, and lawyers but don’t know how.
Today, digital access isn’t a luxury but a necessity. Nowadays, everything from healthcare to education is digitized. Those without connectivity to the internet, especially the socioeconomically marginalized groups, are inadvertently excluded from these services. During the pandemic, healthcare was digitized through the National Digital Health Mission, also known as the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. However, with over 70 per cent of the population having poor or no connectivity to digital services, this initiative was counterproductive.
For instance, the need to book slots online to be administered the COVID-19 vaccine presumed digital access as well as digital literacy. But, with many either not having access to digital services or not having the digital know-how to book a vaccine slot online, this system excluded the digitally disconnected. According to Oxfam’s 2021 health inequality report, as of May 2021, while 30 doses were administered per 100 persons in urban India, only 12.7 were administered in rural India.
In my opinion, the most effective way to bridge the digital divide in India is to tackle it at an individual as well as country level. At an individual level, people who are fortunate enough to grow up in a connected world and have access to the internet should be patient with the elderly, who due to the inevitable intergenerational divide may find the latest technology overwhelming, and help them map it out.
At the country level, digital literacy should be incorporated into the education system alongside digital devices to acquaint the youth with the use of technology early on. Additionally, online pedagogy during the pandemic era has thrown light on the cost-effectiveness and scalability of e-learning. Earlier, to present a PowerPoint presentation to a class of 50, we required a big screen, projector, stylus, keyboard, CPU, and other additional equipment.
Through online pedagogy, the presentation can be presented to an audience of countless students through a single device which could be a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or computer. Hence, if half the expenditure spent on infrastructure and equipment is used in financing a good network connection to economically weaker areas, virtual learning could become a lot more prosperous and reach those who need it the most.
We as a country must realize that digital access can give marginalized groups their breakthrough. It can help overcome social inequalities through access to information and social networks. It can give a voice to those who’ve been silenced and bring people together to fight against injustice. It is a force that allows people to inspire and get inspired, and the list goes on.