{"id":284,"date":"2017-02-15T14:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T08:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.itforchange.net\/mavc\/?p=284"},"modified":"2017-03-10T22:36:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T17:06:23","slug":"voice-in-the-indian-context-furthering-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.itforchange.net\/mavc\/blog\/2017\/02\/15\/voice-in-the-indian-context-furthering-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice in the Indian Context: Furthering Accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"

In India, digital governance regime has brought with it a mixed bag of opportunities and teething pains for the citizenry. On one hand, there is much to be appreciated about a move to the digital. Digital service delivery solutions make sense in a socio-economic scenario where the marginalized deal with innumerable barriers to accessing their entitlements and rights, whether it is an apathetic bureaucracy insensitive to the survival needs of the poor or the countless intermediaries who eat into their dues. Technology can, in theory, bring efficiency, cut down on time costs spent in queues and reduce ambiguities and corruption for beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

In theory\u2026<\/p>\n

However, in the past few years, the ad-hoc experiments with digital governance point to a very different picture \u2013 one in which technology becomes yet another paradigm of subjugation, disciplining and exclusion which invariably hurts the most vulnerable. Governance by networks and rule by data have increasingly meant a state in which human discretion is replaced by automation, private parties take over public sectors and the provision of welfare becomes an exercise in efficiency management.<\/p>\n

If the wide spread issues with Aadhar based authentication and the bottle shocks brought on by the demonetization drive are anything to go by, a crisis of governance looms large in the Indian context. What is at stake are not just the futures of the rural poor but the very future of deliberative democracy. Top-down digitalization cannot work if necessary due-diligence, requisite back haul and infrastructure, and most importantly, safeguards to ensure that the millions who live their life unconnected and disenfranchised do not fall through the cracks, are not thought through. There is a dire need for institutional norms, rules and practices that guarantee democratic accountability in such a context. Beyond this, there is also a need to claim the civic-public value of digital technologies so that data and the new possibilities for networking are harnessed towards a robust and vibrant grassroots democracy and citizen empowerment. In a truly Digital India, technology must work for the amplification of citizens\u2019 voice, further the accountability of the state towards its people, and realize the \u2018right to be heard.\u2019<\/p>\n

Highlights from our November Workshop<\/b><\/p>\n

\"IMG_8137\"
Introductory Session of Workshop on ‘Democratic Accountability in the Digital Age’<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to examine and discuss these shifts in our contemporary democratic fabric, a workshop that focused on emerging technological practices in government and their implications for citizenship was held in November 2016. Titled, \u2018Democratic Accountability in the Digital Age\u2019.<\/p>\n

The workshop was organized by IT for Change<\/a>, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)<\/a>, the Digital Empowerment Foundation<\/a> (DEF), the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan<\/a> (MKSS) and the National Campaign for People\u2019s Right to Information<\/a> (NCPRI). The goal of the workshop was to explore the above discussed concerns and move towards a set of principles to enhance and preserve participatory democracy in the digital age. The workshop also aimed to bring together a coalition that could take the work forward in concrete and actionable ways to widen the public debate in this regard and influence government.<\/p>\n

Spread over two days, the workshop included a range of panel presentations, discussions and deliberations where a range of digital governance issues were presented, unpacked and contested. These included issues like welfare service delivery under the JAM (J<\/u>andhan A<\/u>adhar M<\/u>obile) model, the need for a robust data governance framework in India, smart cities and the introduction of new institutional arrangements in public administration.<\/p>\n

The opening session, \u2018Democracy in Digital India: What is at stake?\u2019 was headed by Nikhil Dey from MKSS, Usha Ramanathan, an independent researcher, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay from CIS<\/a>. Moderated by Parminder Jeet Singh from IT for Change<\/a>, the panel discussed the impacts of the transition to a digitalized, data-based governance paradigm from the standpoint of democratic accountability and citizen-rights.<\/p>\n