The complete digitization of any society without having its share of issues and drawbacks is a utopian idea, and this statement remains relevant in the Indian context too. The rapid digitization around us and its impact is an extremely important topic of deliberation and discussion in the Indian context. The Indian constitution was shaped up in a manner keeping in mind rampant social disparity of India’s population as well as lack of equal access to opportunities in terms of employment, public services, safeguards from socio-political exploitation due to differences in gender, age, physical/ mental health, religion, race, caste, income level, language used for communication as well as the demographic location of residence. Occasionally several constitutional amendments were implemented to keep track of new challenges as far as inclusion, equality and equity of Indian citizen are concerned.
The digitization of our daily life has very significantly not only empowered the idea of inclusion, equity and equality of all parts of the Indian constitution, but it has brought new challenges for the governance and public policy infrastructure too. Conventionally fundamental rights envisioned in our constitution are supposed to take care of social inclusion and equal rights. As far as women empowerment is concerned Articles 14, 15, 15(3), 16, 39(a), 39(b), 39(c) and 42 of the Indian Constitution have been of specific importance in this regard. But the rampant digitization has brought in discourse upon differentiation between Digital Sphere or Ecosystem with Habermas’s conceptualization of Public Sphere to better understand the positive as well as the negative impacts of digitization of our socio-political lives. Then comes into the picture the need to understand the difference between Democracy and Digital Democracy, people’s participation vis-a-vis e-Participation in governance, differentiation between e-participation platform and e-governance platform, and lastly but most importantly the need to differentiate between Digital Divide and Digital Exclusion.
In the sense of empowerment, digitization has impacted almost all parts of the Indian constitution ranging from public service delivery discourse through various e-governance platforms for public service delivery backed by Jandhan-Aadhaar- Mobile (JAM Trinity), Right to Information (RTI) (Article 19.1) discourse caused by Information Communication Technology (ICT) based RTI platforms, election discourse (Part XV) caused by Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), right to privacy (Article 21) discourse leading to Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB), 2019 (with further proposal regarding separate regulatory authorities for Personal and Non-Personal Data, discourse on international exchange and safeguard of Indian user data and its security and sovereignty based ramifications), discourse on digital economy, online taxation (Part XII) leading to a separate section on Digital economy in nation’s annual budget, discourse on digital land records under right to property (Part XII, Chapter IV), discourse of e-Court which will have its own ramification over the judiciary ecosystem.
A top view understanding of digitization clearly shows how it has affected the idea of the relationship between centre and state governance, coordination between the legislature, judiciary and executive as far as public policy formulation and consultation is concerned, international relation and new challenges as far as limiting the boundary of citizen-generated online information, its transaction and privacy debate is concerned and lastly its impact on the fundamental rights of every citizen as far as equality, equity and inclusion are concerned.
Though India has more than 500 million active internet users, the digital public sphere is mostly patriarchal with an acute gender gap. There is a wide accessibility gap between rural and urban demographics, with disparity among female user more widening in rural locations, negligible presence and provisions for those who do not read or understand English or Hindi, or those whose mental or physical health is not good. The Facebook commissioned Inclusive Internet Index report of 2019, E-Governance Survey of the United Nations as well as IAMAI’s (Internet and Mobile Association of India) Internet Adoption in India report all raise these issues from time to time.
Thus, when we envision India turning into a Digital Democracy, we need to keep in mind the concept of Digital Exclusion where unlike the Digital Divide we not only tackle the issue of the internet or device connectivity, but we talk about barriers to accessibility caused due to language, gender, race, caste, class, age, religion, income level, education disparity, mental health, physical health, level of patriarchy in the family too. Even if we look at the rising concern of Digital Exclusion from contemporary policies like the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020; The Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB) 2019; Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020 we see rising importance of e-Participation platform and related concerns around it.
The issue of Digital Divide can be solved through more funding in digital infrastructure, device availability, internet connectivity and training, but the problem of Digital Exclusion requires grassroots level work ranging from designing of inclusive e-Participation platform meant for public service delivery and consultation for all section of society, its training, sensitization regarding its impact and about the issue concerned etc. Thus, there is need for all round efforts with close collaboration between government, private sector as well as research and advocacy groups, so that digitization should benefit every Indian. Digitization should improve social inclusion, rather than creating social exclusion through digital exclusion.
Dr. Sharique Hassan Manazir completed his PhD on “Digital Democracy & Policy formulation in India: A Study of government enabled e-participation platforms” at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy at School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. His research interests include e-participation platforms, digital inclusion and tech-policy regulations in the global south. He is the curator of Digital Inclusion Research Forum, India.
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