Digital Saksharta

The rapid adoption of technology and the Internet has enabled thousands of Indians to become part of a global community. But, there is also a widening gap between those with access to these tools, and those without the ability or means to do so. Organisations like Parivartan are helping India’s underprivileged classes bridge this gap in digital literacy.

With the revolution in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), much has changed for the Indian middle and upper classes. Technological changes are defining and refining society, reshaping it in the most fundamental – and yet unexpected – ways. Living in a digitally unequal world, we need to think about the poverty that digital deprivation may be bringing to the underprivileged and impoverished in our country.

Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in the Economic Sciences, defines poverty as “capacity deprivation” in the revolutionary work Development as Freedom. He says, “…Relative deprivation in terms of incomes can yield absolute deprivation in terms of capabilities…Reflecting on this definition and understanding of poverty as capacity deprivation, it is clear that the inability to comprehend or access computers, the internet, and the digital world in general, is causing a new form of poverty among those who are already economically disadvantaged. Digital channels like Facebook will give the poor, like the rich, a social identity and personality. Google can help the disadvantaged book railway tickets, find a doctor, or just simply tutor themselves. Technology can tremendously help those sections of the underprivileged who are self-employed or run small businesses, connecting them with markets and customers.

Parivartan understands the impact of computer literacy in social upliftment of underprivileged and the vast opportunities it create for them. For this, a regular computer class is run by the Parivartan at its various centres and volunteers take classes in evening to impart digital education to children, women and other knowledge seekers.

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