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Are India’s much-lauded startups failing their women workers?
https://cis-india.org/raw/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers
<b>Recent protests outside Urban Company’s head office highlight the gendered nature of work in the country’s digital economy.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On October 8, more than 100 women beauty workers gathered outside the head office of <a class="link-external" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/urban-company-hit-by-protests-promises-to-enhance-partners-earnings/articleshow/86925941.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Urban Company in Gurgaon</a> to protest against their work conditions. The firm, an on-demand platform for home-based services, initially responded by clamping down on protesters, threatening to block their IDs and inviting police action on them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After continued pressure from workers and media, the company reaffirmed its commitment to “giving a voice to the voiceless” and eventually announced some measures to partly meet workers’ demands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was arguably the first widely-reported instance of women working with digital platforms publicly organising to take collective action. A deeper look at their demands sheds light on the gendered nature of work under India’s much-lauded tech startups.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Women’s labour market decisions are structured around trade-offs between paid work and unpaid care work at home. They also face constraints around physical mobility, security and negative familial attitudes towards their work. Digital platforms have been touted as game-changers that will increase women’s workforce participation and earnings, because of the flexibility their model offers to workers to control their work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/F.png" alt="Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Tweet" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, far from increasing workers’ agency, platform models continue to reinforce gender norms and fail to account for factors that shape women’s work. The recent protests are a reminder that there is much to be corrected if work on platforms is to enhance women’s economic outcomes.</p>
<h3 class="cms-block-heading cms-block">Flexibility for whom?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The term “flexibility” can be understood in various ways. From the workers’ perspective, it is usually understood as the ability to choose when and how much to work. Most platforms, including Urban Company, advertise this as one of their goals.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, from the firms’ perspective, it could mean minimising input costs while achieving high labour turnover and service quality. Platforms deploy a range of strategies to manage workforce flexibility and match concurrent demand. Key among these is the system of ratings that determine the number of leads offered to workers and may also be used to coerce them into working longer hours and performing unpaid tasks to satiate customer demands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In Urban Company’s case, workers’ ratings are determined not just on the basis of customer feedback, but also the rates at which workers accept or cancel tasks. This becomes antithetical to increasing flexibility – workers find themselves compelled to work longer hours to meet incentives and avoid penalties. Women who find work through the app have significant childcare responsibilities, and in many cases are sole earners in female-headed households.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Suman, a single mother working as a prime service partner asked us, “When my child has an accident, will I care about the ratings or penalties? I have to stay at home and take care of him. How will I take orders then if they keep giving me leads?” Workers often face penalties such as non-negotiable deductions from wages and permanent account blockages upon low response and high cancellation rates.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As Suman’s account illustrates, these penalties make it very difficult for women to take leaves for even short intervals. The list of demands put forth by workers also includes the ability to log out from the platform for longer periods on account of maternity or other personal obligations, without rejoining fees being deducted.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another way in which Urban Company manages workforce flexibility is through the use of artificial and arbitrarily determined service categories. During the pandemic, amidst intense fluctuations in consumer demands and spending habits, the firm introduced five sub-categories under their beauty service vertical – classic, prime, silver plus, gold plus and lux. Classification of workers into these categories was primarily based on ratings, without taking into consideration prior experience or quality of work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For workers in the classic category, such arbitrary classifications without considering prior experience in the beauty sector or quality of work could amount to deskilling and undervaluation of their work. Workers who have been promoted to higher categories have shared several negative implications including higher costs for uniforms and equipment, increased distance between customer locations and reduced leads with higher commission rates. In effect, these categorisations further obfuscate the rationale for lead generation and upskilling for workers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The authors asked Urban Company about these and other matters. This article will be updated if the firm responds.</p>
<h3 class="cms-block-heading cms-block">Absence of support</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A key concern highlighted by workers is regarding the complete absence of infrastructural support necessary for dignified work. Women spend long hours commuting between their homes and multiple service locations where they receive orders. Many find it difficult to access critical amenities such as drinking water and toilets while on the commute and are denied these even within customers’ homes due to entrenched caste prejudices and discriminatory practices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Companies also fail to support workers in case of emergencies, which has emerged as a key cause for concern among women who often work in private spaces such as customers’ homes. Workers emphasise the need for a human to respond to their calls in case of an emergency, rejecting technological solutions such as automated helplines and SOS buttons that leave workers to fend for themselves in case they are harassed by customers or in transit.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_F.png" alt="Abhiraj" class="image-inline" title="Abhiraj" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Beyond considerations of platform design and infrastructure, workers highlight the structural precarity that stems from the business model of platform companies. The “entrepreneurship” model put forth by companies does not allow workers to access the income security that comes with regular-wage employment, nor the control and agency that is necessary for self-employment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Media reports after the protests have lauded Urban Company for being nimble and transforming work relations in ways that are responsive to workers’ demands. What is missed in public discourse are the efforts taken by hitherto unorganised workers to bring the firm to the negotiating table with little external support, while also balancing paid work and care responsibilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">These movements are gaining ground across sectors to hold bigger companies accountable for extracting labour from workers while claiming to empower them. Exploitative practices across lesser-known platforms remain invisible and unchecked, with most continuing with business as usual. If workers’ collective voices are to transform industry-wide conditions, it becomes imperative to listen, amplify and act on their recommendations.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><em>Ambika Tandon and Abhishek Sekharan are researchers at the Centre for Internet and Society, where they study the impact of digital platforms on labour cultures in India. </em><em>Read the original published in Scroll <a class="external-link" href="https://scroll.in/article/1010724/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers">here</a></em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers'>https://cis-india.org/raw/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers</a>
</p>
No publisherAbhishek Sekharan and Ambika TandonCISRAWResearchers at WorkRAW BlogFuture of Work2021-12-06T16:24:36ZBlog EntryBetween Platform and Pandemic: Migrants in India's Gig Economy
https://cis-india.org/raw/caught-between-the-platform-and-the-pandemic-locating-migrants-in-indias-gig-economy
<b>In response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in India, the central government announced a nationwide lockdown in March 2020. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Initially this was organised for three weeks, but it stretched on for over three months. With a mere four hours’ notice before banning all non-‘essential’ economic activities overnight, the Indian government imposed what has been described as <a href="https://scroll.in/article/957564/not-china-not-italy-indias-coronavirus-lockdown-is-the-harshest-in-the-world">one of the most stringent lockdowns worldwide</a>. It shut down the railways, inter-state bus services, and all industrial, commercial, cultural and religious activities, bringing the economy to a standstill. In the weeks that followed this announcement, hundreds of poor migrant workers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-coronavirus-lockdown-migrant-workers/2020/03/27/a62df166-6f7d-11ea-a156-0048b62cdb51_story.html">walked</a> thousands of kilometers from major cities back to their villages, as the lockdown gutted their livelihood without providing any safety nets. Images of migrant workers traveling by foot for days forced the Indian public to acknowledge the existence and struggles of migrant workers. The pandemic has exposed the frailty of their livelihoods and brought their vulnerability into sharp focus.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The ‘gig’ economy in particular shapes the lives and livelihoods of a large migrant workforce. Gig workers working for on-demand platform services have been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Cab-hailing services </span><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/coronavirus-india-lockdown-wheels-stuck-but-worries-are-many-for-ola-uber-drivers-6346527/">came to a standstill</a><span> in several Indian cities as the central government imposed a nationwide lockdown for over two months, restricting people’s movements. Food delivery and home-based services were </span><a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/covid19-lockdown-online-delivery-of-food-items-is-essential-service-but-don-t-rely-on-it-for-your-dinner-1659490-2020-03-25">deemed ‘essential’ services</a><span> and continued to operate during the lockdown. However, migrant workers received </span><a href="https://scroll.in/article/959766/by-crowdfunding-benefits-for-embattled-workers-app-based-services-are-evading-their-own-obligations">little support</a><span> from the platform companies as well as the government. Despite the overwhelming presence of migrants in the workforce, discussions of the so-called ‘platform economy’ have rarely focused on their vulnerabilities.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><strong>Neither here nor there</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>In 2000, Omer (all names are pseudonyms) migrated to Hyderabad from a village in the neighbouring Nagarkurnool district. He worked as a cab driver for a travel agency in the city. After working in the city for five years, he brought his wife and children to live with him. When Uber and Ola launched in Hyderabad in 2014, he became a ‘driver partner’ providing on-demand cab services. The nationwide lockdown since March 2020 gutted his livelihood, as movement was severely restricted. The burden of rent and living expenses in the absence of his regular income forced Omer to return to his village in Nagarkurnool district. He weighed his earning potential as a cab driver against the risk of being infected and chose to leave the city.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, the choice to leave the city did not exist for all. Mani, a cab driver now based in Chennai, had moved to the city 10 years ago from a neighbouring town, Ranipet, to find employment as a driver. Before joining Ola, he worked as a night shift driver for an IT company in the city. In the wake of the pandemic and lockdown, he avoided returning to his hometown fearing the wrath of lenders he owed money to. He had taken out a loan while he could still work over 10 hours a day. Lenders in towns such as Ranipet are known to visit the homes of borrowers and harass them in the presence of family and neighbours. Fearing public humiliation, Mani decided to stay in Chennai. Similarly, Jagan, another driver in Hyderabad, also chose not to return to his village which was just 80kms from the city. He explained that only those who owned land could afford to return to the village. Without any land or house, he had nothing to go back to.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Jagan and Mani were unable to earn their livelihood during the lockdown. Fuel prices were a major concern for workers in cab-hailing services as well as food delivery. Within three months of the lockdown, the price of petrol was increased by about Rs. 14 (approx. $0.19). Far from accounting for this rise in fuel prices, on-demand platforms reduced the per kilometer rates for workers. For instance, Swiggy, a popular on-demand food delivery company, <a href="https://thewire.in/labour/swiggy-delivery-executives-strike-in-chennai-and-hyderabad-over-reduction-in-payment">brought down</a> the per-kilometer rate for its delivery executives from Rs. 35 (approx. $0.48) per delivery to Rs.15 (approx. $0.21). Since the lockdown in March, platform workers have staged <a href="https://inc42.com/infocus/year-end-review-2020/from-swiggy-to-ola-a-year-of-protests-by-indias-gig-workers/">repeated strikes</a>, protesting against the plummeting rates, suspension of incentives and demanding extension of moratorium on loan repayments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Those who were unable to return to their hometown or village had to find alternate sources of income to continue to sustain their families’ basic needs. Both Jagan and Mani began working as contract labour in nearby construction sites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For Omer, who returned to his village, things were not great either. A couple of months after his return, he was still on the lookout for a job while occasionally driving a tractor or lorry. Having lived in the city for close to two decades, returning to his village had not been easy. Besides the struggle to find gainful employment, adjusting to rural life had been a challenge:</p>
<p><em>I am 40 years old – the chances of me getting a job is negative… my situation has become like ‘Dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghat ka’ [I belong neither here nor there] </em>– Omer</p>
<p><strong>Migrant Workers in a Gig Economy</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Even though the above narratives of migrant workers are specific to the challenges presented by COVID-19, the labour and livelihood outcomes are a result of structural conditions long preceding the pandemic’s outbreak.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Reports suggest that a <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/delhi-and-not-bengaluru-is-the-place-to-be-for-gig-economy-workers-1555013405684.html">significant proportion of platform workers in Indian cities are migrants</a> who moved there in search of employment. While the exact magnitude of migrants engaged in digital platforms is hard to discern, our interviews with trade union leaders and migrant platform workers indicated that intra-state migrants from neighboring peri-urban and rural districts constitute a large part of the platform workforce. Dharmendra, who heads Indian Delivery Lions—a union of food delivery partners in Jaipur – pointed out that as rural India remains starved of adequate livelihood opportunities, people are pushed to the city in search of greener pastures. <a href="http://labourbureau.gov.in/RLE%202K%204-5%20Chapter%202.htm">Even for those engaged in farm activities, seasonal unemployment is a recurrent phenomenon</a>. This is amplified by the deteriorating climatic conditions, which further pushes seasonal agrarian workers into the urban informal sector. Thus, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/39244178/Climate_change_Agrarian_distress_and_the_role_of_digital_labour_markets_evidence_from_Bengaluru_Karnataka">rural agrarian workers facing seasonal unemployment engage in digital labour markets as a short-term adaptive strategy.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In terms of demographic profiles, recent migrants to the city, especially those hailing from a different state, and younger migrants typically opt to work in the food delivery sectorSuch financial constraints also impact migrant workers engaged with ride-hailing apps, as they are less likely to own a car. Owning a bike (for food delivery) is far less expensive than owning a car (for transportation services), which incurs more expenses and leads to a higher debt burden and longer repayment commitments. Instead, they usually <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-report/">drive leased cars</a> from the on-demand service companies, or are employed at a fixed wage by car-owners who have attached themselves to Ola or Uber. In both these arrangements, migrant gig workers are under pressure to pay a fixed daily fee (for the lease) or meet the car-owners’ targets. Hence, they do not enjoy much, if any, agency over their time or work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Migrant workers who are already in cities tend to transition to on-demand gig work. For migrant workers like Mani and Omer, on-demand work with its lucrative incentives and promise of flexibility presented an appealing alternative to their under-paying jobs that hardly met their needs. Migrant workers are economically more vulnerable; most of their earnings go into paying rent and repaying debt while barely managing their living expenses or sending remittances back home. Vinay Sarathy, the President of Food Delivery Partners Struggle Committee, pointed out that <em>“many migrant bachelors live together cramped up in a single room, to save on rent and send more remittance to cope with financial hardship back home.”</em> Such struggles, unique to migrants, often remain invisible.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><em>“Landlords are not accommodative, security is an issue. Everything is so much more expensive. Schooling, for instance, is costly. In the village, Rs. 3000 ($41 approx) is sufficient for school fees, but in the city, it is not less than Rs. 8000 ($109 approx). Rent is a major concern too. 80% of income goes on rent and school fees. Only the remaining can be for daily expenditure</em>”. – Omer, a gig worker in the transportation sector</p>
<p>The lack of social institutions to support migrant gig workers in the city and the government’s failure to provide long-due welfare measures frequently leave them on the city’s fringes.</p>
<p>Against such a backdrop, the platforms’ lucrative income stream fulfilled migrant workers’ basic desire to secure a stable livelihood. So much so that even migrant workers like Mani and Jagan, who were previously engaged in salaried driving jobs, switched to platforms, tempted by the prospect of improved earnings. The chance to be a ‘partner’ with the ‘flexibility’ to decide one’s work timings made platforms an appealing alternative to low-waged precarious work in the <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/business/covid-19-impact-informal-economy-workers-excluded-from-most-govt-measures-be-it-cash-transfers-or-tax-benefits-8354051.html">unorganised sector, where migrant workers are generally employed</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the initial motivation to join platforms resulted from the expectation of better income, improved working conditions, and the perceived social standing of being attached to a company, these <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/ola-uber-workers-platform-gig-economy-earnings">aspirations remain unfulfilled.</a> Inadvertently, migrant workers’ movement towards on-demand work ensured a steady supply of gig workers for on-demand service companies, which consolidated their presence in the service sector. After successfully capturing the market, companies started <a href="https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/confronting-precarious-work">slashing incentives</a> for all workers. Such impunity and indifference wielded by platforms, in large part, can be attributed to the guaranteed supply of migrant workers. The acute vulnerability of being unemployed compels distressed rural migrants from nearby districts and suburbs to take up any job, regardless of how exploitative it may be. This latent supply of migrant workers gives platform companies the leverage to arbitrarily depress incentives, extract larger commissions, and even dismiss workers. Migrant workers thus become the de-facto <a href="https://rupe-india.org/70/reserve.html#note29">“reserve army of labour”</a> for on-demand companies.</p>
<p><strong>Comply or quit?</strong></p>
<p>In the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdown, migrant gig worker’s livelihoods have been reduced to a hand-to-mouth existence, foregrounding the fatal overlap between the two axes of vulnerability: migration and gig work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Historically, migrant workers have been concentrated in occupations characterised by precarity and informal work arrangements without fixed-pay or binding contracts. Workers who transitioned to on-demand platforms were motivated by the promise of better conditions of work and pay. The initial appeal led them to view platforms as a dignified alternative to their profession. Many were also lured by the notion of independence and flexibility afforded by the platform. To be one’s boss and not be answerable to anyone was unheard of and a welcome change to the subservience that most workers had grudgingly internalized as a professional prerequisite. However, contrary to the big claims and initial promises, platforms began to replicate work arrangements in the informal sector. The result is that workers are rarely provided fair wages, social security, or paid leave. There is no meaningful choice for them to exercise, as they are effectively left with two alternatives—comply or quit.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Trapped between exploitative working conditions and being unemployed, workers lack any real negotiating power. Even as gig workers across the country continue to protest for better work conditions, platforms remain indifferent, assured of the guaranteed labour supply. As summarized by Dharmendra, <em>“the agenda of the platforms presently is to recruit new workers – they have already begun advertising for jobs even amidst the pandemic, as incidents of protests keep rising! We’re expecting that they’ll fire old workers (engaged in protests) and recruit those who are presently unemployed”</em>.</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Kaarika Das</strong> is Research Scholar at NIEPA and <strong>Srravya C</strong> is researcher in the Humanizing Automation project at IIIT Bangalore. This work was produced as a part of their research with the Centre for Internet and Society, India.</p>
<p><em>We would like to thank Ambika Tandon, Aayush Rathi and Kaveri Medappa for their inputs and feedback at various stages of this research. We are grateful for the support from the Internet Society Foundation to the Centre for Internet and Society, India (CIS), which made this research possible. A full report on migration and the gig economy in India is forthcoming on CIS’s website. </em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/caught-between-the-platform-and-the-pandemic-locating-migrants-in-indias-gig-economy'>https://cis-india.org/raw/caught-between-the-platform-and-the-pandemic-locating-migrants-in-indias-gig-economy</a>
</p>
No publisherKaarika Das and Srravya CFuture of WorkRAW BlogResearchCISRAWRAW ResearchResearchers at Work2021-12-06T16:04:07ZBlog Entry #CultureForAll Conference on Cultural Mapping
https://cis-india.org/raw/culture-for-all-conference-on-cultural-mapping
<b>Sahapedia is organising the #CultureForAll Conference on Cultural Mapping, digitally on September 28 and 29, 2021. The conference will take place in collaboration with the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, Azim Premji University, the Centre for Internet and Society, and the Re-Centring Afro Asia project at the University of Cape Town.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Cross-posted from <a class="external-link" href="https://www.sahapedia.org/conferences">Sahapedia</a></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Featuring 15 papers across 4 sessions, the conference will present research primarily from South Asia with some papers discussing experimental mapping techniques in Africa and Europe. Sessions will be chaired by academicians from among our collaborators and promise to interrogate, discuss, and reflect upon the complex questions of who, what, how, and for whom to map culture. Speakers at the conference will present work ranging from literature in Nagaland and food in Goa to music in South Africa and architecture in Delhi. They include researchers in history, literature, and music, as well as architects and educators.</p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>The conference will be held on Zoom. Register here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bit.ly/2X4XAap">https://bit.ly/2X4XAap</a></li>
<li>For the schedule and more details, visit <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.sahapedia.org/conferences">https://www.sahapedia.org/conferences</a></li>
<li>The Cultural Mapping Conference is part of the ongoing <a href="https://www.sahapedia.org/culture-for-all">#CultureForAll (CFA) </a><span>festival by Sahapedia.</span></li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/culture-for-all-conference-on-cultural-mapping'>https://cis-india.org/raw/culture-for-all-conference-on-cultural-mapping</a>
</p>
No publishersnehaResearchers at WorkDigital KnowledgeEvent2021-09-20T15:18:02ZBlog EntryJune and July Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-july-2021-newsletter
<b>The newsletter presents the work done in the months of June and July 2021.</b>
<h3>Announcements</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are pleased to announce the launch of a <strong>seminar series</strong> to showcase research around digital rights and technology policy, with a focus on the Global South. The CIS seminar series will be a venue for researchers to share works-in-progress, exchange ideas, identify avenues for collaboration, and curate research. It will also seek to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on research exchange, and foster collaborations among researchers and academics from diverse geographies. For more details on the first session, <strong>on Information Disorders</strong>, and to register, click here: [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/5rYRQ0U6yOrzlX_5e9iqnD_UB7xRMkmO8EVgecX5S9vDUhOLzn5WpJ0OxgmH2vkh7APoOqCGaRVN7fbP4hfGnUPT63lb2O87rMGdk4RE4xpKcYzABQ2MhfjmOr_3FkIJtbxITjKFXrZRVlI-An9WPxyiN-QtsOJjpxV0baaFxLqDmy_TnlrW_FLKnXYXkTNBbxlIifakqN_m9fPpBaaaMJF_KetoeIUtNQIoHYTtcIQhNoelJ8-I28gyVM1-9w61Ew">link</a>]</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are also hiring for two full time remote positions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Research Associate: Access to Knowledge Programme: Apply by <strong>August 13</strong> [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/tn9z7DynIuxWFSSRGmZ50s_HYg65AwLX75HcYf9qBiEJsrkj6teE0WzDGHWCezRU7S0d4Li9WxClerez9wuhwJFHRpki4ynQYqrFoAh7dKnqJKulAW_7VyZIrgxsBri_sYFlGanbqT0IW-9HdYDbVbqyjvgAUl06_OlaHwOMDzO833kR5cT3BwaLUSDOhZqfFvwVNZav-DBH1q9Kr9bWXdtPe_g_wDm-PW3lMxudyF7SKkCLrGceKAec1QiU">link</a>]</li>
<li>Communication Designer: Apply by <strong>August 20</strong> [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/lskNSP_MjDCNYOT2PmiuZiGB29gga3crwxuXyJYEF8rdPYDDerNnNYnnCV-GG8rdnyqkxU4eJofgQXU1-iS2IPRRGRRtBXXEaUSVB3mioQNSRwwIecWmm2TIFkfi2fAL7grkxRKKKAX2PG87TiWk8hdmOUqcqtEX9dqbsudTQ3xgmZOio5BOC4GL6mxMzN_9Q5_YzOzZxSZzpT7SMm1J_HASTKNuUktcaESwbMV7PO5sPic41ymaDT8">link</a>]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Emerging Technology</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Following the MCA notification <strong>mandating disclosures of crypto currency</strong> holdings by companies, Aryan Gupta, in an issue brief, discusses the policy landscape in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Japan with particular emphasis upon <strong>definition, accounting practices, and taxation, with respect to crypto currencies.</strong> [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/IapPj_hXCzk7v6Hf21yy36-Sz8hRKHv8zkjWHYoTB7Tu5pnKDAw25QMx5zjerDAadU3BAHF2npDH_q9m81nhsGEbEBQqfWIksFuU7FqAIoREOxap2dkrtGy-X49B1okL_K-zz4zOgG1nyg6ct03r-xSZw_C94Cc8MzubQ2tzmsZjEYGRlxHywlK8a7988SepnX7wbWd2aDt6rhgDNxSBU6AJh3DeygvFctc-wWW9F-Q5e81ADlC9Xei9IoYdHlJrbvOMikdM2WlvJLzb0vnVlDJqd_7x4B7_XdshOYFQ4YRljV4O">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">We submitted comments in response to the Supreme Court E-committee’s draft vision document of <strong>phase III of the E-courts project</strong>. Aman Nair, Arinjay Vyas, Pallavi Bedi and Garima Saxena submitted their general comments and recommendations, and comparatively analysed the <strong>integration of digital technology into the judiciary in both South Asia and Africa</strong>. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/a-ADiN4WA0-BN9-GzZs_TH-rDZ6m1ii-4HzEzLfXdwVXmGyrIYBcuU7EMPd865oDaqEYSihJoqjxTyuC4usIwryJorATCH47YWEUlUAXce8b2TudJcdAsWryfDvls0WhJFQ9TTw4Bt5ZPfdDmToylNX9ECLuOvO851uSycsDHetWiQhQXaDELUcbQKXBZEbhxtFos2ugg4PHwLXNhwM9iKMb1Q-4OuONy6YcnpFcB3fVUeLvWVp4aBEngQVUnvfLfeVdMvGWNoDk">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Google’s new Privacy Sandbox platform promises to <strong>preserve anonymity when serving tailored advertising</strong>. But does this new framework help users in any way? Maria Jawed’s analysis reveals that Google’s gambit to <strong>reorient the ad-tech ecosystem under the garb of privacy</strong>, ultimately ends up undermining it. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/pwRhJ3bFqQSxSMBZ-qNYKO59aoQ95F8ro9x-8vBy2QDQiBpNFb-qLH4I8Ph-o65OT_bJnNcMoJzFBig6nxqFFcT7qtvR0b6bakvkH4pQRJalgbpLCylKEblBaFkiAudZPamJaz7XIeQ3mMQNQcnk9jxhjGW4yu6YFB8-h_G4nYcZg9lJCj35EZMG-bdl79YR6VEUb9jVxmNFoDXuTiUBCHjeSqP8yqPgHS40nzZgSqD7JMoGiSPT6G7K1xwQUBQLKzlCjKGGoaioxOOWS7qw8BrAQtuKIc4xxRvos-IkyJUA0g1W8wUqjNK7NvYR">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Pandemic technology is taking a toll on data privacy, especially in the absence of any legal framework; these tools are being used for purposes beyond managing the pandemic. In an article published in the <i>Deccan Herald</i>, Aman Nair and Pallavi Bedi argue that <strong>India’s digital response to the pandemic</strong> has stoked concerns that surveillance could pose threats to the privacy of the personal data collected. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/Aye_SwuSiE165Jg5KCM8Xlu9VfO971hqjgMyX4Gv278-mjdbOrJ-pT_WYUbbFG0344IvZPu_ZqcvDp0hcVjfGVaWGAhKvBZDinhfhGSD7VvAE53bWwBah-W8vKt_3F0VP70pUKqESr5WztG-fPEOtB94MghogG528WknuMCtyA29jFZg7JvA2Qy1mR4MHAwQq2tJjvzyA_woJHqaQ2zW9at0DVmsSszAoApTe76XUE-ZoPMUtpNXT464bp-CYx1vY0jeFHyECbR6gHkoBNl-h4pwjkz2i9yOaOntXmNuf1kTX2ARhZpiMNjSmnYMf_5K_vEoGzQK0w1N6CuYG9dHLX2l">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">In a piece for <i>The Wire</i>, Aman Nair analyses <strong>Tether, a lesser known crypto currency</strong> that is at the heart of a $3 trillion market. Issued by Tether Limited, Tether forms the foundation for modern day crypto trading and could potentially be one of the <strong>biggest schemes in financial history</strong>. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/YKCj-XnMRae1xKW-I5Vc2QZ531_WbOyKyzDAaHwXjqatVsRL9KTiy0LW50cP7Thc5zIV1vTZpRlnJuXzfYGNyOH92MtVSacioSMhehA-8TpG62qt1HMjOndXVcukp5TrJ_Z4jhyr_B0qg7hItuk5fJ9-Kw1Hh-SiRjvYGdVX_ZD2dY8NxTfKn4f7GnqP2bzHT3HWNO9yPzA6KfVPSawYFVLyyIf46leO7oJ5SIKyT4MawaPTtu9FDH5nfhMMgdm9YIFYIkuc12ZF8vargG4gMd608s5mt8kg1hpub4d3pi3o">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">India has 500 million internet users — over a third of its total population — making it the country with the <strong>second largest number of internet users</strong> after China. With this comes several kinds of digital threats that an average digital consumer in India must regularly contend with. Pranav M.B. attempts to identify the <strong>existing state of digital safety in India</strong>, with a report that maps digital threats in the country. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/7DnN6eodtvhnJdNwrTh3BU4_wJCm2_Ct9eG7-nmis2QkS4qgiiX4--Qa0TTqxqJqUNHmn3xnedwSoNGVRd0smQAgaFGQ1PLpfwVhmYPO4vaXGiF0dkcRjZTHk1W5mCRTZ4CpIx2zKt4yn1WKAy3dIBxa-xnoEQMUY4YrZRqeQr1M_JwHV3KmHWG2J1CgmXUdY13h6bQ9QEDL16a5G-eN6zH8ttyLM2kXF30BnXgkAL11Sl_vZs9AdeR_UoDQJKObf3BEoq8">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Since last year, there have been regular questions around the <strong>anti-competitive practices</strong> of digital platforms. After 46 US states filed an antitrust case against Facebook along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in December 2020, Kamesh Shekar analyzed these developments in a blog post. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/svyv1CoITzbqrsIl54oOKHsVb5xbZsOjr-IIfJndIFs4FbasMTa8xPr308vsVz_owTEDCl52kc-B-8gqND7dedFPmINs25UkG8kwkeYNcktOKUUty9Zms5UqyAXnyBUFkrbccLYTL8X7DtYXy9UCoLj6i9kGiUgJyNR_ePM-32LsWT2dzMRvY3MLjtyTTeWzqv1kPYcud-kpCxX9zMid4KJZIY7fJSLCsCPiXvrcc5RjQ6wO8SxOlNzRwDLztrG9MlWjBAOom4m32Hc3Az86wUcL5h_dTnpcqiHVCjudMiD2Wz9hKAcXbBF-mMlrTS61GXYC3B9PEMLilqy1XdCSLA">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, the Indian government mandated <strong>online messaging providers to enable identification of originators of messages on their platforms</strong>. In an academic paper for the <i>NUJS Law Review</i>, Gurshabad Grover, Tanaya Rajwade and Divyank Katira conduct a legal and constitutional analysis of this ‘traceability’ requirement, how it can be implemented, and how these methods come with serious costs to usability, security, and privacy. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/7VVDI4qoefdH1M0wYht5ypELl3sgVp1Sbz2TM_DsnX0l0o2wb-2Jq0wob7as43ltZn6ZssVx21Kb6WNIz16SwxuNYxLMwFaVL7Yqu-8eX3FzktAgtzePud71Rw38aDqYPUcb7aIzIkcrEgohiTTqr4KBZglu-g5Vc21w3pwXDKyjSXh_jk_8EIqLlZ2GF5ItEZspJwQGD9VzftHVEmz5AdqcK0Zcar_OOU9nGP8JrckN9xehbcAxzJ9V7lbKaLa6fVq_xbwLO2UqdClq7XIpCoUf9EgkKQ">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The National Digital Health Mission: Health Data Management Policy seeks to establish a digital health ecosystem by creating a <strong>unique health identity</strong> (UHID) for every Indian citizen. Pallavi Bedi points out that hasty implementation of the policy without adequate safeguards not only risks the <strong>privacy and security of medical data</strong>, but also undermines trust in the system leading to low uptake. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/I2XtCVqE0YUtaHHNBuG2SqhPciFDA8vAFssL8OFfrAIIw4IF4i0pC5aKw-bZofPUZI2o59tp6OVhScUGULq-yqLWvlZRi8AvmUhsS6gOvkWJJnC3Jpjyu5u2I2wysy-Q4Kt4TAOMgvcyr49ledwzRKHEo0lsRhQdFZ4VJMq10oyuB5bMF0vIWCJ3VqXUrb41hRJI5OUhxzXiGZmznPSy0p-gua0i5SvyeIn-uZTQjOFvdP5He9mT3HSsaw">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">In our comments to the proposed amendments to the <strong>Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020</strong>, our analysis focuses on eight points: Definitions and Registration, Compliance, Data Protection and Surveillance, Flash Sales, Unfair Trade Practices, Jurisdictional Issues with Competition Law, Compliance with International Trade Law and Liabilities of Marketplace E-commerce Entities. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/KsxrVD9CtofFFSJKNnNl4rbZSQJxomJbHYtB6gaF-CJrz6NTc3iLI__BZ3Af7DRwDzklM6bD3o3OU8Z9g2llAOWtrNsQdWfxmaky4BZfyHArp59Ciryun36-inqvCvTtCz4MfM_SxYe7DWZQjbigMwPTuyM1nTjfuZZESbCU0kHL5uxK09aQvMmYUfBPfBjrUuCPSnz1q_SHSOh38kHHRw6JdIuOl-FX_Fu_pSAFCPpBCjmoqiyRpWbgQQw3C8dbSnJ9sMWXbopXwWS99f4vPqMGK6Tn7w6tWJqmQa8hA3wAQsH8wJgl315nOQ">link</a>]</li>
</ol>
<h3>Freedom of Expression, Intermediary Liability and Information Disorders</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The recent “Infodemic” clearly shows that <strong>disinformation costs people’s lives</strong>. CIS, and the Global Disinformation Index have published a report that examines <strong>the risk of disinformation on digital news platforms in India</strong>, creating an index that is intended to serve donors and stakeholders with a neutral assessment of news sites that they can utilise to defund disinformation. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/oAbyvMS6qTJApmJnnokcclFKfhiXT90qwxve7vAzjNgoVJE7zL3znp9z-jVBaY_A_UghvzrqrbzPyQ8MWgNOqFX_zmz-LXX_QXxpTHcJCq0iQbudFAskKA4MQbW9ipPMHHkvCZ4sjD9YJ-f76ZHCOVs8aTp09SRza6UxxFqz2Lf-wyXOBkjjnSojLEnIzg_6Xyg-MV80GnR0MyptpLT6Ox44jMpuKSDNkziRqXdVFv2UiHFPUq5_kQFItEunUPazzjbXiO6aT6InqGhlHTpBpFR1ojSmP1YOtTCl7efQ-b_jHIbk-BBXDoDE4JF-TskvA8NvEln98dD-0ADQRopsvLp9XWDGiQ">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Torsha Sarkar, Gurshabad Grover, Raghav Ahooja, Pallavi Bedi and Divyank Katira examine the legality and constitutionality of the <strong>Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021</strong>, highlighting potential benefits and harms that may arise from the rules, and making recommendations to retain the rules within constitutional bounds, and retain consistency with human rights based approaches to content regulation. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/xeCVOWx8opFVXsJsk8tGp7BqtYUkK2zovJDarS6GLbKTR6VL0JLLSA-ap81tloriYQLLg6Cv1HxAws110HUv2UUabdK0aCbOvdeL2AtTWGD4zL7LEsC1gAIHyvP5DCYWo8flbZwKL0UNrMa-Bp8mmAOPTNTaHHyHjt6SyvidPNrc2nvjuwWNDsgPITp_PBAYDBmfwu02GfVr14URroyiEeqExwha0b0RlSPhrunshSDIXND6-AaBkVuGJ8VdnE-bMD7FHdAa559EsTcyhmnPiIYanR9fmV6UQHb7Q65yD7jENV3-lbzRCkAjki09Qvia1nxacxBIWHb-w3_PlbB7GkJXbl8_qVZHEWhyzTnAxVoGA-je-7W-x-eFOetThpo">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The passage of the <strong>Intermediary Liability Rules, 2021</strong>, has also formalized the legal requirement for the utilization of automated tools in content moderation. In a blog-post for the <i>KU Leuven’s Centre for IT and IP (CITIP) Blog</i>, Shweta Mohandas and Torsha Sarkar analyze the requirement in light of concerns of freedom of expression of Internet users. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/kfCCqzfLNuv79Hdeo_EA2wt5o0LRgortN3TKK_wup26r0wlpxdBW0C-m_IDPDssS9Ie8vuBmq3TrK6Bo0jfGRs1qD89TEU2wzVysBv9kAjUiosw2pXQiNir2ylQAnNBxnwyCe_qibQIf9UOGjlvP8d8iB1XZ1QPqQUl_yHKFDrPUme0OS2EUpis_rSoVy1ZOfH-GGHo7iNYRMcqqjbmCKtfZjmLvWY86v2Zk2EjLPXr8OA">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Our comments to the <strong>Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2021</strong>, authored by Tanvi Apte, Anubha Sinha, and Torsha Sarkar, examine the <strong>constitutionality and legality of the Bill</strong> and whether the proposed amendments are compatible with established constitutional principles, precedents, previous policy positions and existing law. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/Ao1Sghs95JSFnpzMq8bTUYQ0z1F6uZOfg6M2Stt2ceVvCf4b0iB_3f-Yx7uywoASrATvOSS6uPYTVbP8x_JLqoD9QfvjD5soYvlNJBd87FuNyxqAb4wQ8cjOuN7B44pRo65xvX9K29eBGFp7fgv-AD_ok80j4SXnAZ6LrYClxPiHC48fiisVOW7McLfsFpLtUsns1u6MIG_7FMAKNY0GHFxa5xs3lM21mrhkEcC6I7sbimtF0jmOkid5nzYbcOrtQ5ZsvrdxSRllmmOy">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Tanvi Apte and Torsha Sarkar, in a submission to the <strong>Facebook Oversight Board</strong> in Case 2021-008-FB-FBR: Brazil, Health Misinformation and Lockdowns, answer questions set out by the Board which concerned a post made by a Brazilian sub-national health official, and raised questions on <strong>health misinformation and enforcement of Facebook's community standards</strong>. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/h-QObkDu8td1bmkfzIEHJlAmS10MohQnXiyqHQKNEnQkEpvkdTxLkKV3yJO7CcTJGDcS0kRQVTDEE8KNbb-551uGYLiaV3wFoxJ9tGnvMBaqvtPgYgxZbnAMOowSxN7gQJTqSOZwzMVQtSbr449f6KC0Bb208ApIh2a8OX_HCRwn2BYpoTvqUfeyFZyp2qoyW5LbeAe9P-JTlFrDaB7oFBXvTHvlJfTRrT6ZeLlkQqA_RqMOga71-sxDIxBo0vvn-9r28DcTePg3p659lJ0CWQMCXiz4tY1p3cLrJgKl3K3fjignnvexZpNwk91paBQ_Bia2DDUxc1Vxmvci1p3AASg3FtYqL5l1">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">In an essay for the <i>Indian Journal of Law and Technology (IJLT)</i>, Torsha Sarkar analyzes issues rising out of the recent <strong>litigation between Trump and Twitter</strong>. Torsha examines intermediary liability issues under American law, and draws parallel for India, in light of the ongoing litigation around the suspension of advocate Sanjay Hegde’s Twitter account. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/JxA_S2DzStQUHeEVzf9_Df15_QnK0WHgMEjaaCqNjLmfXPAS4teU_fvrDtG9R4OwwOzWYiAXWPE3QFaxOZvJ5VCHuwincnLyGpYpWME0K5x8CJwyW0vUhC-stExhsSV_5pLmEtfaVyzcGRaXsJ4jGnLWnrADSdYzpPjUTPAb6hKDDL5BBjLjzvRt14_y3_9RNos99UKlpOCv9UFR6gC6cmOQmqte1UICPRw54oI7TUMC8TfPow-JZGmeA8lmMtODPi5dPN91euSX0g">link</a>]</li>
</ol>
<h3>Copyright & Access to Knowledge</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce’s report weighs on several aspects of the <strong>Indian IPR system and issues of protection and enforcement</strong>. In a blog post, Anubha Sinha summarily notes the observations and recommendations of the Committee on the Copyright Act, 1957 which stand to impact <strong>access to knowledge</strong>. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/20Alo2_Tse_JJBXG7sp9tp3Jf_qIUy2ksAvhoVH4heonMxDYRQK4nweCNF8LP29mpKvznQC8vljEX7TCv-Wb6SQREV5ph4uYOVIgz4wf36MaGTw8T5dkCxjqttA5V1tzNxdpfKi1WqQJKSFJ3o9Eog0uVFhHd3wXaYwiukkD3WHoDeYkOSZR_DYTGlm6nebmtCjaRRhTqwGMPYkZsKxM2td9xO2GBfP-J5R8llhxsrl1MvaUyiRBLIASh1l_KNpvCtlix-3Hot2VozymMTWyPG15W6s">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The 41st edition of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was held from 28 June to 1 July. Anubha Sinha participated in the event as a speaker and delivered statements on the <strong>Protection of Broadcasting Organisations</strong> [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/VysBbmMrMfJH2U5C8TeeVWtBq8wqBadivgBYyh26sNYegYdfaR4Tg_G6v1FqMgyVD6KAm3Z1tKWm256qR0VlPwGircBtmecePp2_-24cYoFWCoDH5v_5MuytzvKUIHkSlZ4cXN9CtUZ9t-92oeqAe5qm_CDhT0Xu7G5OZKn1_9s56JlL7E9FiWa0U5l2PYeonXi9H026DNWNaOPHQ8nvvYlmvIcTkwvKWQ">link</a>], and on <strong>Limitations and Exceptions</strong> [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/TBrEeBXDldm7nDPpsENoKMft-G03I54LhjmedXzSkg1RPImWfwqhCZ7bwXpwsXbIuVvOLd7G0RtA7PgCDKqHKcYjWzHr1K8Dd8oSUYIasd8N_tlEiMedkl8eTmoz5Cm_cLV8NlYLzIbsrHCxZhhPUApqXJprQ39qHf89pyRS2Zcw1HUYW8d-rVWobmlbW4MVr0EvBz0gbWpz3NLbh9W71pVK1VN9j-ge--ine3yx-uSoyel8qUGs0mPqw0NXp0nEUnIP32r3qHvdjzEbz4Ynagm2ww">link</a>]. Readers can access the notes from Day 1 [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/W_H8QjZ4FUv92dhzAdWKRTS508l6DEy7YOb8mnsf-ZzcQeMZe8TCW3XG5Fs7j1BO678zXMJn5jZiXL2eI4ZVNjrE6Sz8XcQs5fJ4z1EZSQTr-vMsaJsroyckdwmtQnOepz5KMLPZl4OnPm6ERcnJGBCVp6v7PZgpxVBGp5PR9Fo4e_TncX2qm_q_aB_e9s3I2vp8PReJJVYoEl53xIqWKkBqXlWk2RbqOQ">link</a>], Day 2 [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/DRaLcVvuB-VfY7fjrVtjA5hPHTFt2KwIt2hsH4mjuuYlzJLCv5r9O3R5-4Rg72Bhvw3kMYaowZuZorJN8DXJjhf5NABvf519ig4SyCsIUri4mXWjDA1lmCHY_Oe1WfTq_VLVxwOb4XYp8VVnKIIcgAg1kseXVSENaugyRZI3otS_IUn_zNwEkw2PdFEojqryYcf5kiEADKQ5sRuVH8WB9pncRKgCvpOfFA">link</a>], and Days 3 & 4 [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/dTkOebRyoXNDfdFetpwM6-mmRSpH7gwM1RL-SJmGMrbF25H9Y4-lo-nQ8HINcrM1eUmX9nqvpmoL26wsIsbAhOJ3MQygMDJpTQc-RNGk07WOUyH4GFUuejBJzsRBkQn44CEDxkcSQBzyLQHGjKakTPDRFszrjnLqD3e9jXfs77ie7wKRazrFjyssNPscxSg8xmrcfv89klVCo-Ts6ApD6nuRi3t0nndX2DAQ_hw_WlYLCgfmyw">link</a>].</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The CIS Access to Knowledge team published a comparative analysis of two prominent Wikimedia initiatives, <strong>Wikipedia Asian Month</strong> and <strong>Project Tiger</strong>, to understand prevailing challenges and opportunities, and strategies to address the same. Nitesh Gill in a two-part report outlines the research questions and methods of this study [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/HZI5YNgRhNViR9DS-ewrTbGX-5PkynXGEMDr5kfCauCk2OYuygd2I3Da7Tp1kyhG1Oboc0MxIelbvOqpVQHHq0JVRgbyEVMPZiTWPhQENwnv_pfOR8KYHZzzLKv7Tc-iFk6qBgCCDSbnwjmA7sfiC3FDHFvqzbEGlMMUIg1XvcRNu6fFBWe2S1W5lsdZD00dY0r-w8o3IkzCSbKwHqJMld7CQvl48lpzGHtKFreKT_MiB33iis0Fehz-nrz7DlT-k2GLTpwScqX4DcHrLjWb7A">link</a>], and then presents some of the observations and learnings [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/bdLNf3_CCDaXpSzzhYF_2ThcU-LuTFb6k6HDcZ_4myjIWm-GlwXcDVQweGpaYjKKt4NmMol-HxoPucMx6w3-HC4QUmPULVJ882x8AMHaRehpgFh9t8cYPB6VPyjXNgcbzjSfOQXE6GpUDhrGYYg6KTmuH6t7F1qlOcoc_qlglL4vz5yCBL8Ri03yfZZVcfheY5Ly5lUb3WSZMpsO1u6n6KaRC_YFemwGu0sWsWgjW-XPRSNAyxHKeGLlUS7eN7wNvx-iLCLb2-VhEtN64QZHaxUd724J8Fg5">link</a>].</li>
</ol>
<h3>Labour and Social Justice</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">In a flagship report on <strong>domestic and care workers on digital platforms</strong>, Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon argue that digital platforms are complicit in discriminating against workers on the basis of their identities, and that domestic workers continue to remain in precarious positions without any legal recognition or support. This work was jointly authored between the Centre for Internet and Society and the Domestic Workers’ Rights Union. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/sm3NIXtD7ClOE3mjbw6fg2ZvZB0TI3dh6rnb4vb6Hv0Ev_VwikRY-XOESwuw3-Gfglvi7OHT5l-PthXPf2rn3UDbiRRE3jaRzidnzl5uPs6ZqdtktRRVINgR3CCtZ-grN_QKqZN9KefjfMYgB7klWARTLAkZbSsKmoyrLiIZ0XMVXkYWu_F1do2eH73g_cTDDyKJiQiq9wWsbLzwjsEWoZ1uR0H2wqUp1ZOfkEyfkTbU0YojEnLVenrB-X7HDp812pjRMqHbw1qAskYpol6w_Tca">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The ongoing pandemic has raised very valid questions of <strong>access and infrastructure in India</strong>, especially during a time when the Internet and digital technologies are essential, and in many ways the ‘new normal’. P.P. Sneha and Anasuya Sengupta write in <i>Seminar Magazine</i>, outlining some key <strong>challenges in digitalisation and representation of non-dominant/marginalised languages</strong> on the Internet, through reflections on two recent projects related to languages and the Internet. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/iWhSEkwBqINHVVX-zy-cEtFRkWyCSoGeumeW2KNYU8gylOUgjNWiIceMev9vAcoTdrNvCoBtuZKcHSmrG3oEZ5Wypr7VRmrecPMNbuxUDoIF4FJGIlzAPeQ8dpdyeeHeQqANiU3oUN2xKTpRQ5Tin8PUoWRfMm5YXh_iougUbkun-Tq6NSjRkmvbiWXeZyphO9R44QWTrxDm2wWOdlCh2reGxocxbpNMzDPlGmxnA18sMsFi73SksnR9lQh76ylSM2iIYr3ptZk61DznsmUdfr0BK-GQL7HcD4M">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">With the onset of the national lockdown on 24th March 2020 in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the fate of millions of migrant workers was left uncertain. In addition, lack of enumeration and registration of migrant workers became a major obstacle for all state governments and the Central Government to channelize relief and welfare measures. Ankan Barman compiled a report to <strong>qualitatively assess health conditions of migrant workers and access to welfare</strong> during the first COVID-19 lockdown, in three host-states, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana. [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/hU5-1FD3nbo69KurjQmXES36QSFtRZSHr4FuCzsscEMQOUOZD523Cc-iKliMQQWvm7AFZQ2JJtrcPhNeqoAS7ASS2X0_c9D3D_yvS9IuqLpt_xHpSUdVxnh85ZSVlSr07zj4mucQogJy6c2ZHw6zgQAmLQGkcl4xr__txUaycSpVKrqmHcBb3RBw2YkBTvxRfFnll2FcPmmfFYhGf1_SGM1baLyoZscYZ96h-AB1tHzg4Lao2KfFIhJ-RxHtC67r1nytTWNCRy8pY4QWmx2g-kBw0EAD4vl94LmPX10tdqmvBreDz3xxfN4o9h0OHfEzZARXb2dQFnHltqvRjPq5msyzW69oXuZZsDs0pcS6yYA">link</a>]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Between July to November 2019, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) conducted 2,128 surveys across six major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers. Findings from the survey have been compiled as a report which <strong>reveals the complete absence of social security and protection of workers in a digital platform economy.</strong> [<a href="https://4jok2.r.ag.d.sendibm3.com/mk/cl/f/J4FjrBD647MV8lneM-mPFxr7IWwYeETEgk17OI3lDkqNVRmfoRqhmAs1CqZXDQx-MyEntGeO7vOMUu6lslvGQbMg4Pp6Gvpz7GaUrXiOXti7YGBNPHMzLCP3BsDeYstDOYNs6Rry3eMUvPI-mV1kh6aNGWf_WlBXjwoevFZdwmt660vTJbRaUGuI1Cc45TFmp3ur5qDJNg3vaTXElkuEvo7Dz9rPcEHOTDNy-k2LW3cX9mOB_QNC5yt4sy0CCWvf-2yHAYa_2j6pVmVx2PwbbSrfMfSdK0-WL1PSZpcAHlqcRVU05C5Js__byzmLjmWUKO-kMbw">link</a>]</li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-july-2021-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-july-2021-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpranavInternet GovernanceResearchers at WorkCopyrightAccess to Knowledge2021-08-10T15:57:16ZPagePlatforms, Power, and Politics: Perspectives from Domestic and Care Work in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-perspectives-from-domestic-and-care-work-in-india
<b>CIS has been undertaking a two-year project studying the entry of digital platforms in the domestic and care work in India, supported by the Association for Progressive Communications as part of the Feminist Internet Research Network. Implemented through 2019-21, the objective of the project is to use a feminist lens to critique platform modalities and orient platformisation dynamics in radically different, worker-first ways. Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi led the research team at CIS. The Domestic Workers’ Rights Union is a partner in the implementation of the project, as co-researchers. Geeta Menon, head of DWRU, was an advisor on the project, and the research team consisted of Parijatha G.P., Radha Keerthana, Zeenathunnisa, and Sumathi, who are office holders in the union and are responsible for organising workers and addressing their concerns.
</b>
<p><span>The Executive Summary for the project report is below.</span></p>
<p>The full report, ‘Platforms, power, and politics: Perspectives from domestic and care work in India’, can be found <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-pdf" class="external-link">here</a>.</p>
<p>The press release can be found <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-press-release-pdf" class="external-link">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3></h3>
<h3><span>Introduction</span></h3>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Paid domestic and care work is witnessing the entry of digital intermediaries over the past decade. More recently, there has been tremendous growth of digital platforms. This holds the potential to impact millions of workers in the sector, which is characterised by a long history of informality and exclusion from rights-according legal frameworks. Digital intermediation of domestic and care work has been a space of high-growth, but also high-attrition. In India, order books of digital platforms providing domestic and care work services were reported to have been growing by upto 60 percent month-on-month in 2016. This is expected to shift the organisation of workers and employment relations profoundly. <br /><br />Broadly, the discourse on digital platforms providing home-based services can be summarised as follows: proponents argue that digitisation will act as a step towards bringing formalisation to the sector, while critics argue that platforms could replicate the exploitation of workers by further disguising the employer-employee relationship. Similar debates around lack of protections and precarity have also taken place in other occupations in gig work such as transportation and food delivery. In fact, the similarity in precarity and the informal nature of this relationship across gig work and domestic work has led to domestic workers being labelled the original gig workers. Domestic work is a particularly vulnerable and unprotected sector, which makes work in the sector qualitatively different from most other sectors in the gig or sharing economy.<br /><br />Through a feminist approach to digital labour, our project aimed to examine the dynamics of platformisation in, and of domestic or reproductive care work. Our hypothesis was that platforms are reconfiguring labour conditions, which could empower and/or exploit workers in ways qualitatively different from non-standard work off the platform. In order to interrogate this further, we studied several aspects of the work relationship, including wages, conditions of work, social security, skill levels, and worker surveillance off platforms.</p>
<h3>Methodology</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We borrowed from ethnographic methods and feminist principles to co-design and implement the research tools with grassroots workers and organisers. Between June to November 2019, we conducted 65 in-depth semi-structured interviews primarily in New Delhi and Bengaluru. A majority of these were with domestic workers who were seeking or had found work through platforms. We also did interviews with workers who had found work through traditional placement agencies to compare our findings, and with representatives from platforms, government labour departments, and workers collectives. Of the workers we interviewed, a majority were women, but men were included as well. Interviews in New Delhi were undertaken by CIS, while interviews with workers in Bengaluru were undertaken by grassroots activists in Bengaluru, affiliated with the Domestic Workers Rights Union (DWRU).</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In implementing the data collection approach, we employed feminist methodological principles of intersectionality, self-reflexivity, and participation. The methodology draws on standpoint theory, which encourages knowledge production that centres the lived experiences of marginalised groups. We were acutely aware of our own positionality as high income, Savarna researchers studying a sector dominated by Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi women from low income groups. This power differential was softened partially by involving DWRU through the course of the project. Workers across both field sites were also interviewed in spaces familiar to them, most often their homes, in languages that they were comfortable with including Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Feminist principles also instrumental during the data analysis, with focus on intersectionality and self-reflexivity. We highlighted the ways in which inequalities of gender, income, migration status, caste, and religion are replicated and amplified in the platform economy. In particular, we discussed the impact of the digital gender gap in access and skills on workers’ ability to find economic opportunities.</p>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Findings</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our typology of platforms mediating domestic work finds three types of platforms – (i) marketplace, or platforms that list workers’ data on their profile, provide certain filters for automated selection of a pool of workers, and charge a fee from customers for access to workers’ contact details, (ii) digital placement agency, or platforms that provide an end-to-end placement service to customers, identify appropriate workers on the basis of selection criteria, and negotiate conditions of work on behalf of workers, and (iii) on-demand platforms, or companies that provide services or ‘gigs’ such as cleaning on an hourly basis, performed by a roster of workers who are characterised as ‘independent contractors’.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When it comes to the role played by platforms in determining employment relations, there is a wide variation within and across platform categories. There are both weak and strong models of intervention. On one end of the spectrum are marketplaces, with minimal intervention in the recruitment process, and on the other on-demand platforms, that exact control over each aspect of work. Digital platforms reconfigure the conception of intermediaries in the domestic work sector, functioning as next-generation placement agencies. All three platform types contain aspects that provide workers agency, as well as those that reinforce their positions of low-power. Platform design impacts the role platforms play in setting conditions of work, but does not determine it entirely.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(Re)shaping the terms of work</strong><br />Across the three types of platforms, wages are slightly higher than or matching those of workers off platforms. Some marketplace platforms have incorporated features to nudge customers towards setting higher wages, such as enforcing minimum wage standards, or informing customers of expected wages in their locality. Conversely, on-demand platforms charge a high rate of commission from workers, despite refusing to recognise them as employees. This indicates that this is a misclassification of an employment relationship, given that workers are unable to set their own conditions or wages for work. Despite the high rates of commission and appropriation of labour by platforms, on-demand workers earn higher wages than workers on other platforms. The relatively high wage is a result of marketing on-demand cleaning as professionalised and more skilled than day-to-day cleaning. Tasks in the sector continue to be distributed along the lines of gender and caste, as has historically been the case. Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi women are more likely to take up work such as cleaning and washing dishes, while men and women across castes are equally distributed in cooking work. Women dominate tasks such as elderly and childcare, as in the traditional economy. Workers in professionalised tasks such as deep cleaning that requires technical equipment and chemicals are almost entirely men.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Digital divides and workers’ agency</strong><br />We find that workers are primarily onboarded onto platforms by learning about it from other workers, through onboarding camps held by platforms, or offline advertising by platforms. Such in-person onboarding techniques allows workers with no digital access or literacy to register themselves on marketplace platforms and digital placement agencies.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, we find that low levels of education and digital literacy continue to impact platformed labour by creating a strong informational asymmetry between workers and platforms. For instance, we find that women workers from low income communities have very little information about how platforms work, causing deep distrust. Workers with digital devices and literacy (and therefore a relatively better understanding of the functionality of the platform), physical mobility and the resources to bear indirect costs that were outsourced to them were at a significant advantage in finding better-paying jobs. Workers who were seeking flexibility and were not necessarily dependent on the platform for their primary income were also better placed than those entirely dependent on platforms. Women workers tended to be disadvantaged on all these counts, limiting their agency and capacity to reap the benefits of the platform economy.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Across the three types of platforms, systems of placement and ratings add to the information asymmetry, as workers are not aware of the impact of ratings on their ability to find work or charge better wages. Ratings and filtering systems also hard-code the impact of workers’ social characteristics on their work. Workers are unable to exercise control over their data, further undermining their agency vis-a-vis platforms and employers. We identify a clear need for collective bargaining structures to protect workers’ rights, although platformed domestic workers remained distant from both domestic work unions and emergent unions of platform workers in other sectors.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Intersectionalities of formalisation</strong><br />We find that inequalities of caste, class, and gender that have historically shaped the sector continue to be replicated or even amplified in the platform economy. What remains clear is that platforms in the domestic work sector adopt the logics of this sector, more than the converse. Platformisation is conflated with formalisation, and it is within this vector, from complete informality to piecemeal formalisation, that platforms operate. Labour benefits do not take the form of labour protections or welfare entitlements that are the central function of formalisation processes. Instead, the so-called benefits are intended to transform domestic workers to participate within the logics and vagaries of the market.</p>
<h3>Policy Recommendations</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Recognise and implement labour protections for domestic workers </strong><br />Domestic workers have historically occupied the most vulnerable positions in the workforce, with limited legal protections. Exposed to the regulatory grey areas that platforms operate in, this doubly exposes domestic workers to precarious conditions of work. Despite an avowed move towards formalisation of domestic work, platform-mediated labour continues to retain characteristics of informal labour, even heightening some.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If pushed to do so, platform companies can be instrumental in resolving some of the implementation challenges that governments have faced in enforcing legislative protections sought to be made available to domestic workers. Platforms have databases of workers, which can be used to mandatorily register them for social security schemes offered by the government. This data can also be used for better policy making, in the absence of reliable statistics particularly on migrant workers in the informal economy.<em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Reduce the protective gap between employment and self-employment </strong><br />The (mis)classification of “gig” work within labour law frameworks is still a matter that continues to be hotly debated within policy practitioners, legal scholarship, and civil society actors. Three positions, in particular, have been taken—treating gig workers as employees, independent contractors, or occupying a third intermediate category. More recently, there have been some legal victories guaranteeing employment protections and increasing platform companies’ accountability. However, these successes have been more visible in Global North jurisdictions.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Regardless of the resolution of these ongoing debates over employment status, labour frameworks should provide some universal protections to all categories of labour. Such protections must include universal coverage of social security, in addition to rights such as freedom of association, collective bargaining, equal remuneration and anti-discrimination. Policies geared towards achieving this objective would be significant in reducing the protective gaps between different categories of labour, and would particularly help historical and emerging occupational categories of workers such as “gig” workers and domestic workers.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Recognise the specific challenge(s) and potential of platformisation of domestic work </strong><br />Platforms hold the potential of acting as effective facilitators in informal labour markets. Even when they do not replace existing recruitment pathways, they provide alternate ones. Workers were more likely to register on a platform if they were entering the domestic work labour market recently (often distress and migration driven), or had not enjoyed success with informal, word-of-mouth networks. However, platforms also heighten labour market insecurities, and create new ones. These potential risks need to be specifically recognised through appropriate frameworks, such as social security, discrimination law and data protection.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Tailor policy-making to platform models </strong><br />We identify three types of platforms, each of which intervene to varying degrees in the work relationship. We recommend that digital placement agencies and marketplace platforms be registered with governments and enforce basic protections for workers such as provision of minimum wage, preventing abuse (including non-payment of wages) and trafficking. On-demand companies on the other hand, must be treated as employers, and workers be accorded employment protections including social security.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In addition to rights-based policy actions, legal-regulatory mechanisms geared towards mitigating the precariousness of platform-based work are required. This can take the shape of clarifying and expanding existing legal-regulatory formulations, or preparing new ones. Such policy making should factor in the power and information asymmetry between domestic workers (and gig workers, generally) and platforms.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Further, in the absence of health or retirement benefits, risks and indirect costs of operations are shifted from employers to workers. For instance, workers provide capital in the form of tools or equipment, support the fluctuation of business and income, and can be ‘deactivated’ from an application as a result of poor ratings or periods of inactivity. Any regulation aiming to extend employee status should mandate platforms to support such indirect costs.</p>
<h3>Related Publications</h3>
<p>1. <a class="external-link" href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/digital-mediation-of-reproductive-and-care-work">Research notes</a> with reflections from union members. <br />2. The <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platformisation-of-domestic-work-in-india-report-from-a-multistakeholder-consultation">event report</a> from a stakeholder consultation with workers, unions, companies and government representatives. <br />3. A <a class="external-link" href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory">reflection note</a> on the participatory approach taken by the project. <br />4. A <a class="external-link" href="https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/singapur/17840.pdf">paper</a> with a comparative analysis of the policy landscape on domestic work in the platform economy.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-perspectives-from-domestic-and-care-work-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-perspectives-from-domestic-and-care-work-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherAayush Rathi, and Ambika TandonDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkPlatform-WorkFeaturedRAW ResearchHomepageDigital Domestic Work2021-07-07T15:19:37ZBlog EntryIFAT and ITF - Protecting Workers in the Digital Platform Economy: Investigating Ola and Uber Drivers’ Occupational Health and Safety
https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety
<b>Between July to November 2019, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi office, conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers. CIS is proud to publish the study report and the press release. Akash Sheshadri, Ambika Tandon, and Aayush Rathi of CIS supported post-production of this report.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-report/" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Press Release: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-press-release" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<h3>Press Release, August 25, 2020</h3>
<p><br />Between July to November 2019, IFAT and ITF conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers.</p>
<p>Some of the most startling findings from the survey are below:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is a complete absence of social security and protection—a glaring 95.3% claimed to have no form of insurance, accidental, health or medical. This reflects the inability of workers to invest in their own health. This partly is a result of declining wages—after paying off their EMIs, penalties and commission to the companies and having less than Rs. 20,000 left at the end of the month.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Only 0.15% of the respondents reported to have access to accidental insurance, which is the bare minimum companies like Ola and Uber should have provided to their drivers.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Uber and Ola provide no assistance with regard to harassment and violence while drivers are on the road. Ola or Uber for the most part do not intervene if there is any intimidation from traffic police or local authorities, incidents of road rage, violent attack by customers or criminal elements that endanger drivers’ lives, accidents while driving etc.<br /><br /></li>
<li>On average drivers spend close to 16-20 hours in their cars in a day. 39.8% of the respondents spent close to 20 hours in their vehicle in a day, and 72.8% of the respondents from Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad drive for close to 20 hours a day. Due to long hours, 89.8% of the respondents claim they get less than 6 hours of sleep.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Health issues arising directly as a result of conditions of work is affecting the day-to-day lives of workers. Backache, constipation, liver issues, waist pain and neck pain are the top five health ailments that app-based transport workers suffer from due to their work. 60.7% respondents identified backache as a major health issue.</li>
</ul>
<p>App-based drivers/driver partners work in a very toxic and isolated work environment. Drivers can’t exit their current occupational status even if they want to because they are shackled in debts and outstanding EMIs. As a result, they race every day to complete targets so that they may earn just enough to pay these liabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The work these drivers are engaged in cannot be considered to be within the ambit of decent work and in reality, is representative of modern slavery. The algorithm of the companies they work for, pits them against their peers in order to maximize profit, while at the same time denying them social security or protection and essentially refusing to acknowledge them as employees.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Drivers working in various cities and working for different app-based platforms have complained about the lack of transparency in how these app-based companies determine fares, promotional cost, surge pricing, incentives, penalties and bonuses. There is little to no information on how rides are being fixed or are being allocated. There also isn't any effective grievance redressal mechanism to resolve any of the issues faced by workers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The apathy of the state and the exploitation by app-based companies have brought the transport and delivery workers in a precipitous position across the globe. This is underlined and explained by the absence and lack of any social security or protection for the workforce, there are some other issues that the workforce is battling during the Covid-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Hear our voices and address our demands.</p>
<p>- <em>Shaik Salauddin</em></p>
<p>National General Secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT)<br /> Phone: +91 96424 24799</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</strong><br /> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/connectifat/" target="_blank">connectifat</a><br /> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/connect_ifat" target="_blank">@connect_ifat</a><br /> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1AxGq0Fb_A_O_Ey44eiPg" target="_blank">Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety'>https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety</a>
</p>
No publisherIndian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi officeDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkDigital LabourCovid19ResearchPlatform-WorkFeaturedHomepage2021-06-29T06:53:47ZBlog EntryAtmanirbhar Bharat Meets Digital India: An Evaluation of COVID-19 Relief for Migrants
https://cis-india.org/raw/migrant-workers-solidarity-network-and-cis-ankan-barman-atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india-an-evaluation-of-covid-19-relief-for-migrants
<b>With the onset of the national lockdown on 24th March 2020 in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the fate of millions of migrant workers was left uncertain. In addition, lack of enumeration and registration of migrant workers became a major obstacle for all State Governments and the Central Government to channelize relief and welfare measures.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A majority of workers were dependent on relief provided by NGOs, Civil Society Organizations and individuals or credit via kinship networks. With mounting domestic and international pressures, various relief and welfare schemes were rolled out but they were too little, too late and more often than not characterised by poor implementation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The aim of this report is to qualitatively assess health conditions of migrant workers and access to welfare during the first COVID-19 lockdown. The primary focus is on the host states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana. 20 in-depth interviews were conducted remotely with migrant workers working in various sectors. Their access to welfare schemes of the Central Government as well as of their host states was ascertained. Emphasis was also laid on their access to healthcare facilities in relation to COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 ailments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The findings of the report showcase a dismal state of affairs. No one in our sample group received any kind of dry ration or cooked food in a sustained manner and, in the rare occasions when they did, it was woefully inadequate. Of the three states considered, we found that relief distribution was the best in Tamil Nadu followed by Maharashtra and then Haryana. Even the Direct Cash Transfer Scheme of the Central Government under ‘<i>Atmanirbhar Bharat</i>’ did not reach the migrant workers. Moreover, the migrant workers were apprehensive to report any COVID-19 related symptom due to the draconian treatment that followed therein and the crumbling healthcare sector made it impossible to avail facilities in non-COVID-19 related issues. Lastly, a case has been made for the creation of bottom-level infrastructures to further dialogue between various stakeholders, including associations of migrant workers, for the implementation of schemes and policies which can consolidate migrant workers as a relevant political subject. As migrant workers reel from the impact of the second wave, pushing for on-ground infrastructure and supporting community-based organisations becomes even more urgent.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf">Click here to read the report</a> authored by Ankan Barman and edited by Ayush Rathi. [PDF, 882 kb]</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/migrant-workers-solidarity-network-and-cis-ankan-barman-atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india-an-evaluation-of-covid-19-relief-for-migrants'>https://cis-india.org/raw/migrant-workers-solidarity-network-and-cis-ankan-barman-atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india-an-evaluation-of-covid-19-relief-for-migrants</a>
</p>
No publisherankanRAW PublicationsResearchers at WorkCovid19FeaturedLabour FuturesAadhaarHomepage2021-06-03T12:53:57ZBlog EntryAtmanirbhar Bharat Meets Digital India
https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf'>https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherankanRAW ResearchRAW PublicationsResearchers at Work2021-06-03T12:32:47ZFileThe Many Languages of Digital Infrastructures
https://cis-india.org/raw/india-seminar-pp-sneha-and-anasuya-gupta-the-many-languages-of-digital-infrastructures
<b>This essay by Puthiya Purayil Sneha and Anasuya Sengupta outlines some of the key challenges in digitalisation and representation of non-dominant/marginalised languages on the internet today, through reflections on two recent projects related to languages and the internet. The essay has been published in Seminar Magazine, as part of its thematic focus this month on 'Navigating Language in a Digital Age.'</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The ongoing pandemic has compelled much needed reflection on questions of access and infrastructure in India, especially during a time that has rendered the internet and digital technologies as essential, and in many ways the ‘new normal’.Even as we have been coming to terms with how best to cope with a myriad set of new regulations for public and private life now, framed with the promise of a ‘digital India’ in mind, the need to create diverse, inclusive and equitable information societies has become the need of the hour. Linguistic barriers in particular, in reading, writing and speaking in multiple languages on digital interfaces remain persistent today across the world, especially for marginalized and non-dominant communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This essay outlines some of the challenges in digitalisation and representation of non-dominant/marginalised languages on the internet today, through reflections on two recent initiatives related to languages and the internet. The first is a forthcoming report on the ‘State of the Internet’s Languages’ (STIL), led by Whose Knowledge? in collaboration with the Oxford Internet Institute and Centre for Internet and Society. The second is a series of collaborative and exploratory short-term research projects on Wikimedia platforms and communities in India, undertaken by team members of the Access to Knowledge programme at CIS. Both projects aim to map and address some of these issues related to the representation and usability of diverse languages on the internet.</p>
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<p><a class="external-link" href="https://www.india-seminar.com/2021/742/742_puthiya_and_anasuya.htm" style="text-align: justify; ">Click here to read</a><span style="text-align: justify; "> the full essay published in Seminar Magazine.</span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/india-seminar-pp-sneha-and-anasuya-gupta-the-many-languages-of-digital-infrastructures'>https://cis-india.org/raw/india-seminar-pp-sneha-and-anasuya-gupta-the-many-languages-of-digital-infrastructures</a>
</p>
No publisherPP Sneha and Anasuya SenguptaResearchers at Work2021-06-02T16:05:43ZBlog EntrySameet Panda - Data Systems in Welfare: Impact of the JAM Trinity on Pension & PDS in Odisha during COVID-19
https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-jam-trinity-pension-pds-odisha-covid-19
<b>This study by Sameet Panda tries to understand the integration of data and digital systems in welfare delivery in Odisha. It brings out the impact of welfare digitalisation on beneficiaries through primary data collected in November 2020. The researcher is thankful to community members for sharing their lived experiences during course of the study. Fieldwork was undertaken in three panchayats of Bhawanipatna block of Kalahandi district, Odisha. Additional research support was provided by Apurv Vivek and Vipul Kumar, and editorial contributions were made by Ambika Tandon (Senior Researcher, CIS). This study was conducted as part of a project on gender, welfare, and surveillance, supported by Privacy International, UK.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-impact-of-the-jam-trinity-on-pension-pds-in-odisha-during-covid-19" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<h3>Extract from the Report</h3>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated flaws in social institutions as never before - threatening food security, public health systems, and livelihood in the informal sector. At the time of writing this report,
India is the second-worst affected country in the world with over 9.8 million confirmed cases and more than 1.4 hundred thousand deaths. Unemployment has been increasing at an alarming rate, from 6.67 to 7 percent in October...</p>
<p>Following the national lockdown, many families belonging to low-income groups and daily wage earners found themselves stranded without money, food or credit from their employers. During the strict lockdown of the economy between March to June 2020 lakhs of migrants faced starvation in cities and walked back home. The government responded with some urgent measures, although inadequate. To cope with the food and economic crisis the Government of India and state governments initiated several social protection schemes. In Odisha, The central government provided two kinds of support, cash transfer through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) MGNREGS, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUJ), advance release of pension in cash to existing beneficiaries and cash support of Rs. 1000. The Odisha government provided cash support of Rs. 1000
to ration card holding families. Beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System also received free-of-cost food grain under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana...</p>
<p>Over the last couple of years, along with making the Aadhaar mandatory, the government has also been working towards linking mobile numbers and bank accounts of beneficiaries. An increasing number of schemes are shifting to Direct Benefit Transfer from in-kind or cash benefits - 324 schemes under 51 ministries of the Government of India. Such schemes are relying on the linkage of Jan Dhan accounts, the Aadhaar, and mobile numbers (the “JAM trinity”) to facilitate access to Direct Benefit Transfers. The Economic Survey 2015-16 has pointed out that without improving mobile penetration and rural banking infrastructure making the JAM trinity mandatory would continue to lead to exclusions. The issues with each of the components of the JAM trinity worsened during the COVID-19 crisis with restrictions on physical movement, difficulties in topping up mobile phone accounts, and enrolling for the Aadhaar or addressing other technical issues.</p>
<p>This report assesses the role of the data system in welfare delivery. It focuses on the impact of the three components of the JAM trinity - Jan Dhan Account, mobile numbers and the Aadhaar on Direct Benefit Transfer, social security pension and the Public Distribution System. The objective of this study is to understand the challenges faced by beneficiaries in accessing PDS and pension as a result of digitisation processes. This includes failures in Direct Benefit Transfers and exclusions from databases, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on gender as a key component shaping the impact of digitisation on beneficiaries. The sample includes both men and women beneficiaries in order to identify such gendered differences. It will also identify infrastructural constraints in Odisha that impact the implementation of digital systems in welfare. Also, it will analyse policy frameworks at central and state levels, to compare their discourse with the impact on the ground.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-jam-trinity-pension-pds-odisha-covid-19'>https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-jam-trinity-pension-pds-odisha-covid-19</a>
</p>
No publisherSameet PandaWelfare GovernanceData SystemsHomepageResearchFeaturedGender, Welfare, and PrivacyResearchers at Work2021-02-26T07:36:10ZBlog EntryBlinkit protests: For gig workers, there is no income security – and little legal recourse
https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-aditi-surie-and-ambika-tandon-april-20-2023-blinkit-protests-for-gig-workers-there-is-no-income-security
<b>Aditi Surie and Ambika Tandon co-authored an opinion essay on the reasons behind a week-long strike by workers of Blinkit — a popular hyperlocal delivery platform. The protests were in response to changes in Blinkit’s policies that will halve workers’ pay.</b>
<p>The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/blinkit-protests-for-gig-workers-there-is-no-income-security-8567205/">Indian Express</a> on April 20, 2023.</p>
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<p>By calling themselves 'intermediaries' platforms are reducing workers' incomes, increasing labour insecurity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a class="external-link" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/why-blinkit-ops-are-hit-in-delhi-ncr-8555370/">Blinkit delivery agents have been on strike for a week</a></b> as a reaction to changes that will halve their monthly incomes. The protests started after the company changed the basis on which they will get paid, and how much they will get paid. These two factors: The calculation of “wages” and the actual sum of money earned have been at the heart of many gig worker protests over the years. Uber and Ola drivers have protested about big drops in their income over the years. The Blinkit protests last week are a reminder of the kind of problems that are specific to gig-platform workers. Gig-platform worker wages can be changed quickly, and are at the mercy of much larger forces in a platform company like Blinkit.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Despite being labelled self-employed independent contractors by companies, platform workers have little control over their terms of work. They have to get used to platforms dictating how much they earn per task if they want to work. But to change the entire structure of pay has made many workers feel defrauded and lied to. Until these changes, Blinkit used to pay workers through an assured base pay of Rs 25 with incentives on top that nudged workers to work more, faster, or on particular days. As per workers’ accounts, this allowed them to earn Rs 6,000 to 7,000 a week with a degree of certainty, with Rs 1,400 to 1,500 being spent on fuel and other expenses. The base pay had already been reduced last year from Rs 50 despite rising fuel costs and inflation driving up costs of survival. In the current instance of policy change, the company provided no prior information to workers that they would, now, be paid for each kilometre they drive. Platforms like to call this “effort”-based pay. The effort here is how far your motorcycle runs and has little to do with how much real effort it takes to complete a delivery. For Blinkit, which provides grocery delivery within a 2-km radius, the chance for workers to make a secure income is low. Their incomes also depend on the rate for each kilometre ridden. This rate always changes, but most delivery agents do not know when it will change. It can change at any given day or week, or time in the day so that there is no surety on how much a worker will take home any given week.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Incentive-driven payout structures have “gamified” platform work, such that workers are forced to compete for an increasing number of tasks within compressed periods with the promise of bonus pay. These structures are constantly shifting, with workers complaining that companies reduce their task allocations so they are unable to meet their incentives. This level of volatility and uncertainty is a hallmark of taxi and delivery platforms.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To access the full article, log on to <a class="external-link" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/blinkit-protests-for-gig-workers-there-is-no-income-security-8567205/">Indian Express web page</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-aditi-surie-and-ambika-tandon-april-20-2023-blinkit-protests-for-gig-workers-there-is-no-income-security'>https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-aditi-surie-and-ambika-tandon-april-20-2023-blinkit-protests-for-gig-workers-there-is-no-income-security</a>
</p>
No publisherAditi Surie and Ambika TandonLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T07:30:52ZBlog EntryPlatforms, Power and Politics: Digital Labour in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-digital-labour-in-india
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) invites you to a webinar wherein it will launch and present four research reports on digital labour in India. The webinar will be hosted on July 28, 2021 at 5 p.m. (IST) / 11.30 a.m. (UTC)</b>
<p><a class="external-link" href="https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dK1i_pvXSTSXS2gNq80qFA">Click here to register for the Event Now</a></p>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics.pdf" class="internal-link">Download the brochure of the Event here</a></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Few recent developments in labour and employment have attracted as much attention as the expansion of platform economies. Spanning a range of services and industries, digital platforms have become a permanent fixture in upper-class urban consumption in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>In this webinar, we will launch and present four research reports on digital labour in India, hosted at the Centre for Internet and Society. Together, they uncover aspects of labouring in three dominant industries of platform work: logistics, transportation, and domestic and care work. These works were supported separately by the Azim Premji University and Foundation, and the Feminist Internet Research Network (incubated by the Association for Progressive Communications).</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span> </span><span>Informed by deep ethnographic work, these reports unpack the contours of power, control and resistance that shape the experience and outcomes of working </span><i>for</i><span> digital platforms. The reports arrive at the ways in which platforms, as moving techno-social assemblages </span>[<a href="#1">1</a>] <span>distribute risk and reward in ways that implicate the livelihoods, agency, and bargaining power of actors across digital platforms’ value chains.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Each of these reports also contributes towards developing a southern understanding <span>platform work. In contexts where there is an increasing reliance on technology providers for developmental outcomes and provision of public services, and informality is the dominant labour market structure, what does it mean to work on digital platforms? By situating the histories of informal work in India, and the intersectional identities constituting informality, these reports highlight how digital platforms can both reinforce and reorient the transaction of informal service work.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With restrictions on public mobility and the “hygiene theatre”[<a href="#2">2</a>]resulting from the outbreak of covid-19, digital labour platforms have sought to entrench their position in urban India as providers of ‘essential services’. As digital platforms gain centre-stage in India’s various marketplaces, it becomes all the more urgent to collectively reflect upon languages of strategic intervention that can enable a worker-first and southern imagination of digital platform work, and grassroots as well as policy thought around it.</p>
<p>We invite researchers, practitioners, activists and students from across disciplines to join us in this venture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The event will be segmented into 4 presentations (of 10-12 minutes each), with space for discussion and feedback at the end of each presentation. The detailed agenda, and a reading list are provided below.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; "><span style="text-align: justify; ">Agenda</span></h3>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">5.00 p.m.: Introduction</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">5.05 p.m. <strong>Session 1: Perspectives from platformisation of domestic and care work in India</strong> - Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi, Centre for Internet and Society</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">5.25 p.m.: <strong>Session 2: Promise and prescriptions in the platformisation of food delivery work in Mumbai</strong> - Simiran Lalvani, University of Oxford</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">5.45 p.m.: Break</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">5.50 p.m.: <strong>Session 3: ‘Taxi’ nahi chalata hoon main (I don’t drive a Taxi): Flexibility and risk in the Ridehailing platform economy in Mumbai</strong> - Anushree Gupta, IIT Hyderabad</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">6.10 p.m.: <strong>Session 4: The unbearable lightness of being: Performing precarious cab-driving in Delhi</strong> - Sarah Zia, Independent researcher</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">6.30 p.m.: Discussion and Closing</span></p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><span style="text-align: justify; ">Moderator: Noopur Raval, AI Now</span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2><span>Reading List</span></h2>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi (2021). Platforms, Power and Politics: Perspectives from Domestic and Care Work in India.<br /></strong>Through exhaustive platform-mapping and feminist ethnographic work, the authors uncovers the implications of digital platforms’ operations on domestic and care workers’ civil liberties, social protection, and gainful work outcomes. Access the full <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-perspectives-from-domestic-and-care-work-in-india">report here</a><span>.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Simiran Lalvani (2019). Workers’ fictive kinship relations in Mumbai app-based food delivery.</strong><br />This essay unpacks the kinship term <i>bhai</i><span> (brother) in order to understand the implications of such kinship sedimentations on food delivery work in Mumbai. Complicating the notion of an atomised worker, it details how having a fictive kinship ties with a </span><i>bhai</i><span> eases entry to platform work, upon joining ties guide negotiation with the discipline imposed by the employer and reflects on the experience of women workers. Read the </span><a href="http://blog.castac.org/2019/07/workers-fictive-kinship-relations-in-mumbai-app-based-food-delivery/">essay here</a><span>.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Sarah Zia (2019).</strong><span> </span><strong>Not knowing as pedagogy: Ride-hailing drivers in Delhi.<br /></strong>Ride-hailing platforms have “disrupted” public transport in India since their arrival but what hasn’t received enough attention is how these platforms create a deliberate regime of information invisibility and control to keep the drivers constantly on their toes which works to the companies’ advantage. This essay explores how the lack of transparency around algorithmic structures not only prohibits drivers from knowing completely and surely about their work (“why did I get this ride?”, “why did my ratings drop?”) but also how they build tactics of coping and earning from a place of unknowing. <span>Read the </span><a href="http://blog.castac.org/2019/07/not-knowing-as-pedagogy-ride-hailing-drivers-in-delhi/">essay here</a><span>.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Anushree Gupta (2019). Ladies ‘Log’: Women’s Safety and Risk Transfer in Ridehailing.</strong><br />Gig work produces new risks and safety concerns that require new mediations and negotiations. This post outlines the gendered cityscapes that drivers in the ride hailing sector navigate on an everyday basis. Building on insights from fieldwork in the ridehailing economy in Mumbai, the essay argues that drivers rely not only on their spatial knowledge of the city, but also on social knowledge that genders social exchange, predicates identities and draws boundaries. Analysing women’s presence as workers and passengers/customers, the author highlights the figure of the woman and the gendered forms of labour that underpin gig workers’ everyday realities. Read the <a href="http://blog.castac.org/2019/08/ladies-log-womens-safety-and-risk-transfer-in-ridehailing/">essay here</a><span>.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Noopur Raval (2019). Power Chronography of Food-Delivery Work.</strong><br />This essay presents the observations around the design of temporality within app-based food-delivery platforms in India. It draws on semi-structured interviews by field-researcher Rajendra and his time spent “hanging out” with food-delivery workers who are also often referred to as “hunger saviors” and “partners” in the platform ecosystem in India. Read the <a href="http://blog.castac.org/2019/08/power-chronography-of-food-delivery-work/">essay here</a><span>.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Simiran Lalvani (2021). Sexual contracts of app-based food delivery: An examination of social reproduction through feeding and being fed in Mumbai, India.</strong><br />What happens to socially reproductive norms of feeding when apps seem to democratise work? How does this work mediate the tension between workers’, consumers’ choices and the prescription of dominant norms about feeding and being fed? This paper examines the socio-cultural burdens and risks that arise for workers and customers through 3 interrelated aspects – (i) household requirements of food delivery work, (ii) the definition, social meanings and anxieties associated with eating out and (iii) how platforms make anxiety inducing outside food popular, if not palatable. Read the <a href="https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/44269/plattformkapitalismus-und-die-krise-der-sozialen-reproduktion?cHash=2fbe6d0d75def9f0295410605939c43a">chapter here</a><span>.</span></li>
</ol>
<p><span> </span></p>
<hr />
<p class="discreet">[1] <a name="1"></a><span>Edwards, D.W. and B. Gelms. (2018). ‘The rhetorics of platforms: Definitions, approaches, futures’, </span><i>Present Tense: Special Issue on the Rhetoric of Platforms, 6(3).</i></p>
<p class="discreet"><i> </i><span style="text-align: justify; ">[2] </span><a name="2"></a><span style="text-align: justify; ">Thompson, D. (July 27, 2020). Hygiene Theater Is a Huge Waste of Time. </span><i style="text-align: justify; ">The Atlantic</i><span style="text-align: justify; ">. Available at </span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/" style="text-align: justify; ">https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-digital-labour-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-digital-labour-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherambikaDigital LabourResearchers at WorkEvent2021-07-20T02:42:47ZEventParichiti - Domestic Workers’ Access to Secure Livelihoods in West Bengal
https://cis-india.org/raw/parichiti-domestic-workers-access-to-secure-livelihoods-west-bengal
<b>This report by Anchita Ghatak of Parichiti presents findings of a pilot study conducted by the author and colleagues to document the situation of women domestic workers (WDWs) in the lockdown and the initial stages of the lifting of restrictions. This study would not have been possible without the WDWs who agreed to be interviewed for this study and gave their time generously. We are grateful to Dr Abhijit Das of the Centre for Health and Social Justice for his advice and help. The report is edited by Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon, and this work forms a part of the CIS’s project on gender, welfare and surveillance supported by Privacy International, United Kingdom.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Domestic Workers’ Access to Secure Livelihoods in West Bengal: <a href="https://www.parichiti.org.in/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Final%20report_WDW_Lockdown.pdf" target="_blank">Read</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Cross-posted from <a href="https://www.parichiti.org.in/r&p.php" target="_blank">Parichiti</a>.</h4>
<hr />
<h2>Executive Summary</h2>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of women from poor communities work as domestic workers in Kolkata. Domestic work is typically a precarious occupation, with very little recognition in legislation or policy. Along with other workers in the informal economy, women domestic workers (WDWs) were severely impacted by the national lockdown enforced in March, with loss of livelihood and few options for survival.</p>
<p>Parichiti works with WDWs in 20 different locations - slums and informal settlements in Kolkata and villages in south 24 Parganas. We conducted this pilot study from late June to August 2020 to document the situation of WDWs from March onwards, in the lockdown and the initial stages of lifting of restrictions. We interviewed 14 WDWs on the phone to record their experiences during the lockdown and after, including impact on livelihoods. The objectives of the study were to document the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the lives of WDWs, with focus on economic and health dimensions.</p>
<p>We found that most domestic workers in our sample were paid for March, but faced difficulties in procuring wages April onwards. During this period, they faced economic hardships that threatened their survival, with members of their family also involved in the informal sector and experiencing loss of wages. Workers survived on relief received through civil society or by taking loans from banks or informal lenders. Some are now stuck in a debt trap.</p>
<p>Most went back to work from June, but faced several barriers – public transport services continued to be dysfunctional, apartment complexes prohibited entry of outsiders, and employers were reluctant to allow workers into their homes. Employers were wary of workers if they were employed in multiple households or used public transport, forcing workers to adapt to these conditions. Due to these reasons, some workers lost their jobs permanently, while others returned with lower wages or lower number of employers. Workers were well aware of the precautions to be taken at the home and workplace with regards to Covid-19.</p>
<p>Many WDWs were unable to access ration through the Public Distribution System. Some were not enrolled and others were enrolled in the districts they had migrated from. Some were not classified as below the poverty line and were hence not priority households for the state, although they were ‘deserving’ beneficiaries. All of the respondents were affected by Cyclone Amphan, which devastated parts of the state in May 2020. Despite the announcement of a sizeable compensation by the state, those whose homes were impacted were unable to get any relief. WDWs overall tended to not rely on the state for welfare or health services. Many regarded public health systems to have poor quality services, and turned to private services when possible. Both central and state governments fell short of meeting the needs of WDWs during the pandemic, which could potentially have long-term impact on their income and health.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/parichiti-domestic-workers-access-to-secure-livelihoods-west-bengal'>https://cis-india.org/raw/parichiti-domestic-workers-access-to-secure-livelihoods-west-bengal</a>
</p>
No publisherAnchita GhatakGig WorkResearchNetwork EconomiesPublicationsGender, Welfare, and PrivacyResearchers at Work2020-12-30T10:01:36ZBlog EntryInputs to the Report on the Non-Personal Data Governance Framework
https://cis-india.org/raw/inputs-to-report-on-non-personal-data-governance-framework
<b>This submission presents a response by researchers at the Centre for Internet and Society, India (CIS) to the draft Report on Non-Personal Data Governance Framework prepared by the Committee of Experts under the Chairmanship of Shri Kris Gopalakrishnan. The inputs are authored by Aayush Rathi, Aman Nair, Ambika Tandon, Pallavi Bedi, Sapni Krishna, and Shweta Mohandas (in alphabetical order), and reviewed by Sumandro Chattapadhyay.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Text of submitted inputs: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/cis-inputs-to-report-on-non-personal-data-governance-framework" target="_blank">Read</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Report by the Committee of Experts on Non-Personal Data Governance Framework: <a href="https://static.mygov.in/rest/s3fs-public/mygov_159453381955063671.pdf" target="_blank">Read</a> (PDF)</h4>
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<h2>Inputs</h2>
<h3>Clause 3.7 (v): The role of the Indian government in the operation of data markets</h3>
<p>While highlighting the potential for India to be one of the top consumer and data markets of the world, it also sheds light on the concern about the possibility of data monopolies. The clause envisions the role of the Indian government as a regulator and a catalyst for domestic data markets.</p>
<p>In doing so, the clause does not acknowledge that the proactive and dominant roles of the Indian government in generation and reuse of data, based on the existing data collection practices, as well as the provisions that have been given, as under the compulsory sharing provisions in the Report, and would continue to be given by the Personal Data Protection Bill. In reality, the Indian government’s role is not just of a catalyst but also of a key player, potentially with monopolistic market power, in the domestic data market, especially due to the ongoing data marketplace initiatives as detailed in published policy and vision documents. [1]</p>
<h3>Clause 3.8 (iv): Introducing collective privacy</h3>
<p>The introduction of collective privacy has initiated an overdue discussion at the policy level to arrive at privacy formulations that account for limitations in the contemporary dominant social, legal and ethical paradigms of privacy premised on individual interests and personal harm. The notion of collective privacy has garnered contemporary attention with the rise of data processing technologies and business models that thrive on the collection and processing of aggregate information.</p>
<p>While the Report acknowledges that collective privacy is an evolving concept, it doesn’t attempt to define either collective or what privacy could entail in the context of a collective. The postulation of collective privacy as a legally binding right is bereft with challenges in both domestic and international legal frameworks. [2]</p>
<p>Central to these challenges is the representation of the group of the entity. While the Report illustrates harms that may be incurred by certain collectives that collective privacy could protect against, these illustrated collectives are already recognised in law as rights-holding groups (society members, for example), and/or share pre-determined attributes (sexual orientation, for example).</p>
<p>The Report does not acknowledge that the very technological processes that may have rendered the articulation of collective privacy necessary, also are intended to create ad-hoc and newer sets of individuals or groups with shared attributes. [3] In doing so, the Report furthers an ontology of groups having intuitive, predetermined attributes that exist naturally, or in law, whereas the intervention of data collection and processing technologies can determine shared group attributes afresh. Moreover, the Report also ignores that predetermined attributes are static, and in doing so, ignores a vast existing literature speaking to fluidity of identities and the intersectionality of identities that individuals in groups occupy. [4] We fully appreciate the challenges these pose in the determination of the legal contours of collective privacy. Much of the Report’s recommendations are premised on the idea of a predetermined collective, rendering more granular exploration of these ideas urgent.</p>
<p>Further, the Report also puts forth a limited conception of privacy as a safeguard against data-related harms that may be caused to collectives. In doing so, it dilutes the conceptualisation of individual privacy as articulated in Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) and Anr. vs Union Of India And Ors. Notwithstanding this dilution, the illustrations also only indicate harms that may be caused by private actors. Any further recommendations should envision the harms that may also be caused by public data-driven processes, such as those incubated within the state machinery.</p>
<h3>Clause 4.1 (iii) and Recommendation 1: Defining Non-Personal Data</h3>
<p>The Report proposes the definition of non-personal data to include (i) data that was never related to an identified or identifiable natural person, and (ii) aggregated, anonymised personal data such that individual events are “no longer identifiable”. In doing so, they have attempted to extend protections to categories of data that fall outside the ambit of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (hereafter “PDP Bill”). The Report is cognizant of the fallible nature of anonymization techniques but fails to indicate how these may be addressed.
The test of anonymization in regarding data as non-personal data requires further clarification. Anonymization, in and of itself, is an ambiguous standard. Scholarship has indicated that anonymised data may never be completely anonymous. [5] Despite this, the PDP Bill proposes a high threshold of zero-risk of anonymization in relation to personal data, to mean “such irreversible process of transforming or converting personal data to a form in which a data principal cannot be identified”. From a plain reading, it appears that the Report proposes a lower threshold of the anonymization requirements governing non-personal data. It is unclear how non-personal data would then be different from inferred data as described within the definition of personal data under the PDP Bill. This adds regulatory uncertainty making it imperative for the Committee to articulate bright-line, risk-based principles and rules for the test of anonymization. Such rules should also indicate the factors that ought to be taken into account to determine whether anonymization has occurred and the timescale of reference for anonymization outcomes. [6]</p>
<p>The recommendation also states that the data principal should "also provide consent for anonymisation and usage of this anonymized data while providing consent for collection and usage of his/her personal data". However the framing of this recommendation fails to mention the responsibility of the data fiduciary to provide notice to the data principal about the usage of the anonymized data while seeking the data principal’s consent for anonymization. The notice provided to the data principal should provide clear indication that consent of the data principal is based on their knowledge of the use of the anonymized data.</p>
<h3>Clause 4.8 (i), (ii): Function of data custodians</h3>
<p>The Report does not make it clear who may perform the role of data custodians. The use of data fiduciary indicates the potential import of the definition of ‘data fiduciary’ as specified under Clause 3.13 of the PDP Bill. However, this needs to be further clarified.</p>
<h3>Clause 4.8 (iii): Data custodians’ “duty of care”</h3>
As is outlined in the following section on data trustees, it can be difficult for a singular entity to maintain a duty of care and undertake actions with the best interest of a community when that community consists of sub-communities that may be marginalised.
Further, ‘duty of care’, ‘best interest’, and ‘absence of harm’ are not sufficient standards for data processing by data custodians. Recommendations to the effect of obligating data custodians to uphold the rights of data principals, including economic and fundamental rights need to be incorporated in the framework.
<h3>Clause 4.9: Data trustees</h3>
<p>The committee’s suggestion that the “most appropriate representative body” should be the data trustee—that often being either the corresponding government entity or community body— is reasonable at face value. However, in the absence of any clear principles defining what constitutes “most appropriate” there are a number of potential issues that can appear:</p>
<p><strong>Lack of means for selecting a data trustee:</strong> The report makes note of the fact that both private and public entities can be selected to be data trustees but offers no principles on how these data trustees can be selected, i.e. whether they are to be directly selected by the members of a community, and if so how. Any selection criteria or process prescribed has to keep in mind the following point regarding the potential lack of representation for marginalised communities that could arise from a direct selection of a data trustee by a group of people.</p>
<p><strong>Issues of having a single data trustee for large scale communities and when dealing with marginalised communities:</strong> The report assumes that in instances wherein a community is spread across a geographic region, or consists of multiple sub-communities, then the data trustee will be the closest shared government authority (for example, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India being the data trustee for data regarding diabetes among Indian citizens).</p>
<p><strong>This idea of a singular data trustee assumes that the ‘best interests’ of a community are uniform across that community. This can prove problematic especially when dealing with data obtained from marginalised communities that forms a part of a wider dataset.</strong> It is entirely possible to imagine that a smaller disenfranchised community may have interests that are not aligned with the general majority. In such a situation the Report is unclear as to whether the data trustee would have to ensure that the best interests of all groups are maintained, or would they be responsible for ensuring the best interests of the largest number of people within that community.
There are power differentials between citizens, government agencies, and other entities described by the Report. This places citizens at risk of abuse of power by government entities in their role as trustees, who are effectively being empowered through this policy framework as opposed to a representative mechanism. It is recommended that data trustees be appointed by relevant communities through clear and representative mechanisms. Additionally, any individual should be able to file complaints regarding the discharge of community trust by data trustees. This is necessary as any subsequent rights vested in the community can only be exercised through the data trustee, and become unenforceable in the lack of an appropriate data trustee.</p>
<p>Any legislation that arises on the basis of this report will therefore have to not only provide a means for selecting the data trustee, but also safeguards for ensuring that data collected from marginalised communities are used keeping in mind their specific best interests—with these best interests being informed through consultation with that community.</p>
<h3>Clause 4.10 (iii): Data trusts</h3>
<p>Section 4.10 (iii) notes that data custodians may voluntarily share data in these data trusts. However it is unclear if such sharing must be done with the express consent of the relevant data trustee.</p>
<h3>Clause 4.10 (iv): Mandatory sharing and competition</h3>
<p>The fundamental premise of a mandatory data sharing regime seems increasingly distant from its practical impacts. The EU which earlier championed the cause now seems reluctant to further it on the face of studies which skews towards counteractive impacts of such steps. Such steps could apply to huge volumes of first-party data companies collect on their own assets, products and services, even though such data are among the least likely to create barriers to entry or contribute to abuses of dominant positions. [7] This is hence likely to bring in more chilling effect on innovation and investment than a pro-competition environment. The velocity of big data also adds to the futility of such data sharing mandates. [8] It is recommended that a sectoral analysis of this mandate be undertaken instead of an overarching stipulation.</p>
<p>The Report suggests extensive data sharing without addressing the extent of obligation on the private players to submit to these requests and process them. The availability of meta-data about the data collected may be made easily accessible under mandates of transparency. However, the access to the detailed underlying data will be difficult in most cases due to the current structure of entities functioning in cyberspace, evidenced by the lack of compliance to such mandates by Courts of Law in the EU. Such a system can easily eliminate the comparative advantage of smaller players, helping larger players with more money at their disposal enabling their growth and throttling the smaller players. It could have serious implications on data quality and integrity through the sharing of erroneous data. Access to superior quality digital services in India may also have to be compromised. If this regime is furthered without amends to address these concerns, it might end up counter productive.</p>
<h3>Clause 5.1 (iv): Grievance redressal against state’s role</h3>
<p>This clause acknowledges the vast potential for government authorities and other bodies to abuse their power as data trustee. In addition, it should describe the setting up of impartial and accessible mechanisms for citizens to complain against such abuse of power and appropriate penalties, including the removal of the data trustee.</p>
<h3>Chapter 7, Recommendation 5: Purpose of data-sharing</h3>
<p>Recommendation 5 leaves scope for “national security” as a sovereign purpose for data sharing. This continues to be in line with the trend of having an overarching national security clause, as in the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019. There could be provisions made to enable access to data for sovereign purposes without such broad definition, replacing it based on constitutional terms which will limit it to the confines laid down in the Constitution. This will effectively curb any misuse of the provision and strongly embed the proposed regulation of non-personal data on constitutional ethos. This can also prevent future conflicts with the fundamental rights.</p>
<p>Platform companies have leveraged their position in society to take on an ever-greater number of quasi-public functions, exercising new forms of unaccountable, transnational authority. It is not difficult to imagine that this trend can continue to non-platform companies, or even taken forward by these very entities which also have access to a large chunk of non-personal data. A strict division between sovereign purposes and core public interest purposes seems difficult. However, it is imperative to have a clearer definition of core public interest purposes and sovereign purposes. The broad based definition may facilitate reduced accountability. Separating government actions from sovereign purposes could bring forth the power imbalance between the State and its people, while in the case of the non-governmental entities, it will facilitate encroachment of government functions by private players. Both these cases may not consider the best interest of the data generators, or the people at large.</p>
<h3>Clause 7.1 (i): Data needs of law enforcement</h3>
<p>Clause 7.1 (i) allows for acquisition of data governed by this framework for crime mapping, devising anticipation and preventive measures, and for investigations and law enforcement. While this may be necessary to be granted to law enforcement in certain cases, this should happen only with an express permission of a court of law. Blanket executive access allows higher possibility of misuse by the people involved in law enforcement.</p>
<h3>Clause 7.2 (iv): Use of health data as a pilot</h3>
<p>The clause suggests the use of health sector data as a pilot use-case. This is highly undesirable due to the inherent nature of high sensitivity of the larger part of data related to the health sector. The high vulnerability of such data to harm the data principals should act as a deterrent in using this as the pilot use-case. Given the mass availability of data related to the health sector due to the pandemic, it creates further points of vulnerabilities which can be illegally monetised and misappropriated. It is recommended that this proposal be scrapped altogether.</p>
<h3>Clause 7.2 (iii): Power of government bodies</h3>
<p>As per this clause, data trustees or government bodies (who could also be acting as data trustees) can make requests for data sharing and place such data in appropriate data infrastructures or trusts. This presents a conflict of interest, as a data trust or government body can empower itself to be the data trustee. Such cases should be addressed within the scope of the framework.</p>
<h3>Clause 8.2 (vii): Level-playing field for all Indian actors</h3>
<p>In terms of this clause the “Non-Personal Data Authority (Authority) will ensure a level playing field for all Indian actors to fulfil the objective of maximising Indian data’s value to the Indian economy”. The emphasis on ensuring a level playing field for only Indian actors instead of non-discriminatory platform for all concerned actors irrespective of the country/nationality of the actor has the potential of violating India’s trade obligations under the WTO. Member states of the WTO are essentially restricted from discriminating between products and services coming from different WTO Members, and between foreign and domestic products and services unless they can avail of exceptions. There is also no clarity on what constitutes ‘Indian Actors’, would a Multi-National Corporation with its headquarters in a foreign State, but its subsidiaries in India also come within its ambit.</p>
<h3>Clause 8.2 (x): Composition of the Authority</h3>
<p>Clause 8.2 (x) states that the Authority will have some members with relevant industry experience. However, apart from this clause, the report is silent on the composition of the Authority. The report recognises that Authority will need individuals/organisations with specialised knowledge, i.e. data governance, technology, latest research and innovation in the field of non-personal data), however, it does not mention or refer to the role of civil society organisations and the need for representation from such organisations in the Authority.</p>
<p>The report frequently alludes to non-personal data being used for the best interest of the data principal and therefore, it is essential that the composition of the Authority reflect the inherent asymmetry of power between the data principal and the State. Considering that the Authority will also be responsible for sharing of community data and with determining the code of conduct for sharing of such data, it is important that the Authority also has adequate representation from civil society organisations along with groups or individuals having the necessary technological and legal skills.</p>
<h3>Clause 8.2 (iii) and (vi): Roles and Responsibility of the Authority</h3>
<p>A majority of the datasets in the country comprise of ‘mixed datasets’, i.e. it consists of both personal and non-personal data. However, there is lack of clarity about the coordination between the Data Protection Authority constituted under the PDP Bill and the Non-Personal Data Authority with regard to the regulation of such datasets. The Report refers to the European Union which provides that the Non-Personal Data Regulation applies to the Non-Personal Data of mixed datasets; if the Non-Personal Data part and the personal data parts are ‘inextricably linked’, the General Data Protection Regulation apply to the whole mixed dataset. However, it is unclear whether the Report also proposes the same mechanism for the regulation of mixed datasets.</p>
<p>Further, the contours of the enforcement role of the Committee should be specified and clearly laid down. Will the Committee also have penal powers as prescribed for the Data Protection Authority under the PDP Bill? Also, will the privacy concerns emanating from the risk of re-anonymisation of data be addressed by the NPD Committee or by the DPA under the PDP Bill. Ideally, it should be specified that any such privacy concerns will fall within the domain of the DPA as the data is then converted into personal data and the DPA will be empowered to deal with such issues.</p>
<h3>Endnotes</h3>
<p>[1] See Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2020). National Digital Health Blueprint. Government of India. <a href="https://main.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Final%20NDHB%20report_0.pdf">https://main.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Final%20NDHB%20report_0.pdf</a>; Tandon, A. (2019). Big Data and Reproductive Health in India: A Case Study of the Mother and Child Tracking System. <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/big-data-reproductive-health-india-mcts">https://cis-india.org/raw/big-data-reproductive-health-india-mcts</a></p>
<p>[2] Taylor, L., Floridi, L., van der Sloot, B. eds. (2017) Group Privacy: new challenges of data technologies. Dordrecht: Springer.</p>
<p>[3] Mittelstadt, B. (2017). From Individual to Group Privacy in Big Data Analytics. Philos. Technol. 30, 475–494.</p>
<p>[4] See Taylor, L., Floridi, L., van der Sloot, B. eds. (2017) Group Privacy: new challenges of data technologies. Dordrecht: Springer; Tisne, M. (n.d). The Data Delusion: Protecting Individual Data Isn't Enough When The Harm is Collective. Stanford Cyber Policy Centre. <a href="https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/publication/data-delusion">https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/publication/data-delusion</a></p>
<p>[5] Rocher, L., Hendrickx, J.M. & de Montjoye, Y. (2019). Estimating the success of re-identifications in incomplete datasets using generative models. Nat Commun 10, 3069 . <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10933-3">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10933-3</a></p>
<p>[6] Finck, M. & Pallas, F. (2020). They who must not be identified—distinguishing personal from non-personal data under the GDPR. International Data Privacy Law, 10 (1), 11–36. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/idpl/ipz026">https://doi.org/10.1093/idpl/ipz026</a></p>
<p>[7] European Commission (2020). Communication From The Commission To The European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions: A European strategy for data. <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1593073685620&uri=CELEX:52020DC0066">https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1593073685620&uri=CELEX:52020DC0066</a></p>
<p>[8] Modrall, Jay. (2019). Antitrust risks and Big Data. Norton Rose Fullbright. <a href="https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-in/knowledge/publications/64c13505/antitrust-risks-and-big-data">https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-in/knowledge/publications/64c13505/antitrust-risks-and-big-data</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/inputs-to-report-on-non-personal-data-governance-framework'>https://cis-india.org/raw/inputs-to-report-on-non-personal-data-governance-framework</a>
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No publishersumandroData SystemsPrivacyResearchers at WorkDigital EconomyData GovernanceSubmissions2020-12-30T09:40:52ZBlog EntryGender, Health, & Surveillance in India - A Panel Discussion
https://cis-india.org/raw/gender-health-surveillance-in-india-panel-discussion
<b>Women and LGBTHIAQ-identifying persons face intensive and varied forms of surveillance as they access reproductive health systems. Increasingly, these systems are also undergoing rapid digitisation. The panel was set-up to discuss the discursive, experiential and policy implications of these data-intensive developments on access to public health and welfare systems by women and LGBTHIAQ-identifying persons in India. The panelists presented studies undertaken as part of two projects at CIS, one of which is supported by Privacy International, UK, and the other by Big Data for Development network established by International Development Research Centre, Canada.</b>
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<h4>Event note and agenda: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/gender-health-surveillance-in-india-panel-agenda" target="_blank">Read</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Recording of the discussion: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgYxcD3NUuo" target="_blank">Watch</a> (YouTube)</h4>
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<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/QgYxcD3NUuo" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/gender-health-surveillance-in-india-panel-discussion'>https://cis-india.org/raw/gender-health-surveillance-in-india-panel-discussion</a>
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No publisherAayush Rathi and Ambika TandonData SystemsRAW EventsGenderReproductive and Child HealthSurveillanceResearchers at WorkEvent2020-12-23T14:03:13ZBlog Entry