Posts
Between Platform and Pandemic: Migrants in India's Gig Economy
- December 06, 2021
In response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in India, the central government announced a nationwide lockdown in March 2020.
Read more →#CultureForAll Conference on Cultural Mapping
- September 20, 2021
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.
Read more →June and July Newsletter
- August 10, 2021
The newsletter presents the work done in the months of June and July 2021.
Read more →Platforms, Power, and Politics: Perspectives from Domestic and Care Work in India
- June 25, 2021
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.
Read more →IFAT and ITF - Protecting Workers in the Digital Platform Economy: Investigating Ola and Uber Drivers’ Occupational Health and Safety
- August 25, 2020
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.
Read more →Atmanirbhar Bharat Meets Digital India: An Evaluation of COVID-19 Relief for Migrants
- June 03, 2021
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.
Read more →The Many Languages of Digital Infrastructures
- June 02, 2021
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.'
Read more →Sameet Panda - Data Systems in Welfare: Impact of the JAM Trinity on Pension & PDS in Odisha during COVID-19
- February 26, 2021
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.
Read more →Blinkit protests: For gig workers, there is no income security – and little legal recourse
- July 03, 2023
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.
Read more →