The Centre for Internet and Society
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Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) Convening Design
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/firn-convening-design
<b>Ambika Tandon attended a workshop organized by Association for Progressive Communications for grantees of the Feminist Internet Research Network as a panelist on a session on feminist research methods.. The workshop was held from 27 February to 1 March, in Malaysia. Represented from 8 organizations attended the workshop.</b>
<h3>Objectives of the convenining</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To inaugurate a network of feminist researcher in the field of digital technology for ongoing collaboration, advice and active solidarity.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To start trust building within the network through shared values and plot how it will work and how it will expand.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate exchange of learnings and capacity building among the network members and other resource persons, in particular.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate peer-feedback, collaboration and interdisciplinary discussions on research design, methodologies and research plans of the selected projects and other resource persons.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To get feedback on overall FIRN project research methodology/design.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To explore new and innovative methods, as well as get understand key developments and challenges in more established ways of collecting and analysing data in the four areas of the research initiative.</li>
</ul>
<div>For more information <a class="external-link" href="https://www.apc.org/en/feminist-internet-research-network-call-research-proposals">click here</a></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/firn-convening-design'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/firn-convening-design</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminGenderInternet Governance2019-03-01T01:08:54ZNews ItemImagine a Feminist Internet: Research, Practice and Policy in South Asia
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/imagine-a-feminist-internet-research-practice-and-policy-in-south-asia
<b>Internet Democracy Project and Point of View co-organized a two-day Imagine a Feminist Internet event in Sri Lanka on 22011 and 22 February 2019. Ambika Tandon was a speaker and presented a paper 'Framing Reproductive Health as a Data Problem? Unpacking ‘Dataveillance’ in India' which was co-authored by herself and Aayush Rathi.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The panel also had a presentation by Dr. Anja Kovacs, and was moderated by Eva Blum-Dumontet from Privacy International. Ambika also participated in a committee that drafted a declaration for policymakers based on the presentations at the conference, which is yet to be finalised. The agenda can be <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/ifi-draft-agenda">seen here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/imagine-a-feminist-internet-research-practice-and-policy-in-south-asia'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/imagine-a-feminist-internet-research-practice-and-policy-in-south-asia</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminGenderInternet Governance2019-02-27T01:52:55ZNews ItemUnbox Festival 2019: CIS organizes two Workshops
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/unbox-2019-festival
<b>Centre for Internet & Society organized two workshops at the Unbox Festival 2019, in Bangalore, on 15 and 17 February 2019. </b>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">'What is your Feminist Infrastructure Wishlist?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first workshop 'What is your Feminist Infrastructure Wishlist?' was on Feminist Infrastructure Wishlists that was conducted by P.P. Sneha and Saumyaa Naidu on 15 February 2019. The objective of the workshop was to explore what it means to have infrastructure that is feminist. How do we build spaces, networks, and systems that are equal, inclusive, diverse, and accessible? We will also reflect on questions of network configurations, expertise, labour and visibility. For reading material <a class="external-link" href="https://feministinternet.org/">click here</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">AI for Good</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With a backdrop of AI for social good, we explore existing applications of artificial intelligence, how we interact and engage with this technology on a daily basis. A discussion led by Saumyaa Naidu and Shweta Mohandas invited participants to examine current narratives around AI and imagine how these may transform with time. Questions around how we can build an AI for the future will become the starting point to trace its implications relating to social impact, policy, gender, design, and privacy. For reading materials see <a class="external-link" href="https://ainowinstitute.org/AI_Now_2018_Report.pdf">AI Now Report 2018</a>, <a class="external-link" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing">Machine Bias</a>, and <a class="external-link" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/why-do-so-many-digital-assistants-have-feminine-names/475884/">Why Do So Many Digital Assistants Have Feminine Names?</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For info on Unbox Festival, <a class="external-link" href="http://unboxfestival.com/">click here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/unbox-2019-festival'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/unbox-2019-festival</a>
</p>
No publishersaumyaaGenderInternet GovernanceArtificial Intelligence2019-02-26T01:53:39ZBlog EntryFeminist Methodology in Technology Research: A Literature Review
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-december-23-2018-feminist-methodology-in-technology-research
<b>This literature review has been authored by Ambika Tandon, with contributions from Mukta Joshi. Research assistance was provided by Kumarjeet Ray and Navya Sharma. The publication has been designed by Saumyaa Naidu.</b>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Abstract</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Feminist research methodology is a vast body of knowledge, spanning across multiple disciplines including sociology, media studies, and critical legal studies. This literature review aims to understand key aspects of feminist methodology across these disciplines, with a particular focus on research on technology and its interaction with society. Stemming from the argument that the ontological notion of objectivity effaces power relations in the process of knowledge production, feminist research is critical of the subjects, producers, and nature of knowledge. Section I of the literature review explores this argument along with a range of theoretical concepts, such as standpoint theory and historical materialism, as well as principles of feminist research derived from these, such as intersectionality and reflexivity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Given its critique of the "god's eye view" (Madhok and Evans, 2014) of objectivist research, feminist scholars have largely developed qualitative methods that are more conducive to acknowledgement of power hierarchies. Additionally, some scholars have recognised the political value in quantification of inequalities such as the wage gap, and have developed intersectional quantitative methods that aim at narrowing down measurable inequalities. Both sets of methods are explored in Section II of the literature review, interspersed with examples from research focused on technology.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Introduction</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">According to authoritative accounts on the subject, while research focused on gender or women predates its arrival, the field of ‘feminist methodology’ explores questions of epistemology and ontology of research and knowledge. Initiated in scholarship arising out of the second wave of North American feminism, it theoretically anchors itself in the post-modernist and post-structuralist traditions. It additionally critiques positivism for being a project furthering patriarchal oppression. North American feminist scholars critique traditional methods within the social sciences from an epistemological perspective, for producing acontextual and ahistorical knowledge, replicating the tendency of positivist science to enumerate and measure subjective social phenomena. This, according to them, leads to the invisiblising of the web of power relations within which the ‘known’ and ‘knower’ in knowledge production are placed. This is then used to devise methods and underlying principles and ethics for conducting more egalitarian research, aimed at achieving goals of social justice.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second wave feminist movement was itself critiqued by Black and other feminists from the global South for being exclusionary of non-white and heterosexual identities. Given its origins in the global North, scholars from the South have interrogated the meaning of feminism and feminist research in their context. Some African scholars even detail difficulty in disclosing a project as feminist publicly due to popular resistance to the term feminism, which stems from it being rejected by certain social groups as an alien social movement that’s antithetical to their “African cultural values." Their own critique of “White feminism” comes from its essentialization of womanhood and the resultant negation of the (neo)colonial and racialised histories of African women. This has led scholars from the global South to critically interrogate feminism and feminist methods. They acknowledge the multiplicity of feminisms, and initiate creative inquiries into different forms of feminist methodology. Feminist researchers that work in contexts of political violence, instability, repression, scarcity of resources, poor infrastructure, and/or lack of social security, have pointed out that traditional research methods assume conditions that are largely absent in their realities, leading them to experiment with feminist research.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Feminist research across these variety of contexts raises ontological and epistemological concerns about traditional research methods and underlying assumptions about what can be known, who can know, and the nature of knowledge itself. It argues that knowledge production has historically led to the creation of epistemic hierarchies, wherein certain actors are designated as ‘knowers’ and others as the ‘known’. Such hierarchies wreak epistemic violence upon marginalised subjects by denying them the agency to produce knowledge, and delegitimize forms of knowledge that aren’t normative. Acknowledging the role of power in knowledge production has the radical implication that the subjectivities of the researchers and the researched inherently find their way into research and more broadly, knowledge production. This challenges the objectivity and “god’s eye view” of traditional humanistic knowledge and its processes of production. Feminist research eschews scientifically orthodox notions of how “valid knowledge will look”, and creates novel resources for understanding epistemic marginalization of various kinds. It then provides a myriad of tools to disrupt structural hierarchies through and within knowledge production and dissemination.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Feminist research, given its evolution from living movements and theoretical debates, remains a contested domain. It has reformulated a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, and also surfaced its own, such as experimental and action-based. What these have in common are theoretical dispositions to identify, critique, and ultimately dismantle power relations within and through research projects. It is thus “critical, political, and praxis oriented. Several disciplines with the social sciences, such as feminist technology studies, cyberfeminism, and cultural anthropology, have built feminist approaches to the study of technology and technologically mediated social relations. However, this continues to remain a minor strand of research on technology.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This literature review aims to address that gap through scoping of such methods and their application in technological research. Feminist methodology provides a critical lens that allows us to explore questions and areas in technology-based research that are inaccessible by traditional methods. This paper draws on examples from technology-focused research, covering key interdisciplinary feminist methods across fields such as gender studies, sociology, development, and ICT for development. In doing so, it actively constructs a history of feminist methodology through authoritative sources of knowledge.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Read the <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/feminist-methodoloty-in-technology-research.pdf" class="internal-link">full paper here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-december-23-2018-feminist-methodology-in-technology-research'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-december-23-2018-feminist-methodology-in-technology-research</a>
</p>
No publisherambikaGenderInternet Governance2018-12-25T15:18:21ZBlog EntryEvent Report on Intermediary Liability and Gender Based Violence
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/intermediary-liability-and-gender-based-violence
<b>This report is a summary of the proceedings of the Roundtable Conference organized by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) at the Digital Citizen Summit, an annual summit organized by the Digital Empowerment Foundation. It was conducted at the India International Centre in New Delhi on November 1, 2018 from 11.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.</b>
<p>With inputs and edited by Ambika Tandon. Click here to download the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/intermediary-liability-and-gender-based-violence-report">PDF</a></p>
<hr />
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p><strong>Background</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The topic of discussion was intermediary liability and Gender Based Violence (GBV), the debate on GBV globally and in India evolving to include myriad forms of violence in online spaces in the past few years. This ranges from violence native to the digital, such as identity theft, and extensions of traditional forms of violence, such as online harassment, cyberbullying, and cyberstalking<a name="_ftnref1" href="#_ftn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>. Given the extent of personal data available online, cyber attacks have led to a variety of financial and personal harms.<a name="_ftnref2" href="#_ftn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> Studies have explored the extent of psychological and even physical harm to victims, which has been found to have similar effects to violence in the physical world<a name="_ftnref3" href="#_ftn3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>. Despite this, technologically-facilitated violence is often ignored or trivialised. When present, redressal mechanisms are often inadequate, further exacerbating the effects of violence on victims.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">TheRoundtable explored ways of how intermediaries can help tackle gender based violence and discussed attempts at making the Internet a safer place for women which can ultimately help make it a gender equal environment. It also analyzed the key concerns of privacy and security leading the conversation to how we can demand more from platforms for our protection and how best to regulate them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The roundtable had four female and one male participants from various civil society organisations working on rights in the digital space.</p>
<h2>Roundtable Discussion</h2>
<h3>Online Abuse</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The discussion commenced with the acknowledgement of it being well documented that women and sexual minorities face a disproportionate level of violence in the digital space, as an extension/reproduction of physical space. GBV exists on a continuum from the physical, verbal, and technologically enabled, either partially or fully, with overflowing boundaries and deep interconnections between different kinds of violence. Some forms of traditional violence such as harassment, stalking, bullying, sex trafficking, extend themselves into the digital realm while other forms are uniquely tech enabled like doxxing and morphing of imagery. Due to this considerations of anonymity, privacy, and consent, need to be re-thought in the context of tech enabled GBV. These come into play in a situation where the technological realm has largely been corporatised and functions under the imperative of treating the user and their data as the final product.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It was noted early on that GBV online can be a misnomer because it can be across a number of spaces and, the participants concentrated on laying down the specific contours of tech mediated or tech enabled violence. One of the discussants stated that the term GBV is a not a useful one since it does not encompass everything that is talked about when referring to online abuse. The phenomenon that gets the most traction is trolling on social media or abuse on social media. This is partly because it is the most visible people who are affected by it, and also since often, it is the most difficult to treat under law. In a 2012 study by the Internet Democracy Project focusing on online verbal abuse in social media, every woman they interviewed started by asserting that she is not a victim. The challenge with using the GBV framework is that it positions the woman as a victim. Other incidents on social media such as verbal abuse where there are rape threats or death threats, especially when there is an indication that the perpetrator is aware of the physical location of the victim, need to be treated differently from say online trolling.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Further, certain forms of violence, such as occurrences of ‘revenge porn’ or the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, including rape videos are easier to fit within the description of GBV. It is important to make these distinctions because the remedies then should be commensurate with perceived harm. It is not appropriate to club all of these together since the criminal threshold for each act is different. Whereas being called a “slut” or a “bitch” would not be enough for someone to be arrested, if a woman is called that repetitively by a large number of people the commensurate harm could be quite significant. Thus, using GBV as a broad term for all forms of violence ends up invisiblising certain forms of violence and prevents a more nuanced treatment of the discussion.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In response to this, a participant highlighted the normalisation of gendered hate speech, to the extent of lack of recognition as a form of hate speech. This lacunae in our law stems from the fact that we inherited our hate speech laws from a colonial era where it was based on the grounds of incitement of violence, more so physical violence. As a result, we do not take the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) standard of incitement to discrimination. If the law was based on an incitement to discriminate point of view then acts of trolling could come under hate speech. Even in the United Kingdom where there is higher sentencing for gender based crime as compared to other markers of identity such as race, gender does not fall under the parameters of hate speech. This can also be attributed to the threshold at which criminalization kicks in for such acts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A significant aspect of online verbal abuse pointed out by a participant was that it does not affect all women equally. In a study, the Twitter accounts of 12 publicly visible women across the political spectrum were looked at for 2 weeks in early December, 2017. They were filtered against keywords and analyzed for abusive content. One Muslim woman in the study had extremely high levels of abuse, being consistently addressed as “Jihad man, Jihad didi or Jihad biwi”. According to the participant, she is also the least likely to get justice through the criminal system for such vitriol and as such, this disparity in the likelihood of facing online abuse and accessing official redressal mechanisms should be recognized. Another discussant reaffirmed the importance of making a distinction between online abuse against someone as opposed to gender based violence online where the threat itself is gendered.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In a small ethnographic study with the Bangalore police undertaken by one of the participants, the police were asked for their opinion on the following situation: A women voluntarily providers photos of herself in a relationship and once the relationship is over, the man distributes it. Is there a cause for redressal?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Policemen responded that since she gave it voluntarily in the first instance, the burden of the consequences is now on her. So even in a feminist framework of consent and agency where we have laws for actions of voyeurism and publishing photos of private parts, it is not being recognized by institutional response mechanisms.</p>
<h3>Intermediary Liability</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Private communications based intermediaries can be understood to be of two types: those that enable the carriage/transmission of communications and provide access to the internet, and those that host third party content. The latter have emerged as platforms that are central to the exercising of voice, the exchange of information and knowledge, and even the mobilisation of social movements. The norms and regulations around what constitutes gender based violence in this realm is then shaped not only by state regulations, but content moderation standards of these intermediaries. Further, the kinds of preventive tools and tools providing redressal are controlled by these platforms. More than before, we are looking deeper into the role of these companies that function as intermediaries and control access to third party content without performing editorial functions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the Intermediary Liability framework in the United States formulated in the 1990s, the intermediaries that were envisioned were not the intermediaries we have now. With time, the intermediary today is able to access and possess your data while urging a certain kind of behaviour from you. There is then an intermediary design duty which is not currently accounted for by the law. Moreover, the law practices a one size fits all regime whereas what could be more suitable is having approached tailored as per the offence. So for child pornography, a ‘removal when uploaded’ action using artificial intelligence or machine learning is appropriate but a notice and takedown approach is better for other kinds of content takedown.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Globally, another facet is that of safe harbour provisions for platforms. When intermediaries such as Google and Facebook were established, they were thought of as neutral pipes since they were not creating the content but only facilitating access. However, as they have scaled and as their role in ecosystem has increased, they are now one of the intervention points for governments as gatekeepers of free speech. One needs to be careful in asking for an expansion of the role and responsibilities of platforms because then complementary to that we will also have to see that the frameworks regulating them need to be revisited. Additionally, would a similar standard be applicable to larger and smaller intermediaries, or do we need layers of distinction between their responsibilities? Internet platforms such as the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) yield exceptional power to dictate what discourse takes place and this translates into the the online and offline divide disappearing. Do we then hold these four intermediaries to a separate and higher standard? If not, then all small players will be held to stringent rules disadvantaging their functioning and ultimately, stifling innovation. Thus, regulation is definitely needed but instead of a uniform one, one that’s layered and tailor-made to different situations and platform visibility levels could be more useful.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Some participants shared the opinion that because these intermediaries are based in foreign countries and have primary legal obligations there, the insulation plays out in the citizen’s benefit. It lends itself a layer of freedom of speech and expression that is not present in the substantive law, rule of law framework or the institutional culture in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Child pornography is an area where platforms are taking a lot of responsibility. Google has spoken about how they have been using machine learning algorithms to block 40% of such content and Microsoft is also working on a similar process. If we argue for more intervention from platforms, we simultaneously also need to look at their machine learning algorithms. Concerns of how these algorithms are being deployed and further, being incorporated into the framework of controlling child pornography are relevant since there is not much accountability and transparency regarding the same.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Another fraction that has emerged from recent events is the divide between traditional form of media and new media. Taking the example of rape victims and sexual harassment claims, there are strict rules regarding the kinds of details that can be disclosed and the manner in which this is to be done. In the Kathua rape case, for instance, the Delhi High Court sent a notice to Twitter and Facebook for revealing details because there are norms around this even though they have not been applicable to platforms. Hence, there are certain regulations that apply to old media that have now escaped in the frameworks applicable to the new media and at some level that gap needs to be bridged.</p>
<h3>Role of Law</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One of the participants brought up the question; what is the proper role of the law and does it come first or last? In case of the latter, the burden then falls upon the kind of standard setting that we do as a society. The role of platforms as an entity in mediating the online environment was discussed, given the concerns that have been highlighted about this environment, especially for women. The third thing to be considered is whether we run the risk of enforcing patriarchal behaviour by doubling down on the either of the two aforementioned factors. If legal standards are made too harsh they may end up reinforcing a power structure that is essentially dominated by upper caste men who comprise a majority of staff within law enforcement and the judiciary. Even though the subordinate judiciary do have mahila courts now, the application of the law seems to reify the position of the woman as the victim. This also brings up the question of who can become a victim within such frameworks, where selective bias such as elements of chastity come to play as court functions are undertaken.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">An assessment of the way criminal law in India is used to stifle free speech was carried out in 2013 and repeated in 2018, illustrating how censorship law is used to stifle voices of minorities and people critical of the political establishment. Even though it is perhaps time to revisit the earlier conceptualizations of intermediaries as neutral pipes, it is concerning to look at the the court cases regarding safe harbour in India. Many of them are carried out with the ostensible objective of protecting women's rights. In <em>Kamlesh Vaswani V Union of India</em>, the petition claims that porn is a threat to Indian women and culture, ignoring the reality that many women watch porn as well. Pornhub releases figures on viewership every year, and of the entirety of Indian subscribers one third are women. This is not taken into account in such petitions. In <em>Prajwala V Union of India,</em> an NGO sent the Supreme Court a letter raising concerns about videos of sexual violence being distributed on the internet. The letter sought to bring attention to the existence of such videos, as well as their rampant circulation on online platforms. At some point in the proceedings, the Court wanted the intermediaries to use keywords to take down content and keeping aside poor implementation, the rationale behind such a move is problematic in itself. For instance, if you choose sex as one of those words then all sexual education will disappear from the Internet. There are many problems with court encouraged filtering systems like one where a system automatically tells you when a rape video goes up. The question arises of how will you distinguish between a video that was consensually made depicting sexual activities and a rape video. The narrow minded responses to the Sabu Mathew and Prajwala cases originate in the conservative culture regarding sexual activity prevalent in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In a research project undertaken by one of the participants in the course of their work, they made a suggestion to include gender, sexuality and disability as grounds for hate speech while working with women’s rights activists and civil society organisations. This suggestion was not well received as they vehemently opposed more regulation. In their opinion, the laws that India has in place are not being upheld and creating new laws will not change if the implementation of legislation is flawed. For instance, even though the Supreme Court stuck down S.66A, Internet Freedom Foundation has earlier provided instances of its continued usage by police officers to file complaints.<a name="_ftnref4" href="#_ftn4"><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> Hate speech laws can be used to both ends, even though unlike in the US they do not determine whose speech they want to protect. Consequently, in the US a white supremacist gets as much protection as a Black Lives Matter activist but in India, that is not the case. The latest Law Commission Report on hate speech in India tries to make progress by incorporating the ICCPR view of incitement to discriminate and include dignity in the harms. It specifically speaks about hate speech against women saying that it does not always end up in violence but does result in a harm to dignity and standing in society. Often, protectionist forms of speech such as hate speech often end up hurting the people it aims to protect by reinforcing stereotypes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Point of View undertook a study where they looked at the use of S.67 in the Information Technology (IT) Act which criminalizes obscene speech when you use a medium covered by the IT, in which they found that the section was used to criminalize political speech. In many censorship cases, the people who those provisions benefit are the ones in power.<a name="_ftnref5" href="#_ftn5"><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> For instance in S.67, obscenity provisions do not protect women's rights, they protect morality of society. Even though these are done in the name of protecting women, when a woman herself decides that she wants to publish a revealing picture of herself online, it is disallowed by the law. That kind of control of sexuality is part of a larger patriarchal framework which does not support women's rights or recognise her sexuality. However, under Indian law, there are quite a few robust provisions for image based abuse, and there is some recognition of women in particular being vulnerable to it. S.66A of the IT Act specifically recognizes that it is a criminal activity to share images of someone’s private parts without their consent. This then also encompasses instances of ‘revenge porn’. That provision has been in place in India since 2008, in contrast to the US where half the states still do not have such a provision. Certain kinds of vulnerability have adequate recognition in the law, thus one should be wary of calls of censorship and lowering the standards for criminalizing speech.</p>
<h3>Non-legal interventions</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This section centres around the discussions of redressal mechanisms that can be used to address some of the forms of violence which do not emanate from the law. All of the participants emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces through non-legal interventions. It was debated whether there is a need to always approach the law or if it is possible to categorize forms of online violence according to the gravity of the violation committed. These can be in the form of community solutions where law is treated as the last resort. For instance, there was support for using community tools such as ‘feminist trollback’ where humor can be used to troll the trolls. Trolls feed on the fear of being trolled, so the harm can be mitigated by using community initiatives wherein the target can respond to the trolls with the help of other people in the community. It was reiterated that non technical and legal interventions are needed not only from the perspective of power relations within these spaces but also access to the spaces in the first place. Accordingly, the government should work on initiatives that get more women online and focus on policies that makes smartphones and data services more accessible. This would also be a good method to increase the safety of women and benefit from the strength in numbers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In cases of the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, law can be the primary forum but in cases of trolling and other social media abuse, the question was raised - should we enhance the role of the intermediary platforms? Being the first point of intervention, their responsibility should be more than it currently is. However this would require them to act in the nature of police or judiciary and necessitate an examination of their algorithms. A large proportion of the designers of such algorithms are white males, which increases the possibility of their biases against women of colour for instance, to feed into the algorithms and reinforce a power structure that lacks accountability.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Participants questioned the lack of privacy in design with the example in mind being of how registrars do not make domain owner details private by default. Users have to pay an additional fee for not exposing their details to public and the notion of having to pay for privacy is unsettling. There is no information being provided during the purchasing of the domain name about the privacy feature as well. It was acknowledged that for audit and law enforcement purposes it is imperative to have the information of the owner of a domain name and their details since in cases of websites selling fake medicines, arms or hosting child pornography. Thus, it boils down to the kind of information necessary for law enforcement. Global domain name rules also impact privacy on the national level. The process of ascertaining the suitability and necessity of different kinds of information excludes ordinary citizens since all the consultations take place between the regulatory authority and the state. This makes it difficult for citizens to participate and contribute to this space without government approval.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Issues were flagged against community standards in that the violence that occurs to women is also because the harms are not equal for all. Further, some users are targeted specifically because of the community they come from or the views they have. Often also because, they represent a ‘type’ of a woman that does not adhere to the ‘ideal’ of a woman held by the perpetrator. Unfortunately community standards do not recognise differential harms towards certain communities in India or globally. Twitter, for example, regularly engages in shadow banning and targets people who do not conform to the moral views prevalent in that society where the platform is engaging in censorship. We know these instances occur only when our community members notice and notify us of the same. There is a certain amount of labor that the community has already put in flagging instances of these violations to the intermediary which also needs recognition. In this situation, Twitter is disproportionately handling how it engages with the two entities in question. Community standards could thus become a double edged sword without adding additional protections for certain disadvantaged communities.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Currently, intermediaries are considered neutral pipes through which content flows and hence have no liability as long as they do not perform editorial functions. This has also been useful in ensuring that the freedom of speech is not harmed. However, given their potential ability to remedy this problem, as well as the fact that intermediaries sometimes benefit financially from such activities, it is important to look at the intermediaries’ responsibility in addressing these instances of violence. Governments across the world have taken different approaches to this question<a name="_ftnref6" href="#_ftn6"><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a>. Models, such as in the US, where intermediaries have been solely responsible to institute redressal mechanisms have proven to be ineffectual. On the other hand, in Thailand, where intermediaries are held primarily liable for content, the monitoring of content has led to several free speech harms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">People are increasingly looking at other forms of social intervention to combat online abuse since technological and legal ones do not completely address and resolve the myriad issues emanating from this umbrella term. There is also a need to make the law gender sensitive as well as improving the execution of laws at ground level, possibly through sensitisation of law enforcement authorities. Gender based violence as a catchall phrase does not do justice to the full spectrum of experiences that victims face, especially women and sexual minorities. Often these do not attract criminal punishment given the restricted framework of the current law and need to be seen through the prism of hate speech to strengthen these provisions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Some actions within GBV receive more attention than others and as a consequence, these are the ones platforms and governments are most concerned with regulating. Considerations of free speech and censorship and the role of intermediaries in being the flag bearers of either has translated into growing calls for greater responsibility to be taken by these players. The roundtable raised some key concerns regarding revisiting intermediary liability within the context of the scale of the platforms, their content moderation policies and machine learning algorithms.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_ftn1" href="#_ftnref1"><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> <em>See </em>Khalil Goga, “How to tackle gender-based violence online”, World Economic Forum, 18 February 2015, <<a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/how-to-tackle-gender-based-violence-online/">https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/how-to-tackle-gender-based-violence-online/</a>>. <em>See also</em> Shiromi Pinto, “What is online violence and abuse against women?”, 20 November 2017, Amnest International, <<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/11/what-is-online-violence-and-abuse-against-women/">https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/11/what-</a><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/11/what-is-online-violence-and-abuse-against-women/">is-online-violence-and-abuse-against-women/</a>>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_ftn2" href="#_ftnref2"><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> Nidhi Tandon, et. al., “Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls: A worldwide wake up call”, UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development Working Group on Broadband and Gender, <<a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/images/wsis/GenderReport2015FINAL.pdf">http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/images/wsis/GenderReport2015FINAL.pdf</a>></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_ftn3" href="#_ftnref3"><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> <em>See</em> Azmina Dhrodia, “Unsocial Media: The Real Toll of Online Abuse against Women”, Amnesty Global Insights Blog, <<a href="https://medium.com/amnesty-insights/unsocial-media-the-real-toll-of-online-abuse-against-women-37134ddab3f4">https://medium.com/amnesty-insights/unsocial-media-the-real-toll-of-online-abuse-against-women-37134ddab3f4</a>></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_ftn4" href="#_ftnref4"><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> <em>See</em> Abhinav Sekhri and Apar Gupta, “Section 66A and other legal zombies”, Internet Freedom Foundation Blog, <https://internetfreedom.in/66a-zombie/?</p>
<p><a name="_ftn5" href="#_ftnref5"><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> See Bishakha Datta “Guavas and Genitals”, Point of View <https://itforchange.net/e-vaw/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Smita_Vanniyar.pdf></p>
<p><a name="_ftn6" href="#_ftnref6"><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> ‘Examining Technology-Mediated Violence Against Women Through a Feminist Framework: Towards appropriate legal-institutional responses in India’, Gurumurthy et al., January 2018.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/intermediary-liability-and-gender-based-violence'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/intermediary-liability-and-gender-based-violence</a>
</p>
No publisherakritiGenderInternet Governance2018-12-21T07:16:41ZBlog EntryA Gendered Future of Work
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-and-aayush-rathi-december-19-2018-a-gendered-future-of-work
<b>This paper aims to contextualise the narrative around digitalisation and automation with reference to women's labour in India.
The paper has been authored by Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi, edited by Elonnai Hickok and Rakhi Sehgal. Research assistance has been provided by Divya Kushwaha.</b>
<h3>Abstract</h3>
<p>Studies around the future of work have predicted technological disruption across industries, leading to a shift in the nature and organisation of work, as well as the substitution of certain kinds of jobs and growth of others. This paper seeks to contextualise this disruption for women workers in India. The paper argues that two aspects of the structuring of the labour market will be pertinent in shaping the future of work: the gendered nature of skilling and skill classification, and occupational segregation along the lines of gender and caste. We will take the case study of the electronics manufacturing sector to flesh out these arguments further. Finally, we bring in a discussion on the platform economy, a key area of discussion under the future of work. We characterise it as both generating employment opportunities, particularly for women, due to the flexible nature of work, and retrenching traditional inequalities built into non-standard employment.</p>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>The question on the future of work across the global North - and parts of the global South - has recently been raised with regards to technological disruption, as a result of digitisation, and more recently, automation (Leurent et al., 2018). While the former has been successively replacing routine cognitive tasks, the latter, defined as the deployment of cyber-physical systems, will enable the replacement of manual tasks previously being performed using human labour (Leurent et al., 2018). In combination, these are expected to have a twofold effect on: the “structure of employment”, which includes occupational roles and nature of tasks, and “forms of work”, including interpersonal relationships and organization of work (Piasna and Drahokoupil, 2017). Building from historical evidence, the diffusion of digitising or automative technologies can be anticipated to take place differently across economic contexts, with different factors causing varied kinds of technological upgradation across the global North and South. Moreover, occupational analysis projects occupations in the latter to be at a significantly higher risk of being disrupted than the former (WTO, 2017). </p>
<p>However, these concerns are somewhat offset by the barriers to technological adoption that exist in lower income countries such as lower wages, and a relatively higher share of non-routine manual jobs (WTO, 2017). 1 With the global North typically being early and quicker adopters of automation technologies, the differential technology levels in countries have been in fact been utilised to understand global inequality (Foster and Rosenzweig, 2010). Consequently, the labour-cost advantage that economies in the global South enjoy may be eroded, leading to what may be understood as re-shoring/back shoring - a reversal of offshoring (ILO, 2017). This may especially be the case in sectors where there has been a failure to capitalise on the labour-cost advantage by evolving supplier networks to complement assembly activities (such as in manufacturing) (Milington, 2017), or production of high-value services (such as in the services sector). </p>
<p>Extensive work over the past three decades has been conducted on the effects of liberalisation and globalisation on employment for women in the global South. This has explored conditional empowerment and exploitation as women are increasingly employed in factories and offices, with different ways of reproducing and challenging patriarchal relations. However, the effects of reshoring and technological disruption have yet to be explored to any degree of granularity for this population, which arguably will be one of the first to face its effects. This can be seen as a consequence of industries that rely on low cost labour being impacted first by re-shoring, such as textile and apparel and electronics manufacturing (Kucera and Tejani, 2014).</p>
<p>Download the full paper <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/pdf-gendered-future-of-work" class="internal-link" title="PDF Gendered Future of Work">here</a>.<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/pdf-gendered-future-of-work" class="internal-link" title="PDF Gendered Future of Work"> </a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-and-aayush-rathi-december-19-2018-a-gendered-future-of-work'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-and-aayush-rathi-december-19-2018-a-gendered-future-of-work</a>
</p>
No publisherAmbika Tandon and Aayush RathiGenderJobsInternet Governance2020-07-21T06:29:22ZBlog EntryInternational Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 2018
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/international-network-on-feminist-approaches-to-bioethics-2018
<b>The event was co-organized by Feminist Approaches to Bioethics and Sama - A Resource Centre for Women and Health and was held at St. John's Medical College in Bangalore between December 3 and 5, 2018. </b>
<p>Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon participated in the event as speakers. Aayush presented a paper 'Sexual Surveillance and Data Regimes: Development in the Data Economy' co-authored by himself and Ambika.</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/fab-congress/">Download the agenda</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/international-network-on-feminist-approaches-to-bioethics-2018'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/international-network-on-feminist-approaches-to-bioethics-2018</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminGenderInternet Governance2018-12-04T15:46:02ZNews ItemGirls' schools, women's PGs: The shocking results when you Google 'bitches near me'
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/girls-schools-womens-pgs-the-shocking-results-when-you-google-bitches-near-me
<b> Considering the monopoly and clout that Google enjoys, it must be held accountable for promoting such stereotypes and values, experts say.
</b>
<p>The blog post by Geetika Mantri was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/girls-schools-women-s-pgs-shocking-results-when-you-google-bitches-near-me-92244">News Minute</a> on November 26, 2018. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If there’s a question you don’t know the answer to, more often than not, you’ll turn to Google. The search engine’s monopoly over the market, and data pool at hand, are almost unparalleled in public perception – which makes it all the more alarming when it tends to feed into dangerous and misogynistic values.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is what seems to have happened, as pointed out by Twitter user @AHappyChipmunk, when someone opened Google Maps and typed “bitches near me.” The results show up addresses of girls’ schools, women’s and girls’ hostels and PGs, and women’s clothing shops. Not only is this shocking because ‘bitches’ is often used as a derogatory phrase for women, but also these Google search results of schools put minors at risk.</p>
<p>The tweet caused much outrage and alarm among people, who did the search themselves and posted screenshots of the real time results that they got.</p>
<p><b>Why would Google show these results?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pranesh Prakash, a fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, points out that this was telling of the fact that Google knows that ‘bitches’ can be a slang for women. “For many years now, Google has been trying to understand and search for what you meant, than what you may have typed,” he explains. “However, if you enclose this search phrase in quotes, you will not get the same results, because then it will look for the phrase.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He also notes that if you were to look for “girls near me”, you would get similar search results on Google Maps, though more specific to women’s accommodations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In contrast, it you were to Google, “bitch near me”, you would not get Google Map results. “I think that’s because Google understands that ‘bitches’ is more likely to mean women, than singular ‘bitch’,” Pranesh says.</p>
<p><b>Tech giants need to be held accountable</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While Pranesh thinks that the search results are not ‘dangerous’ per se in the sense that a potential abuser was more likely to Google ‘girls schools’ than ‘bitches near me’, he agrees that these search results are telling of the misogynistic language in use online.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, is it okay for tech giants to wash the responsibility off their hands because this is the language that their algorithm picked up? Nayantara R, who works with the Internet Democracy Project in Bengaluru, says, “This reminds me of the book <i>Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism</i>." The book challenges the idea that platforms like Google are level playing fields for different ideas and ideologies. Author Safiya Umoja Noble argues that due to data discrimination, private interests in promoting certain sites, as well as the monopoly of a few online search engines, results in biased search algorithms which discriminate against women of colour while painting favourable portraits of whiteness.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">One such bias came to light in July last year where many people, including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pointed out how a Google search for ‘south Indian masala’ led to a pictures of skimpily clad women, while ‘north Indian masala’ led to photos of spices and dishes. At the time, Google had maintained that this wasn’t its fault and that Google’s search worked by learning from the keywords people use and the results they click on to predict just what people are searching for.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, Nayantara asserts that considering the monopoly and clout that Google enjoys, it must be held accountable for promoting such stereotypes and values. “The Google page ranking is one of the most protected patents. No one knows how or why certain pages come before the others. In this case, certain search results coming first does not mean that Google is misogynistic. But the algorithmic decision that is taken by someone at Google to rank certain pages which promote certain values before others does have a social impact. All technology is a result of how it is used. Accountability is required there,” she argues.</p>
<p><b>A conversation about what search results mean</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nayantara also points out that apart from accountability, there needs to be a conversation about what these search results mean. “Search results do embed political values. However, people need to understand that if they Google something and some pages are ranked before the others, it is not reflective of the truth or right or wrong, but reflection of an opinion,” she says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We need popular perception to wrap its head around what a search engine is, and that there are alternatives to Google. We also need more algorithmic diversity in search results,” she adds.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/girls-schools-womens-pgs-the-shocking-results-when-you-google-bitches-near-me'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/girls-schools-womens-pgs-the-shocking-results-when-you-google-bitches-near-me</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminGenderInternet Governance2018-11-28T01:34:50ZNews Item377 Bites the Dust: Unpacking the long and winding road to the judicial decriminalization of homosexuality in India
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/socio-legal-review-national-law-school-of-india-university-agnidipto-tarafder-and-arandrajit-basu-377-bites-the-dust
<b>An informal case comment tracing the journey and assessing the societal implications the recent 377 (Navtej Johar v Union of India).</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a class="external-link" href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/">article was published in Socio-Legal Review</a>, a magazine published by National Law School of India University on October 11, 2018.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Introduction</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After a prolonged illness due to AIDS-related complications, the gregarious Queen front-man Farrokh Bulsara (known to the world as Freddie Mercury) breathed his last in his home in Kensington, London in 1991. Despite being the symbol of gay masculinity for over a decade, Mercury never explicitly confirmed his sexual orientation-for reasons that remain unknown but could stem from prevailing social stigma. Occluded from public discourse and shrouded in irrational fears, the legitimate problems of the LGBT+ community, including the serial killer of HIV/AIDS was still relegated to avoidable debauchery as opposed to genuine illness. Concerted activism throughout the 90’s-depicted on the big screen through masterpieces such as <i>Philadelphia,</i> alerted the Western public of this debacle, which lead to a hard-fought array of rights and a reduction of social ostracization at the turn of the century for the LGBT+ community across western countries. This includes over two dozen countries that have allowed same-sex marriages and a host of others that recognize civil union between same-sex partners in some form.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On 6<sup>th</sup> September, 2018, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code – a colonial era law that criminalized “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” bit the dust in New Delhi, at the hands of five judges of the Supreme Court of India (<i>Navtej Johar v Union of India</i>).<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> Large parts of the country celebrated the restoration of the ideals of the Indian Constitution. It was freedom, not just for a community long suppressed, but for the ethos of our foundation that for a century suffered this incessant incongruity. The celebrations were tempered, perhaps by a recognition of how long this fight had taken, the unnecessary hurdles – both judicial and otherwise – that were erected along the way, and a realization of the continued suffering this community might have to tolerate till they truly earn the acceptance they deserve. While the judgment will serve as a document that signifies the sanctity of our constitutional ethos, in the grander scheme of things it is still but a small step, with the potential to catalyze a giant leap forward. For our common future, it is imperative that the LGBT+ community does not undertake this leap alone but is accompanied by the rest of the nation- a nation that recognizes the travails of this long march to freedom.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Long March to Freedom</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b>Modelled on the 1533 Buggery Act in the UK, Section 377 was introduced into the Indian Penal Code by Thomas Macaulay, a representative of the British Raj. While our colonial masters progressed in 1967, the hangover enmeshed in our penal laws lingered on. Public discourse on this legal incongruity emerged initially with the publication of a report titled <i>Less than Gay: A Citizens Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India</i>, spearheaded by activist Siddhartha Gautam, on behalf of the AIDS Bhedbav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) that sought to fight to decriminalise homosexuality and thereby move towards removing its associated stigma.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> The ABVA went on to file a petition for this decriminalisation in 1994. The judicial skirmish continued in 2001 with the Naz Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO that works on HIV/AIDS and sexual health, filing a petition by way of Public Interest Litigation asking for a reading down of the Section. The Delhi High Court initially dismissed this petition – stating that the foundation had no <i>locus standi.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn4"><b>[4]</b></a></i> Naz Foundation appealed against this before the Supreme Court, which overturned the dismissal on technical grounds and ordered the High Court to decide the case on merits.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court held that Section 377 violated privacy, autonomy and liberty, ideals which were grafted into the ecosystem of fundamental rights guaranteed by Part-III of the Indian Constitution.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> It stated that the Constitution was built around the core tenet of inclusiveness, which was denigrated by the sustained suppression of the LGBT+ community. It was an impressive judgment, not only because of the bold and progressive claim it made in a bid to reverse a century and a half of oppression, but also because of the quality of the judgment itself. It tied in principles of international law, along with both Indian and Foreign judgments in addition to citing literature on sexuality as a form of identity. For a brief while, faith in the ‘system’ seemed justified.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Hope, however, is a fickle friend. Four years from the day, an astrologer by the name of Suresh Kumar Koushal challenged the Delhi High Court’s verdict.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn6">[6]</a> Some of the reasons behind this challenge would defy any standard sense of rationality. These included national security concerns – as soldiers who stay away from their families<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> may enter into consensual relationships with each other – leading to distractions that might end up in military defeats. Confoundingly, the Supreme Court’s verdict lent judicial legitimacy to Koushal’s thought process, as they overturned the <i>Naz Foundation</i> judgment and affirmed the constitutional validity of Section 377 on some truly bizarre grounds.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> Indian constitutional tradition permits discrimination by the state only if classification is based on an <i>intelligible differential</i> between the group being discriminated against from the rest of the populace; having a <i>rational nexus</i> with a constitutionally valid objective. To satisfy this threshold, the Supreme Court stated, without any evidence, that there are two classes of people-those who engage in sexual intercourse in the ‘ordinary course’ and those who do not- thereby satisfying the intelligible differential threshold.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> As pointed out by constitutional law scholar Gautam Bhatia, this differential makes little sense – an extrapolation of this idea could indicate that intercourse with a blue-eyed person was potentially not ‘ordinary’, since the probability of this occurring is rare.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> The second justification was based on numbers. The Court argued that statistics pointed to the fact that only 200 people had been arrested under this law, which suggested that it was largely dormant and hence, discrimination doesn’t get established <i>per se</i>.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn11">[11]</a> In other words, a plain reading of the judgement might lead one to conclude that the random arrests of a small number of citizens would be constitutionally protected, so long it does not overshoot an arbitrarily determined <i>de minimis</i> threshold! The judgment seemed to drag Indian society ceaselessly into the past. This backward shift internally was accompanied by international posturing by India that opposed the recent wave of UN resolutions which sought to advocate LGBT+ rights.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Thankfully, there remained a way to correct such Supreme Court induced travesties, through what is known as a curative petition, a concept introduced by the Court itself through one of its earlier judgements.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn13">[13]</a> Needless to mention, such a petition was duly filed before the Court.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn14">[14]</a> While this curative petition was under consideration, last August, a 9-judge bench of the Court spun some magic through a landmark judgment in <i>Just. (Retd.)</i> <i>K S Puttuswamy v Union of India</i><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> which stated that the ‘right to privacy’ was a recognised fundamental right as per the Indian Constitution. The judgment in <i>Koushal</i> was singled out and criticised by Justice Chandrachud who asserted the fact that an entire community could not be deprived of the dignity of privacy in their sexual relations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Strategically, this was a master-class. While the right to privacy cannot alone serve as the justification for allowing individuals to choose their sexual orientation, in several common law nations including the UK<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> and the USA<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn17"><sup>[17]</sup></a>, privacy has served as the initial spark for legitimizing same-sex relations. A year before the privacy judgment was delivered, a group of individuals had filed a separate petition arguing that Section 377 violated their constitutional rights. The nature of this petition was intrinsically different<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> from the Naz Foundation’s, since the Foundation had filed a ‘public interest litigation’ in a representative capacity whereas this petition affected individuals in their personal capacity, implying that the nature of the claim in each case was different.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The cold case file of this petition that crystallised into the iconic judgment delivered last week, was brought to the fore and listed for hearing in January 2018.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn19">[19]</a> Justice Chandrachud’s judgement in <i>Puttaswamy</i>, that tore apart the <i>Koushal</i> verdict, had no small role to play in the unfolding of this saga.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">And so the hearings began. The government chose to not oppose the petition and allowed the court to decide the fate of Article 377.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn21">[21]</a> This was another convenient manoeuvre by the legislature, effectively shifting the ball into the judiciary’s court, shielding itself from potential pushbacks from its conservative voter-base. However, as public support for decriminalisation started pouring in from various quarters, leaders of religious groups were quick to make their opposition known, leaving the five judges on the bench to decide the fate of a community long suppressed through the clutches of an illegitimate law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>“<i>I am what I am</i>”: The judgement, redemption and beyond </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“<i>The mis-application of this provision denied them the Fundamental Right to equality guaranteed by Article 14. It infringed the Fundamental Right to non-discrimination under Article 15, and the Fundamental Right to live a life of dignity and privacy guaranteed by Article 21. The LGBT persons deserve to live a life unshackled from the shadow of being ‘unapprehended felons</i>.”<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Justice Indu Malhotra summed up her short judgement with this momentous pronouncement, adding that ‘<i>history owes an apology</i>’<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> to the members of the LGBT+ community, for the injustices faced during these centuries of hatred and apathy. It seems fair to suggest that this idea of ‘righting the wrongs of the past’ became the underlying theme of the Supreme Court’s landmark verdict on the constitutionality of Section 377. Five judges, through four concurring but separate opinions, extracted the essence of the claim against this law – protecting the virtue of personal liberty and dignity. In doing so, it exculpated itself from the travesty of <i>Suresh Kaushal</i>, emancipating the ‘miniscule minority’ from their bondage before the law and took yet another step towards restoring faith in the ‘system’ of which the judiciary is currently positioning itself as the sole conscientious wing. Perhaps the only set of people shamed through this verdict were our parliamentarians, who on two separate occasions in the recent past had thwarted any chance of change when they opposed, insulted and ridiculed Dr. Shashi Tharoor while he attempted to introduce a Bill decriminalizing homosexuality on the floor of the House.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Earlier in the day, the Chief Justice, authoring the lead opinion for himself and Justice Khanwilkar, began with the ominous pronouncement that ‘denying self-expression (to the individual) was an invitation to death’,<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> emphasizing through his long judgement the importance of promoting individuality in all its varied facets- in matters of choice, privacy, speech and expression.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> Arguing strongly in support of the ‘progressive realization of rights’,<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> which he identified as the soul of constitutional morality, the Chief Justice outlawed the ‘artificial distinction’ drawn between heterosexual and homosexual through the application of the ‘equality’ doctrine embedded in Articles 14 and 15.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> Noting that the recent criminal law amendment recognizes the absence of consent as the basis for sexual offences, he pointed out the lack of a similar consent-based framework in the context of non peno-vaginal sex, effectively de-criminalizing ‘voluntary sexual acts by consenting adults’ as envisaged within the impugned law.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> The Chief Justice went on to elaborate that the right to equality, liberty and privacy are inherent in all individuals, and no discrimination on grounds of sex would survive the scrutiny of the law.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Justice Nariman in his separate opinion charted out the legislative history behind the adoption of the Indian Penal Code. In his inimitable manner, he travelled effortlessly across time and space to source historical material and legislations, judicial decisions and literary critique from various jurisdictions to bolster the claim that the discrimination faced by homosexuals had no basis in law or fact.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> For instance, referring to the Wolfenden Committee Report in the UK regarding decriminalisation of homosexuality which urged legislators to distinguish between ‘sin and crime’, the judge went on to lament the lives lost to mere social perception, including that of Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> Repelling the popular myth of homosexuality being a ‘disease’, he quoted from the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, the US Supreme Court’s seminal judgment in <i>Lawrence v Texas<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn33"><sup><b>[33]</b></sup></a></i> and several other studies on the intersection of homosexuality and public health, dismissing this contention entirely. Justice Nariman, invoking the doctrine of ‘manifest arbitrariness’<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> to dispel the notion that the law treating homosexuals was ‘different’. Since it was based on sexual identity and orientation, such a law was a gross abuse of the equal protection of the Constitution.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Justice Chandrachud, having already built a formidable reputation as the foremost liberal voice on the bench, launched a scathing, almost visceral attack against the idea of ‘unnatural sexual offence’ insofar as it applied to homosexuality.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> Mirroring the concern first espoused by Justice Nariman about the chilling effect of majoritarianism, he wondered aloud what societal harm did a provision like Section 377 seek to prevent. In fact, his separate opinion is categorical in its negation of the ‘intelligible differentia’ between ‘natural’ and ‘non-natural’ sex, sardonically stating the perpetuation of heteronormativity cannot be the object of a law.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn36"><sup>[36]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As an interesting aside, his judgement in <i>Puttaswamy</i> famously introduced a section called ‘discordant notes’<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> which led an introspective Court to disown and overturn disturbing precedent from the past, most notably the Court’s opinion in the <i>ADM Jabalpur</i>,<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> decided that the right to seek redressal for violation of Fundamental Rights remained suspended as a consequence of the National Emergency.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a similar act of constitutional manipulation, he delved into a critique of the Apex Court’s judgement in the <i>Nergesh Meerza</i><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> case. This was a decision which upheld the discriminatory practice of treating men and women as different classes of employees by Air India, denying the women employees certain benefits ordinarily available to men. The Court in <i>Nergesh Meerza</i> read the non-discrimination guarantee in Article 15 narrowly to understand that discrimination based on ‘sex alone’ would be struck down. He held that since the sexes had differences in the mode of recruitment, promotion and conditions of service, it did not tantamount to ‘merely sex based’ categorization and was an acceptable form of classification. In his missionary zeal to exorcise the Court of past blemishes, Dr. Chandrachud observed that interpreting constitutional provisions through such narrow tests as ‘sex alone’ would lead to denuding the freedoms guaranteed within the text. Though not the operative part of the judgement, one hopes his exposition of the facets of the equality doctrine and fallacies in reasoning in <i>Nargesh Meerza</i> will pave the way for just jurisprudence to emerge in sex discrimination cases in the future.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn40"><sup>[40]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Reverting to the original issue, the judge addresses several key concerns voiced by the LGBT+ community through their years of struggle. He spoke of bridging the public-private divide by ensuring the protection of sexual minorities in the public sphere as well, wherein they are most vulnerable. Alluding to his opinion in <i>Puttaswamy</i>, he declares that <i>all people</i> have an inalienable right to privacy, which is a fundamental aspect of their liberty and the ‘soulmate of dignity’- ascribing the right to dignified life as a constitutional guarantee for one and all. Denouncing the facial neutrality<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> of Section 377, insofar as it targets certain ‘acts and not classes of people’, his broad and liberal reading of non-discrimination goes beyond the semantics of neutrality and braves the original challenge- fashioning a justice system with real equality at its core.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Shall History Absolve Us?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Where to from here then? Can the 500 pages of this iconic judgment magically change the social norms that define the existence of LGBT+ communities in modern Indian society? If the reception of this judgement by the conservative factions within society is anything to go by, the answer is clear enough. Yet, the role of this judgment – in an ecosystem of other enablers – might just be a crucial first step. As noted by Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, law can create, displace or change the collective expectations of society by channelling societal behaviour in a manner that conforms with its contents.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> An assessment of the impact of <i>Brown v Board of Education </i>on African-Americans offers an interesting theoretical analogy.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn43"><sup>[43]</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The unanimous decision of the US Supreme Court in <i>Brown </i>marked a watershed moment in American history that struck down the ‘<i>separate but equal</i>’ doctrine which served as the basis for segregation between communities of colour and the dominant White majority in American public schools. While this ruling initially faced massive resistance, it laid the edifice for progressive legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act a decade later.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> While its true impact on evolving acceptable standards of social behaviour remains disputed with valid arguments on all sides, <i>Brown</i> kick-started a counter-culture that sought to wipe out the toxic norms that the Jim Crow-era had birthed in the 1950s. Along with subsequent decisions by the US Supreme Court, it acted as the catalyst that morphed the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Republican Senator Barry Goldwater attempted to stifle this counterculture in 1964 by undertaking a sustained campaign that opposed the dictum in <i>Brown</i> not in opposition to African-Americans but instead in opposition to an overly intrusive federal government that was taking away from the cultural traditions and values, particularly of the South.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> In the past few years, cultural apathy seems to have taken a more sinister turn as recent incidents of police violence and the rebirth of white supremacist movements indicate.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Lessons from a different context in an alternate society can never be transposed in another without substantial alterations. Discrimination is intersectional and a celebration of identity is a recognition of intersectionality. Therefore, the path ahead for the LGBT+ community lies in crafting a strategy that works for them – a strategy that can draw from lessons learned in other contexts. Last week’s judgment could morph into a point of reference for a counter-cultural movement that works to remove the stains of oppression. The key challenge is carrying this message to swathes of the populace who, goaded by leading public figures, continue to treat homosexuality as an unnatural phenomenon<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn46"><sup>[46]</sup></a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Being a majority Hindu nation, one possible medium of communication could be reference to ancient Hindu scriptures that do not ostracize individuals based on their sexual orientation but treat them as fellow sojourners on their path to <i>Nirvana, </i>the idea of spiritual emancipation, a central tenet of Hindu belief.<a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftn47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> Strategically, using this framework as a dangling carrot for religious conservatives may be a potential conversation starter but comes riddled with potholes, as the same scriptures could be interpreted to justify subjugation of women, for example. A more holistic approach might be reading these scriptures into the overarching foundation stone of society -The Indian Constitution, which is not a rigid, static document – stuck in the time of its inception – but is a dynamic one that responds to and triggers the Indian social and political journey. The burden of a constitution, as reiterated by Chief Justice Misra and Dr. Chandrachud is to ‘draw a curtain’ on the past of social injustice and prejudice and embrace constitutional morality, a cornerstone of which is the principle of inclusiveness. Inclusiveness driven by rhetoric in political speeches and storylines on the big screen. Inclusiveness that fosters symbiosis between the teachings of religious scriptures and that of Constitutional Law Professors – an inclusiveness that begets the idea of India, which is a fair deal for all Indians.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>…And Justice for all?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the aftermath of this decision come further legal challenges. Legally, while the ‘right to love’ has been vindicated, the right to formalise this union through societal recognition remains to be established. This judgement paves the way for the acceptance of homosexual relationships, but not necessarily the right to marry for a homosexual couple. There are passages within Justice Chandrachud’s visionary analysis which directly address this concern, and advocate for the ‘full protection’ of the law being extended to the LGBT+ populace. It will certainly be instructive for future courts, and one tends to remain hopeful that the long march to freedom for the LGBT+ community and its supporters will not come to a screeching halt through judicial intervention or State action. If anything, the wings of government should bolster these efforts, in view of this verdict.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">That said, social acceptance seldom waits on the sanction of the law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The outpouring of public support which was witnessed through public demonstrations, social media advocacy and concerted efforts from so many quarters to bring down this draconian law needs to continue and consolidate. There are evils yet, and the path to genuine inclusiveness in this country (as in most others) is littered with thorns. And even greater resistance is likely to emerge when tackling some of these issues, which tend to hit closer home than others.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While this judgement entered into detailed discussions on the issue of consent, it remained disquietingly silent on a most contentious subject, perhaps because it was perceived to be beyond the terms of reference. The exception of marital rape carved out in the Indian Penal Code, which keeps married relationships outside the purview of rape laws, remains as a curse – a reminder that gender equality in this nation will only come at tremendous human cost. The institution of family, that sacrosanct space which even the most liberal courtrooms in India have sought to protect, stands threatened. Malignant patriarchy will raise its head and claim its pound of flesh before the dust settles, and in the interest of freedom, it shall be up to the Apex Court to ensure that it settles on the right side of history. Else, all our progress, howsoever incremental, may be undone by this one stain on our collective conscience.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">*<i>Agnidipto Tarafder is an Assistant Professor of Law at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, where he teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Labour Law and Privacy.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">*<i>Arindrajit Basu recently finished his LLM (Public International Law) at the University of Cambridge and is a Policy Officer at the Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">_________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Gay Marriage Around the World, Pew Research Centre (Aug 8, 2017) <i>available at </i>http://www.pewforum.org/2017/08/08/gay-marriage-around-the-world-2013/.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> W. P. (Crl.) No. 76 of 2016 (Supreme Court of India).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> Aids Bhedbav Virodhi Andolan, Less than Gay: A Citizen’s Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India (Nov-Dec, 1991) <i>available at</i> https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1585664/less-than-gay-a-citizens-report-on-the-status-of.pdf.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref4">[4]</a> P.P Singh, 377 battle at journey’s end (September 6, 2018) <i>available at</i> https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/section-377-verdict-supreme-court-decriminalisation-gay-sex-lgbtq-5342008/.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> (2009) 160 DLT 277; W.P. (C) No.7455/2001 of 2009 (Delhi HC).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref6">[6]</a> Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty,<i> It is like reversing the motion of the earth</i>, The Hindu (December 20, 2013) <i>available at </i>https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/it-is-like-reversing-the-motion-of-the-earth/article5483306.ece.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> <i>Id</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> (2014) 1 SCC 1 (Supreme Court of India).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> Ibid, at para 42.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> Gautam Bhatia, The unbearable wrongness of Koushal v Naz Foundation, Ind Con Law Phil (December 11, 2013)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref11">[11]</a> <i>supra</i> note 8, at para 43.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> Manjunath,<i> India’s UN Vote: A Reflection of Our Deep Seated Anti-Gay Sentiments</i>, Amnesty International (Apr 20, 2015) <i>available at </i>https://amnesty.org.in/indias-un-vote-reflection-societys-deep-seated-anti-gay-prejudice/.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref13">[13]</a> The concept of curative petitions was laid down in Rupa Ashok Hurra v. Ashok Hurra, (2002) 4 SCC 388 (Supreme Court of India).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref14">[14]</a> Ajay Kumar, All you need to know about the SC’s decision to reopen the Section 377 debate, FIRSTPOST (February 3, 2016) <i>available at </i>https://www.firstpost.com/india/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-scs-decision-to-reopen-the-section-377-debate-2610680.html.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> 2017 (10) SCC 1(Supreme Court of India).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> The Wolfenden Report, Brit. J; Vener. Dis. (1957) 33, 205 <i>available at </i>https://sti.bmj.com/content/sextrans/33/4/205.full.pdf.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> Gautam Bhatia, <i>Indian Supreme Court reserves judgment on the de-criminalisation of Homosexuality</i>, OHRH Blog (August 15, 2018) <i>available at </i>http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-indian-supreme-court-reserves-judgment-on-the-de-criminalisation-of-homosexuality/.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref19">[19]</a> Krishnadas Rajagopal, Supreme Court refers plea to decriminalize homosexuality under Section 377 to larger bench, The Hindu (January 8, 2018) <i>available at </i>https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supreme-court-refers-377-plea-to-larger-bench/article22396250.ece.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> <i>Puttuswamy</i>, paras 124-28.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref21">[21]</a> Aditi Singh, Government leaves decision on Section 377 to the wisdom of Supreme Court, LIVEMINT (July 11, 2018) <i>available at </i>https://www.livemint.com/Politics/fMReaXRcldOWyY20ELJ0GK/Centre-leaves-it-to-Supreme-Court-to-decide-on-Section-377.html.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> <i>supra</i> note 2, at para 20.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> Ibid.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> Express News Service, Lok Sabha votes against Shashi Tharoor’s bill to decriminalize homosexuality again, Indian Express (March 12, 2016) <i>available at </i>https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/decriminalising-homosexuality-lok-sabha-votes-against-shashi-tharoors-bill-again/.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> Navtej Johar v. Union of India, W. P. (Crl.) No. 76 of 2016 (Supreme Court of India) at para 1.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> Ibid, at para 2.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> Ibid, at para 82.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref28"><sup>[28]</sup></a>Ibid, at para 224.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> Ibid, at para 253.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> Ibid.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> Separate Opinion, RF Nariman, paras 1-20.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> Ibid, at paras 28-9.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> Ibid. <i>Lawrence v Texas</i>, 539 US 558 (2003), discussed in paras 108-09.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> Ibid, at para 82.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> Separate Opinion, DY Chandrachud, at para 28.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> Ibid, at para 56-7, 61.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> Supra note 20, at para 118-9.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> <i>ADM Jabalpur v Shiv Kant Shukla</i> (1976) 2 SCC 521. (Supreme Court of India)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> Air India v Nergesh Meerza (1981) 4 SCC 335. (Supreme Court of India)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> Supra note 25, at paras 36-41.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> Ibid, at paras 42-43, 56.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> Lawrence Lessig,<i> The Regulation of Social Meaning</i>, 62 University of Chicago Law Review 943 ,947 (1995)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> David Smith, <i>Little Rock Nine: The day young students shattered racial segregation, The Guardian</i> (September 24, 2017) <i>available at </i>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/24/little-rock-arkansas-school-segregation-racism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref45"><sup>[45]</sup></a>Michael Combs and Gwendolyn Combs, <i>Revisiting Brown v. Board of Education: A Cultural, Historical-Legal, and Political Perspective</i> (2005).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> Poulomi Saha, RSS on 377: <i>Gay sex not a crime but is unnatural</i>, India Today (September 6, 2018) <i>available at </i>https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rss-on-section-377-verdict-gay-sex-not-a-crime-but-is-unnatural-1333414-2018-09-06.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.sociolegalreview.com/377-bites-the-dust-unpacking-the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-judicial-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-india/#_ftnref47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> S Venkataraman and H Varuganti, <i>A Hindu approach to LGBT Rights</i>, Swarajya (July 4, 2015) <i>available at </i>https://swarajyamag.com/culture/a-hindu-approach-to-lgbt-rights.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/socio-legal-review-national-law-school-of-india-university-agnidipto-tarafder-and-arandrajit-basu-377-bites-the-dust'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/socio-legal-review-national-law-school-of-india-university-agnidipto-tarafder-and-arandrajit-basu-377-bites-the-dust</a>
</p>
No publisherAgnidipto Tarafder and Arindrajit BasuGenderInternet Governance2018-10-18T00:39:34ZBlog EntryIndian Feminist Judgment Project Workshop
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-feminist-judgment-project-workshop
<b>Swaraj Paul Barooah was a discussant at the Indian Feminist Judgment Project 'righting together' workshop organised in Delhi by Jindal from October 6 - 7, 2018.</b>
<p class="moz-quote-pre">Swaraj provided commentary on the re-writing of a patent application from a feminist perspective. <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/indian-feminist-judgments-project">Click here</a> to view the agenda.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-feminist-judgment-project-workshop'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-feminist-judgment-project-workshop</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminGenderInternet Governance2018-10-16T13:34:06ZNews ItemNetworked Economies and Gender Action Learning
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/networked-economies-and-gender-action-learning
<b>Elonnai Hickok, Sunil Abraham and Ambika Tandon participated in a meeting organized by IDRC for grantees under their networked economies programme to discuss gender-based outputs and development outcomes in their work. The event was held in Ottawa on September 20 - 21, 2018, facilitated by Gender at Work.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sunil Abraham, Swaraj Paul Barooah and Ambika Tandon also attended a workshop on Gender Action Learning on September 24 - 25, 2018, which discussed strategies to work on gender under a grant for Cyber Policy Centres. Other organizations present at the workshop were Research ICT Africa, Lirne Asia, and Centre Latam Digital at CIDE, Mexico. Gender at Work facilitated this workshop as well, and will be working with all the grantees over a period of 18 months.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/networked-economies-and-gender-action-learning'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/networked-economies-and-gender-action-learning</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminGenderInternet GovernancePrivacy2018-10-02T03:10:02ZNews ItemJapleen Pasricha - Gendered Spaces in Digital Rights (Delhi, June 02, 5 pm)
https://cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-japleen-pasricha-gendered-spaces-in-digital-rights-delhi-june-02
<b>It is our priviledge to annouce that Japleen Pasricha will be the speaker for the June #FirstFridayAtCIS event. Japleen smashes the patriarchy for a living, and is Founder & Editor-in-chief of Feminism in India. The talk will focus on her experience of working on gender and digital rights in India, the ways in which "gender" functions as a critical lens in digital rights discourse and practice in India (or not), and the gendered nature of digital rights spaces in India. If you are joining us, please RSVP at the soonest as we have only limited space in our office.</b>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Japleen Pasricha</strong></h3>
<h4>Founder & Editor-in-chief, <a href="https://feminisminindia.com/" target="_blank">Feminism in India</a></h4>
<p>Japleen smashes the patriarchy for a living. Founder & Editor-in-chief of Feminism in India, she is a feminist activist based in New Delhi, India. She is a writer, educator, campaigner and researcher. She has vast experience in digital media and online publishing. Her interest lies in women’s studies, global feminism, gender, sexuality, VAW, SRHR, feminist praxis and internet as a space. Currently she is working on online violence against women and media representation of gender and gender-based violence. She’d like to use skills to intersect gender and sexuality with digital & social media and develop safe online spaces for women and marginalized communities.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>RSVP</strong></h3>
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdp_ZWWOWsQxvM2IctUiQdPJwo9UYNCS-rn038qysmnzxeaIg/viewform?embedded=true" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" height="666" width="600">Loading...</iframe>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Location</strong></h3>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d876.157470894426!2d77.20553462919722!3d28.550842498903158!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x834072df81ffcb39!2sCentre+for+Internet+and+Society!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sin!4v1493818109951" frameborder="0" height="450" width="600"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-japleen-pasricha-gendered-spaces-in-digital-rights-delhi-june-02'>https://cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-japleen-pasricha-gendered-spaces-in-digital-rights-delhi-june-02</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroGenderResearchers at Work#FirstFridayAtCISDigital Rights2017-05-31T03:49:26ZEventPreliminary research result on Wikipedia gender gap in India
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india
<b>Since June 2016, Ting-Yi Chang from the University of Toronto has worked with the CIS-A2K team to conduct action research on the Wikipedia gender gap in India. The research aims to improve the understanding of the gender gap (imbalance) issue in the Indian Wikipedia communities while examining local interventions.
</b>
<p dir="ltr"><em><br /></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><br /></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>This post is an extraction from the Wikipedia Gender Gap Bridging Toolkit - South Asia Edition which will be published on Wiki (Commons and meta) in late May 2017. The toolkit is a derivative of the gender gap research initiative.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"> Wikipedia has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia">wide gender gap</a> in participation and content coverage. The <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AEditor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf&page=1">editor survey in 2011</a> showed that among the active editors worldwide only 9% identified themselves as female. While research and initiatives have been proposed and conducted to “bridge the gender gap,” mass majority of these studies are done in the Western context (English/European language Wikipedias and communities). The movement dynamics and situation of other Wikipedian communities are not well explored or documented. Of the few studies that did focus on non-Western contexts, this action research is one of the few to look at the issue in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Due to the timeline of the research and the limitation of space in this post, we will only discuss the preliminary findings of the study, specifically for the following questions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q1:</strong> What are existing female Wikipedians’ (regardless of one’s activeness in editing) experience in the Wikimedian communities?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q2:</strong> What are new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in gender gap bridging events) attitude and preference toward these gender gap bridging activities?</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">In Q1, we used<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_coding"> open coding</a> to find recurring themes in the qualitative data collected through 18 semi-structured interviews with 21 female Wikipedians, and label them to find certain patterns of answers. To answer question 2, discussion and infographics will be presented to summarize the 64 survey responses we have gathered.</p>
<div>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q1: What are existing female Wikipedians’ experience in the Wikimedian communities?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Western-based research and survey has shown that a plausible reason behind the gender gap on Wikipedia is the discriminatory and unwelcoming environment within the editor communities. Research was much needed to explore the reasons in the Indian context as we cannot simply apply the same results or rule out the possibility of the same situation. Among the 9 reasons that Sue Gardner, the former Executive Director of WMF, had pointed out in her <a href="https://suegardner.org/2011/02/19/nine-reasons-why-women-dont-edit-wikipedia-in-their-own-words/">2011 blog post</a>, we deem the “misogynist atmosphere” as the most problematic - it signals an unhealthy environment and structure for diversity and long term growth.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thus, 18 private interviews were held to understand the positive and negative experience that existing female (Indian) Wikipedians have faced in the communities. In this question we are specifically looking at the interaction and interpersonal relationship between community members (editors), hence it does not include experiences like discouragement from speedy deletion or technical difficulty in editing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In each of the two categories (positive and negative), we use three labels to cover the recurring themes mentioned. In “positive experience,” these are (a) emotional support and respect, (b) bonding and friendship, and (c) other support. In “negative experience,” the three labels are (a) neglected or belittled, (b) sexist comments, and (c) safety concern. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tableofexperience.png/image_large" alt="Table of female editor experience" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Table of female editor experience" /></p>
<div dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fca-eba8-dce1-2d751b901fe5">
<p dir="ltr">It is interesting to note that although in most (Western-based) research, the positive and negative experiences were in the online context, our interviewees (Indian female Wikipedians) had mostly pointed out experiences that were either offline or in non-specified context. Comments on the online interaction dynamics were fairly rare and neutral, while negative experiences mostly occurred in the offline settings.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This can indicate that the communities’ offline interaction dynamics leaves a much more significant impression (sadly, especially when it is negative) to female Wikipedians on their overall community experience. Additionally, it seems that compared to the Western/English context, Indian Wikipedian communities are more close-knit and active offline, that is, the editors are more likely to know each other personally. This dynamic is a great plus to create positive experience such as strong bonding and emotional support. However, it may also be more toxic when the experience is negative as compared to if the experience was online and anonymous. In other words, sexist comments, deliberate neglect, and safety concerns can have an aggravated effect when faced personally.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr">In numbers, more positive experiences were mentioned than negative ones when a neutral question was asked (such as “How do you think about the community?” / ”what is your experience in the editor community so far?”). Most negative experience were only revealed when a negative-oriented question was asked (such as “Have you had any negative or uncomfortable experience so far?”). This may be interpreted that the interviewees’ overall experiences are positive with only occasional negative encounters. However, this interpretation can still be biased if we consider the possibility that:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">There is a lack of trust between the researcher and the interviewees (i.e. Interviewees may have the intention to provide a more pleasing/non-controversial answer), or</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">the selection of our interviewees was already biased since “existing” female Wikipedians can be those that have not experienced much negative experience (i.e. the female editors who were upset by more negative experiences and had already quit editing were not reachable when the interviews were conducted, or they might simply be uninterested in participating in the research).</p>
</li></ol>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q2: What are new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in gender gap bridging events) attitude and preference toward these gender gap bridging activities? </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">As indicated in our last question, the offline interaction and activities seem to be very crucial in determining a female Wikipedian’s overall experience in the community. In other questions throughout the semi-structured interview, we had asked existing female Wikipedians - who had been active in gender gap bridging event conduct - to discuss what can make an event more welcoming to women. Below are some of the answers given:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">A women-only event (although some also criticized that this approach often made the gender gap a “women-only” discussion)</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Female tutor’s presence</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Offline events where women can meet others face to face (although some had mention that they prefer to participate online - which makes them feel safer and more comfortable)</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The chance for participants to socialize and make friends</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Write about women-related topics (although some had argued that a gender gap bridging event should not promote the tokenizing logic that (only) women should (only) edit on women-related topics)</p>
</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<p dir="ltr">As you may notice, there are divergence of ideas regarding the points A, C, and E. In order to cross-check all these ideas, a survey of 11 scale-rating questions was developed to understand the new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in a gender gap bridging event) attitude and preferences. Three clusters of questions were formed - general experience, cross-checking questions, and attitude.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/surveyquestions.png/image_large" alt="Survey questions and cross-checking factors" class="image-left image-inline" title="Survey questions and cross-checking factors" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-479f8e7a-2fda-b92a-f0fb-be9ceef5f207">Below is an infographics on the 64 responses we had collected: (You may click on the image at the top of this page (under the blog title) to zoom in)</span></p>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fcb-7754-97f1-a59c8f3093a9">
<div> </div>
<div><img src="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/SurveyResults.png/image_large" alt="Survey results infographics" class="image-left" title="Survey results infographics" /></div>
</span></div>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fce-aa68-d243-c4b03b1426c6">
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">From the infographics above we can see that event participants’ overall experience are positive. However, it may still be far from perfect as there were 2 respondents who “fully disagreed” with the statement “I find the event environment safe, friendly, and welcoming.” There are still more than 40% of the respondents who thought editing is difficult (or somewhat difficult), which means improvement is needed in our event tutorship or a re-estimation participants’ skill levels is needed. Participants’ attitude towards the events was also mostly positive as indicated in the last two questions.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (A): Do women prefer a women-only event?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">During the events, the presenters and resource persons usually encouraged male participation in the initiatives and stressed that the gender gap bridging efforts cannot be a further segregation between men and women editors. Hence, we do expect this to influence the answers given to the statement “I still prefer a women-only event.” Still, more than one-third of the participants indicated their preference in women-only events; we expect the actual rate to be even higher if the said factor was not present.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (B): Is the presence of female tutor(s) important? (Does a tutor’s gender matter?)</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Question 5 and 6 show very interesting results. In the offline (in real life) event context, there seem to be more disagreement on the statement “I would prefer a woman to be my tutor.” These responses can be affected by the fact that majority of the tutors in Wikipedia events were still men, and if a participant had generally positive experience throughout the event, they might not be against the idea of having a male tutor again. Nonetheless, interestingly, the answer turned the other way around when the scenario changed to an “online” setting. More respondents then agreed that they would prefer a women as their tutor. This may be a sign that women are more alert and defensive when it comes to online interaction with people in the opposite sex.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (C) : Do women prefer offline (in-real-life) events over online ones?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Over 50% of the respondents chose “fully agree” to the statement while only 5 respondents chose either fully or partially disagree. We can conclude that women who had experience in an offline (in-real-life) event would still prefer the same setting in the future. However, of course, we cannot be sure how many women may have turned down this first event experience because it was offline. In other words, we do not know if the preference of women who had never attended any events. However, what we know is that mass majority of those who had one offline event experience would prefer the offline setting over an online participation.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (D): Does socializing matter to women?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Majority of the respondents fully agreed with the statement “I would like to socialize with and know more Wikipedians.” This is one of the very few questions where no one disagreed to. Although we cannot calculate the personal utility of socializing or conclude that socializing is “necessary” to make women feel more comfortable, we can assume that it will be a positive addition to the events if women can make new friends in the communities.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (E): Are women interested in women-related topics? Or would they have preferred to write about their expertise areas?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">From the survey, we found that more women actually showed interest in writing on women-related topics than on their domain knowledge subjects. Over 80% of the respondents agreed that they were interested in writing more about women (and related topics) while slightly fewer women said the same about their expertise knowledge. Only 8 out of 64 respondents expressed a preference for writing on their domain knowledge topics over women-related topics. Hence, it seems that women-related topics are a good place to start (for one’s first Wikipedia event experience) as most women enjoyed it. One thing we are not able to estimate is how long can this interest be sustained.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-34fe-fe1e-4cf5-84dc39b46457"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/AplHkWcumhKQK6sQErL9uY4CbD9GAMSPKEYLyM3jRjRF88IR3ucn3sJO7SqFsVjiLNHabLOEs5zqRfcqbiFgTIXoxaJkHBsvZqQ77SEFHsUpoDM30EkxmX7S-FXorT9gHkyZnn-O" alt="In a nutshell- research result.jpg" height="432" width="602" /></span></p>
</span></div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderwomen and internetSexual HarassmentWikipedia gender gapResearch2017-05-23T11:09:23ZBlog EntryConference on Safety Against Online Child Sexual Abuse
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse
<b>Japreet Grewal was a speaker at a conference on safety against online child sexual abuse which was jointly organized by CID, Telangana and the Department for Women Development and Child Welfare, Telangana on March 16 and 17, 2017 in Hyderabad.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Japreet spoke about the existing legal framework in India on online child sexual abuse and the challenges in implementing the preventive and response mechanisms to address this problem. Various stakeholders including media, police, school educators and child protection organisations attended this event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/agenda-of-the-conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse">Read the agenda here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGenderInternet Governance2017-03-29T04:10:16ZNews ItemEvaluating Safety Buttons on Mobile Devices: Preview
https://cis-india.org/raw/evaluating-safety-buttons-on-mobile-devices-preview
<b>Much technological innovation for women is aimed at addressing violence against women. One such ubiquitous intervention is mobile device-based safety applications, also known as emergency applications. Several police departments in India, public transport services, and commercial services such as taxi-hailing apps deploy a mobile device-based “panic button” for the safety of citizens or customers, especially women. However, the proliferation of safety apps through both public and private players raises several concerns, which will be studied through this study by Rohini Lakshané of the CIS and Chinmayi S.K. of The Bachchao Project. Research assistance for this report was provided by CIS intern Harish R.S.K. Visualisations by Saumyaa Naidu.</b>
<h4>Download the preview document: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/docs/CIS-TBP_SafetyButtonsMobileDevices_Preview_201703.pdf">PDF</a></h4>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There is currently a deluge of mobile safety apps in India: Apps run or supported by police departments, apps run by public transport services, apps endorsed by celebrities and politicians, an app developed by an entertainment television channel, and apps by NGOs and private developers. Through a public notification made in April 2016, the Ministry of Women and Child Development in India announced that every phone sold in the country from January 2017 should come equipped with a physical panic button and a GPS module 2. An international innovation award for USD 1 million was instituted in late 2016 for innovators to build an emergency alert app.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Preliminary user-testing conducted by us shows that many of these apps lack in technical quality and are prone to failure of one kind or another. There are no defined policies of privacy or terms of use, which could lead to possible data and identity theft and egregious surveillance of users.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This study will evaluate a total of 26 different apps operational in India, the permissions they use, the privacy policies and end user agreements on their websites, and will also undertake qualitative case studies of the use and deployment of some of these apps.</p>
<p>The questions framing this evaluation are:</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What are the technical concerns (including those of accessibility and literacy) with user experience of these safety button applications being developed and deployed by both government and private agencies, especially at a moment of crisis?</li>
<li>How well do the widely used safety button applications in India protect the data shared by the user and the user’s privacy?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What technical and other solutions can be implemented to ensure more effective, accessible, secure, and responsible modes of communication in such a context?</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<p><img alt="Permissions used by safety applications for mobile devices." src="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/img/CIS-TBP_SafetyButtonsMobileDevices_Permissions.png" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>We are releasing one of the datasets that logs all the different permissions sought by selected “safety applications” available on the Google Play store in India. It was compiled in November 2016.</b><b><br /> </b><b><br /> </b><b>The dataset has been released under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. All uses of the accompanying data or parts thereof must contain the following attribution: "Data provided by Rohini Lakshané (Centre for Internet and Society) and Chinmayi S K (2018)”. To request a waiver, email rohini [at] cis-india [dot] org. Data are provided AS-IS, without warranty as to accuracy or completeness.</b></p>
<p><b>Zenodo record: </b><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://zenodo.org/record/3630585">https://zenodo.org/record/3630585</a></b><b><br /> </b></p>
<hr />
<p>Click to download:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/files/google-play-safety-app-permissions" class="external-link">List of permissions sought by safety applications on the Google Play Store</a> (Excel File)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/files/google-play-safety-app-permissions.ods" class="external-link">List of permissions sought by safety applications on the Google Play Store</a> (Open File)</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/evaluating-safety-buttons-on-mobile-devices-preview'>https://cis-india.org/raw/evaluating-safety-buttons-on-mobile-devices-preview</a>
</p>
No publisherRohini Lakshané and Chinmayi S.K.Safety ButtonsGenderResearchSafetySafety AppsResearchers at Work2023-03-18T04:40:15ZBlog Entry