Aspirations, Access & Agency : Women transforming lives with technology, a book by the Reliance Foundation and Observer Research Foundation, tells the stories of Indian women leaders from across the nation who have emerged as agents of technological change and socio-economic inclusion and are using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help their communities build pathways to better futures. Written by Avni Arora this excerpt shares the story of Archana Sen.
A dedicated community leader engaged in the door-to-door advocacy and implementation of multiple welfare schemes, Archana Sen is a well-known face in her village, Kandhya Khedi in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district. She describes the need for public health services as a major priority in Guna, and a key factor that motivated her to become an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA)a in 2017. Two years later, she launched a small, well-intentioned battle against the local gas agency for their ineffective execution of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojanab which further cemented her position as a community leader. It was due to these stints that Archana was chosen to be the digital sarthak (aide) in her village, as part of the Digital Sarthak programme, a national digital entrepreneurship and empowerment initiative by the Digital Empowerment Foundation supported by USAID and DAI.
The second of two daughters of a small salon owner in Dhanora village in Wardha district in Maharasthra, Archana describes her beginnings as humble. “The economic condition of our household was not very stable but we managed with whatever little we had,” she says. Her father was passionate about getting his daughters educated, a trait both women have inherited. “I had to cover long distances in my final years of education as the bus fares were hard to pay given our modest earnings, but I decided to travel both ways on my bicycle to finish my senior secondary education before I got married,” she recalls. Archana finished her undergraduate degree in humanities after her marriage in 2006.
“The environment in Kandhya Khedi is very different from Dhanora. I noticed a strong ostracisation of people from lower castes, and very apparent gender segregation in Kandhya Khedi. Women here are not as educated as I had seen back in my village and even if they were, they exhibited far less agency in their lives. Health was not a priority for families, something that I have helped transform during my tenure as an ASHA worker,” she says with some pride.
Joining the Digital Sarthak programme has proven to be transformational for Archana and the community she serves. The objective of the programme is to digitally upskill women in underserved regions and train them to engage in a hands-on manner with digital solutions at the community level. The initiative is currently running in 25 districts across 13 Indian states, and is optimising the use of digital wallets, OTT messaging platforms, and digital markets for women entrepreneurs.
Elaborating on her journey as a digital sarthak, Archana says that she has come a long way since when she only knew how to operate a keypad phone to make or receive calls. “It wasn’t until I was identified as a digital sarthaks that I came to own a mobile phone and recognised the advantages of having an Internet connection.” It was Archana’s mentor Abhinav Pandey from the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) who helped her transition from using a feature phone to acquiring the smartphone with which she began conducting training sessions as a digital sarthak. He is DEF’s district coordinator who trains and mentors all digital sarthaks so that they are able to serve their communities better. His mentorship has helped her steadily build the management capacities of local self-help groups (SHGs) using smartphones and communication through Whatsapp groups and increase the geographical coverage of SHGs’ activities, such as offering microcredit and helping launch livelihoods. Today, Archana fondly calls Dhanora her ‘janm bhumi’ (birthplace) while referring to Kandhya Khedi as her ‘karm bhumi’ (workplace).
When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in March 2020, Archana helped people order groceries online amidst the lockdowns as the village was completely paralysed and no supplies were reaching local shops, leaving people with no provisions. As an ASHA worker, she helped those who were quarantined to speak to their families through video calls using her phone. She has run mobile campaigns on the importance of washing hands and social distancing and conducted door-to-door vaccination drives in her village, mobilising her peers using her smartphone. In her capacity as an ASHA worker, Archana has been at the frontline, battling the numerous challenges that emerged during and because of the pandemic, and has used her phone to coordinate with the local administration and civil society organisations for the provision of hand sanitisers, PPE kits, and masks. With the INR 1,000 compensation offered to ASHA workers for special duties during the pandemic,2 Archana’s work has sometimes been difficult. But she has forged on and has been recognised by her ward for her tireless community service as a ‘corona yoddha’ (corona warrior), an accolade she holds dear.
As a digital sarthak, Archana has identified and trained 100 women entrepreneurs in Kandhya Khedi and other neighbouring villages to scale up their businesses using digital tools. She trains entrepreneurs in digital and financial literacy, media literacy, using smartphones for business and social media for marketing. She has also informed the community about the Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface scheme that aims to increase Wi-Fi access across India. “As a result of my interventions people have begun taking an active interest in online functions and services beyond their own business. They are keen to learn more about e-services, and government schemes and benefits, and have in several cases also begun to access them with my help,” she says.
Another major area of activity for Archana is conducting workshops on using digital wallets for contactless transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Online transactions are gradually gaining popularity. More and more community members are doing it now and more often than before, she says. This is in line with the overall trend across India, which saw 48 billion real-time digital payment transactions in 2021,4 the highest in the world.
Archana notes that the use of mobile phones by women is often stigmatised. “Smartphones and the Internet are seen as instruments of pollution in the hands of impressionable young girls.” This, coupled with issues of access, could be why only 20 percent of women residing in rural Madhya Pradesh have used the Internet ever (see Figure 1).5 Still, women like Archana are role models for their community, especially women. Since becoming a digital sarthak, Archana has worked hard to change these perceptions. “There was a general distrust of letting women interact with phones, let alone the Internet, and helping community members overcome this mindset is one of my first steps.”
But convincing women to start using phones is a challenge, she says. “While a lot of people are beginning to change their minds about technology, it was only during the lockdowns that they truly understood the importance of mobile phones and the Internet. With a phone you can do anything. There are no boundaries to the business opportunities one can access,” Archan says emphatically. As an example, she notes that many women engaged in the tailoring business now have access to a larger customer base. She has also trained them to use YouTube for new ideas on designs and styles.
In addition to the training and advocacy work, Archana also runs a community project centre in the village, which she set up with the support of USAID and DEF. It is the only such centre in her village and the surrounding area. “Our centre is equipped with a smartphone, a laptop and a printer, and I am helping community members use the Internet to avail of a wide range of public services and government benefits,” she says proudly. The centre has emerged as a hub of last-mile service delivery for the inhabitants of Kandhya Khedi, and with Archana at the helm, the village is slowly and steadily making its way into a digital age.
To read the inspiring stories of these women revolutionising ICT use across the length and breadth of India, click here.