On 24 March 2020, the Government of India announced one of the most stringent lockdowns to combat the spread of Covid-19. Overnight, workers in the unorganized sector — comprising over 90 % of the country’s population — lost their jobs as projects that employed them came to a halt and supply chains got interrupted. The subsequent lockdowns…
COVID19
2022
2021
IT for Change was part of 200 CSOs who have written to the Director General of World Trade Forum, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala highlighting the importance and urgency to agree on a WTO TRIPSWaiver for diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.
Read the letter here.
2021
The pandemic has exposed India’s ambivalence about scientific knowledge. While masking and distancing constitute scientific wisdom, we see mass disregard of these in festivals and polls. The pandemic has exposed another ambivalence — about beliefs on the purpose and processes of education. Education experts’ views have sharply contrasted with…
2021
IT for Change has drafted a statement, endorsed by a group of educationists and social work organizations, about the urgent need to open all primary schools to avoid a crisis of learning. Read it below:
1. The Karnataka education department has opened schools selectively. Classes 9-12 have regular classes, and 6-8 have intermittent…
2021
IT for Change put out a press release on January 26, 2021, about the urgent need to reopen all classes across all schools with local hygiene precautions in place. The statement, endorsed by a group of educationists and social work organizations, was covered by the New Indian Express.
The day after the release of the statement, the…
2020
Statement Issued by a Group of Educationists and Social Work Organizations
Concerns
Between lock-downs and relaxations, governments are trying to find the right balance between saving lives and keeping the economy going. A similar balance is essential in education as well. A very small percentage of students are able to connect to online…
2020
IT for Change contributed an input on gender and digital technology in the post-Covid moment to a report for the NITI Aayog, titled 'Covid-19: Impact on Women and Girls'. This report was prepared by a group of organizations working for gender equality and women's empowerment. The input is based on our ongoing project, ‘Centering Women in India'…
2020
This is the third issue paper, written by Anita Gurumurthy, for the Feminist Digital Justice -- a collaborative research and advocacy initiative of IT for Change and DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era).
The platform economy -- dominated by a few firms -- is extractivist,exploitative,and expedient. It is based on an…
2020
IT for Change was among 150 signatories to an open letter led by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), urging Gilead Sciences to give up its exclusive rights on patents and regulatory and trial data in remdesivir. Monopoly-based patents regime in this could obstruct access to lifesaving treatment for Covid-19.
As the…
2020
On March 24, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued an advisory to States, asking them to treat e-commerce as an essential service. A few days before, industry body CII had urged the Centre to exempt e-commerce (delivery and shipment) from Covid-19 preventive measures. Being listed as an…