The Quantum Hub

संसदीय क्षेत्रों के स्तर पर डेटा उपलब्ध होने से न केवल सांसद अपने क्षेत्र की आकांक्षाओं और जरूरतों पर बेहतर काम कर सकेंगे बल्कि यह कदम मतदाताओं को भी सशक्त बनाएगा। इससे जनता द्वारा अपने सांसद के प्रदर्शन का आंकलन भी डेटा आधारित मजबूत मापदंडों पर हो सकेगा। 

लेखक: डॉ. एस. वी. सुब्रमनियन और शुभम मुद्गिल
यह लेख 1 जून, 2023 को दैनिक जागरण में प्रकाशित हुआ था

अगले साल अठारवीं लोक सभा के गठन हेतु भारत में आम चुनावों का आयोजन होगा। लोकतंत्र का सबसे बड़ा त्यौहार माने जाने वाले इन्हीं चुनावों के माध्यम से भारतीय जनता अपने सर्वोच्च जन प्रतिनिधिओं (अर्थात सांसदों) का चयन करेगी। अपने संसदीय क्षेत्रों के मतदाताओं की आकांक्षाओं और उमीदों का भार संभालें, यही सांसद राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर क़ानून, निति, विकास से जुड़े अनेकों मुद्दों पर देश का पथ प्रबल करेंगे। परन्तु जिन संसदीय क्षेत्रों से भारत के सर्वोच जन प्रतिनिधि चुने जाते हैं, आज उसी स्तर पर विकास के अनेक सूचकों से सम्बंधित डेटा का आभाव है।

इस साल की शुरुआत में लोकसभा सांसद श्रीमती सुनीता दुग्गल ने श्रम और रोजगार मंत्रालय से उनकी एक विशेष योजना के तहत पंजीकृत कृषि मजदूर लाभार्थियों की संख्या पर डेटा मांगा। माननीय सांसद विशेष रूप से अपने संसदीय क्षेत्र में इन लाभार्थियों की संख्या जानना चाहती थीं। हालाँकि, जवाब सवरूप उन्हें बताया गया कि मंत्रालय संसदीय क्षेत्र के स्तर पर डेटा एकत्रित नहीं करता। यह समस्या केवल मंत्रालयों तक ही सीमित नहीं बल्कि आज सरकार द्वारा किसी भी विकास सूचक का डेटा संसदीय क्षेत्र स्तर पर जारी नहीं किया जाता।   

ऐतिहासिक रूप से सरकारी योजनाओं और अभियानों के लिए डेटा मुख्य तौर पर जिला स्तर पर एकत्रित और जारी किया जाता रहा है। जिला-स्तरीय डेटा – चाहे भारत सरकार के प्रशासनिक डेटा से या राष्ट्रीय परिवार स्वास्थ्य सर्वेक्षण (एन.एफ.एच.एस.) जैसे स्वतंत्र सर्वेक्षणों से – आज नीतिगत विचार-विमर्श के लिए एक महत्वपूर्ण इनपुट के रूप में स्थापित है। परन्तु संसदीय क्षेत्रों के विकास के आंकलन में जिला-स्तरीय आंकड़ें कम पड़ जाते हैं। 

इसका कारण है भारत के जिलों और संसदीय क्षेत्रों की कभी न मेल खाती सीमाएं। वर्त्तमान में जहाँ देश में 766 जिलें हैं, वहीं संसदीय क्षेत्र केवल 543 है। कुल 391 संसदीय क्षेत्र तो अपना नाम जिलों के साथ साझा करते है। एक ही नाम होने के बावजूद भी इन संसदीय क्षेत्रों और जिलों की जनसंख्या और जनसांख्यिकी अलग है। उदाहरण के लिए उदयपुर जिले का नाम धारण करने वाले उदयपुर संसदीय क्षेत्र को ही ले लीजिये। इस संसदीय क्षेत्र में उदयपुर जिले के अलावा भी प्रतापगढ़ और डूंगरपुर जिलों के कुछ हिस्से शामिल हैं। ऐसे में यदि उदयपुर के सांसद को अपने संसदीय क्षेत्र में एनीमिया के प्रसार के बारे में जानकारी चाहिए तो महज़ उदयपुर जिले का डेटा सहायक नहीं होगा। जिलों की लगातार विकसित होती सीमाएं और बढ़ती संख्या इस समस्या को और जटिल बना देती है। 

संसदीय क्षेत्रों के स्तर पर डेटा उपलब्ध होने से न केवल सांसद अपने क्षेत्र की आकांक्षाओं और जरूरतों पर बेहतर काम कर सकेंगे बल्कि यह कदम मतदाताओं को भी सशक्त बनाएगा। इससे जनता द्वारा अपने सांसद के प्रदर्शन का आंकलन भी डेटा आधारित मजबूत मापदंडों पर हो सकेगा। 

data.gov.in जैसे प्लेटफॉर्म के साथ, भारत सरकार ने उच्च गुणवत्ता वाले डेटा को एकत्र करने और साझा करने में सराहनीय प्रगति की है। परन्तु उन पर उपलब्ध डेटा अभी भी राज्य, जिला, शहर और ब्लॉक जैसी प्रशासनिक सीमाओं तक ही सीमित है। हालाँकि भारतीय परिवेश में संसदीय क्षेत्रों के स्तर पर डेटा की कमी को पाट रहा है हार्वर्ड की ज्योग्राफिक इनसाइट्स लैब का इंडिया पॉलिसी इनसाइट्स इनिशिएटिव (आई.पी.आई. )।

आई.पी.आई. द्वारा विकसित एक नए इंटरैक्टिव डेटा ट्रैकर ने पहली बार भारत के प्रत्येक 543 संसदीय निर्वाचन क्षेत्रों के लिए आबादी, स्वास्थ्य और कल्याण से जुड़ा महत्वपूर्ण डेटा प्रदान किया है। राष्ट्रीय परिवार स्वास्थ्य सर्वेक्षण (एनएफएचएस) के सार्वजनिक रूप से उपलब्ध डेटा पर आधारित ये ट्रैकर प्रत्येक निर्वाचन क्षेत्र के लिए 90 से ज्यादा विकास सूचकों पर आधारित एक फैक्टशीट भी उपलब्ध करता है। इस फैक्टशीट का उपयोग कर सांसद, पत्रकार, शोधकर्ता, समाजसेवी और आम नागरिक भी अपने निर्वाचन क्षेत्रों में हुई प्रगति का आंकलन कर सकते हैं।

इस ट्रैकर के उपयोग संसदीय क्षेत्र ओर जिले के डेटा में अंतर साफ़ दिखाई देता है। जहाँ कन्नौज जिले  में 12-23 महीने की आयु के 56.8 प्रतिशत बच्चों को वैक्सीन कार्ड से प्राप्त जानकारी के आधार पर पूर्ण टीकाकरण प्राप्त हुआ, वहीं कन्नौज संसदीय क्षेत्र में यह आंकड़ा 69.7 प्रतिशत है। हिमाचल प्रदेश के हमीरपुर संसदीय क्षेत्र; जो पांच जिलों (हमीरपुर, कांगड़ा, ऊना, मंडी और बिलासपुर) में फैला है, वहां प्रसवपूर्व कम से कम चार बार देखभाल दौरा पाने वाली माताओं का प्रसार 75.5 प्रतिशत है, जबकि हमीरपुर जिले में यह 59.4 प्रतिशत है। इसी कारणवश संसदीय क्षेत्र स्तरीय डेटा की उपलब्धता निर्वाचित प्रतिनिधियों को उनके निर्वाचन क्षेत्रों में अपूर्ण जरूरतों की पहचान करने और उनमें सुधर हेतु शासन-प्रशासन, समाज व अन्य हितधारकों के साथ काम करने में बड़ी मदद कर सकती है।  

सांसदों और जिला प्रशासन के बीच समन्वय में सुधार करने के लिए ग्रामीण विकास मंत्रालय ने 2016 में जिला समन्वय और निगरानी समितियों का गठन किया। अपने संसदीय क्षेत्र में आने वाले जिलों में इन समितिओं की अध्यक्षता कर सांसद अपने क्षेत्र में केंद्रीय योजनाओं के कार्यान्वयन का आंकलन करते हैं। हालाँकि, सांसदों के पास अपने संसदीय क्षेत्र से सम्बन्धी डेटा का कोई स्वतंत्र स्रोत न होने के कारण उन्हें जिला प्रशाशन द्वारा सोपें आकड़ों पर ही निर्भर होना पड़ता है। ऐसी स्थिति में, यदि इन बैठकों की अध्यक्षता करने वाले सांसदों के पास अपने निर्वाचन क्षेत्रों से संबंधित विश्वसनीय डेटा हो, जैसे आईपीआई के ट्रैकर द्वारा प्रदान की गई जानकारी, तो इससे उन्हें जिला प्रशासन के प्रदर्शन का बेहतर आकलन करने में मदद मिलेगी।

प्रधान मंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने 2019 में, सरकार के 2022 तक साक्ष्य आधारित नीति निर्माण की ओर बढ़ने के इरादे की घोषणा की थी। भारत में डेटा की उपलब्धि को सुधारने पर काम कर रही सरकार के पास अब संसदीय निर्वाचन क्षेत्र के स्तर पर डेटा के संग्रह को प्रोत्साहित करने और इसे उपयोगकर्ता के अनुकूल और इंटरैक्टिव प्रारूपों में प्रसारित करने का एक सुनहरा अवसर है। जियोग्राफिक इनसाइट्स लैब द्वारा विकसित आई.पी.आई. ट्रैकर्स जैसी पहलों से साफ़ ज़ाहिर है कि इस तरह के डेटा की उपलब्धता से न केवल निर्वाचित प्रतिनिधियों को संसाधनों के बेहतर आवंटन में मदद मिलेगी, बल्कि देश में नीतिगत विमर्श में नागरिकों की सहभागिता भी बढ़ेगी।  

डॉ. एस. वी. सुब्रमनियन हार्वर्ड विश्वविद्यालय में जनसंख्या स्वास्थ्य और भूगोल के प्रोफेसर और ज्योग्राफिक इनसाइट्स लैब के प्रधान अन्वेषक हैं। शुभम मुदगिल द क्वांटम हब नामक एक पब्लिक पालिसी रिसर्च और कम्युनिकेशनस फर्म में पब्लिक पॉलिसी एसोसिएट हैं।

हार्वर्ड विश्विद्यालय के ज्योग्राफिक इनसाइट्स लैब के इंडिया पॉलिसी इनसाइट्स इनिशिएटिव द्वारा संसदीय क्षेत्रों के स्तर पर जारी किया गया स्वास्थ, जनसँख्या और विकास सम्बन्धी डेटा देखने के लिए इस लिंक का प्रयोग करें।

142 करोड़ की जनसँख्या को पार कर चुके भारत की जनसँख्या विस्तार गति में पिछले कुछ दशकों में कमी तो आई है, परन्तु अगले कुछ दशकों तक जनसँख्या के बढ़ने की ही उम्मीद है।

लेखक: शुभम मुद्गिल और रोहित कुमार
यह 11 जुलाई, 2023 को दैनिक जागरण में प्रकाशित लेख का लंबा संस्करण है।

वर्ष 1990 में आज ही के दिन पहली बार विश्व जनसंख्या दिवस मनाया गया। उस समय 90 देशों की भागीदारी से आरम्भ हुए इस दिवस को आज विश्व भर में जनसंख्या मुद्दों और समाज के विभिन्न पहलुओं पर उनके प्रभाव के बारे में जागरूकता बढ़ाने हेतु आयोजित किया जाता है। इसके अंतर्गत जनसंख्या से संबंधित अनेकों मुद्दों; जैसे परिवार नियोजन, जनस्वास्थ्य, लैंगिक समानता और सतत विकास, पर चर्चा होती है। हालाँकि इस बार विश्व के सबसे अधिक आबादी वाले देश के तौर पर भारत का ये पहला जनसँख्या दिवस है।

142 करोड़ की जनसँख्या को पार कर चुके भारत की जनसँख्या विस्तार गति में पिछले कुछ दशकों में कमी तो आई है, परन्तु अगले कुछ दशकों तक जनसँख्या के बढ़ने की ही उम्मीद है। वर्ष 2018-19 के आर्थिक सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार जनसँख्या विस्तार के चलते 2041 तक भारत की कामकाजी उम्र की आबादी (20-59 वर्ष) कुल आबादी का 59% होने की उम्मीद है। यह भारत को एक स्वर्णिम जनसांख्यिकीय लाभांश प्रदान करेगी। परन्तु बढ़ती जनसँख्या अपने साथ कुछ समस्याएं भी लाएगी, जिसे समय रहते समझना होगा।

जनसँख्या विस्तार के परिणामस्वरूप समाज में प्रत्येक व्यक्ति को जीवनयापन हेतु बुनियादी सुविधाएं उपलब्ध कराना एक बड़ी चुनौती होगी। यह समस्या इसलिए भी गंभीर है क्यूंकि बिजली, पानी, पर्याप्त आहार और शिक्षा जैसी मूलभूत सुविधाओं के आभाव से न केवल किसी व्यक्ति या समूह को हानि होगी बल्कि इससे सम्पूर्ण देश की प्रगति की रफ़्तार धीमी पड़ सकती है। समाज के आखरी व्यक्ति के उत्थान और अंत्योदय के मार्ग पर प्रतिबद्ध रहने के लिए जरूरी है कि समय रहते ही इस समस्या का आंकलन कर सरकार द्वारा भविष्य के लिए विकास सम्बन्धी प्राथमिकताएं निर्धारित की जाएं।

2019-21 के राष्ट्रीय परिवार स्वास्थ्य सर्वेक्षण बुनियादी सुविधाओं तक भारतीय जनसँख्या की पहुंच का आंकलन करने हेतु एक महत्वपूर्ण संसाधन है। यह सर्वेक्षण जन स्वास्थ्य, विकास, पोषण और मातृ एवं शिशु स्वास्थ्य जैसे अनेकों सूचकों पर उच्च गुणवत्ता वाला डेटा उपलब्ध कराता है। हार्वर्ड यूनिवर्सिटी के इंडिया पॉलिसी इनसाइट्स (आई.पी.आई.) द्वारा विकसित इंटरैक्टिव ट्रैकर एक नवीन पद्धति का उपयोग कर इसी डेटा को जिला स्तर पर विज़ुअलाइज़ करता है। आई.पी.आई. ट्रैकर साफ़ दर्शाता है की बिजली, पानी और स्वच्छता के क्षेत्र में बीते वर्षों में एक मजबूत बढ़त दर्ज़ हुई है।

सदी की शुरुआत में जहाँ देश के मात्र 60% घरों में बिजली पहुँचती थी, आज वही बढ़कर 97% हो गयी है। 2019 -21 सर्वेक्षण डेटा के मुताबिक कुल 26 जिलों में 100% आबादी बिजली कनेक्शन से जुड़े घरों में रहती है और वहीं 312 जिलों में यह आंकड़ा 99% के पार है। बिजली तक भारतीयों की पहुंच बढ़ाने हेतु एक बड़ा कदम 2005 में राजीव गाँधी ग्रामीण विद्युतीकरण योजना (आरजीजीवीवाई) के तौर पर लिया गया। वर्ष 2014 में आरजीजीवीवाई को सम्मिलित कर दीन दयाल उपाध्याय ग्राम ज्योति मिशन की शुरुआत हुई जिसके अंतर्गत अप्रैल 2018 में ही सम्पूर्ण ग्रामीण विद्युतीकरण का लक्ष्य हासिल किया गया।

बिजली आपूर्ति की तरह ही बेहतर पेयजल भी आज देश के घर घर तक पहुंच पा रहा है। 2019-21 राष्ट्रीय परिवार स्वास्थ्य सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार भारत में 96 % आबादी बेहतर पेयजल स्त्रोत से जुड़े घरों में रहती है। कुल 567 जिलों में यह आंकड़ा 90% से ज्यादा है। इसी तरह, बेहतर शौच सुविधाओं के मामले में भी भारत ने एक लम्बी छलांग लगाई है। 2019-21 में बेहतर शौच सुविधाओं का उपयोग करने वाली जनसंख्या का आंकड़ा 48.2% (2015-16) से बढ़कर 72% प्रतिशत हो गया है। इस अंतराल में कुल 96% जिलों ने बेहतर शौच सुविधाओं के मामले में औसतन 25 प्रतिशत का सुधार दर्ज़ किया। इसके पीछे स्वच्छ भारत मिशन के तहत बने 11 करोड़ घरेलु शौचालय, स्वच्छता केंद्रित जागरूकता अभियान और भारी जन भागीदारी का एक बड़ा योगदान है ।

ऐसी ही अनेकों सुधार की कहानियों के बीच कुछ ऐसी सुविधाएं भी हैं जो आज भी काफ़ी भारतियों की पहुंच से बाहर है। देश में 10 साल से ज्यादा स्कूली शिक्षा पाने वाली महिलाओं की राष्ट्रिय औसत महज 41% है।115 जिलों में तो ये संख्या 25 % से भी कम है। उज्ज्वला योजना में दिए गए 9.6 करोड़ गैस कनेक्शन के बावजूद भी, राष्ट्रीय परिवार स्वस्थ सर्वेक्षण द्वारा महज 58% घरों में ही खाना पकने के लिए स्वच्छ ईंधन मौजूद पाया गया। स्वच्छ ईंधन की नामौजूदगी या अवहनीयता से न केवल प्रदुषण होता है बल्कि इस्तेमाल करने वालों की सेहत पर भी बहुत बुरा प्रभाव पड़ता है।

आज भारत में अधिकतर छोटे बच्चों को सम्पूर्ण टीकाकरण तो उपलब्ध है परन्तु 6 से 23 महीनो के बच्चों को पर्याप्त आहार पहुंचने के मामले में हम काफी पीछे है। इस सूचक पर हमारी राष्ट्रीय औसत एक निराशाजनक 11% है। शायद इसी या अन्य कारणों से देश में 5 वर्ष से ज्यादा उम्र के 32% बच्चों का वजन जरूरी वजन से कम है और 35% बच्चे अवरुद्ध भी हैं। बढ़ती जनसँख्या के साथ यही प्रतिशतें और ज्यादा लोगों की दशा का वर्णन करेगी। अतः वर्त्तमान की समस्याओं को बढ़ती जनसँख्या के नज़रिये से देखना आज अति आवश्यक है।

देश को जनसांख्यिकीय लाभांश का फायदा मिलना काफ़ी हद तक सभी नागरिकों तक बुनियादी सुविधाएं पहुंचने पर निर्भर करता है। इस लेख में जरूरी सेवाओं की सतह को महज खरोंचा भर गया है। अभी घर, पोषण, स्वस्थ सेवा, रोजगार, शिक्षा, आर्थिक विकास जैसे अनेकों विषय बाकी है। आज जरूरत है की सरकार द्वारा बुनियादी संकेतकों पर अच्छा प्रदर्शन नहीं करने वाले जिलों की पहचान की जाए और उन तक जरूरतानुसार संसाधन पहुंचाए जाएं।

शुभम मुदगिल और रोहित कुमार, द क्वांटम हब (टी.क्यू.एच) नमक एक पब्लिक पालिसी फर्म में एसोसिएट और फॉउन्डिंग पार्टनर हैं।

इंडिया पॉलिसी इनसाइट्स पर अधिक जानकारी के लिए देखें।

Apart from campaigns to curb consumption, tobacco farmers must be provided with alternative livelihoods.

Authors: Mayank Mishra and Swathi Rao
This is an unabridged version of the article published in the Hindu Business Line on May 31, 2023.

India, a country recognized globally as a “best practices” country in tobacco control according to the framework implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO), faces significant challenges in curbing tobacco consumption. Following the observance of World Tobacco Day, , it is crucial to emphasise the importance of monitoring and evaluation of anti-tobacco programs and why this is relevant for India and the global community.

Tobacco is a well-known health hazard, causing 8 million deaths globally each year. Over 80% of the world’s tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries. Tobacco consumption is undoubtedly one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time. Beyond the immediate health risks, tobacco also pollutes the air, exposes non-smokers to second-hand and third-hand smoke, contaminates water sources, and harms marine life. Even electronic smoking devices contribute to environmental damage due to toxic materials.

Recognising tobacco’s severe impact on public health and the environment, nations worldwide have committed to The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); to strengthen the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). The FCTC aims to reduce tobacco consumption, protect non-smokers, and mitigate environmental damage. Controlling tobacco consumption is crucial not only as an SDG target but also for achieving other SDG targets linked to health, poverty, food security, education, among others.

The latest data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) suggests that tobacco usage remains a significant public health concern, with 7% of all deaths in people aged 30 and over attributed to tobacco consumption. Tobacco use is also a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, and diabetes, which are responsible for 63% of all deaths in India. According to the Policy Tracker for Districts developed by The India Policy Insights initiative (IPI), at Harvard University, tobacco consumption rates vary greatly across districts, with prevalence ranging from 6.8% to 80.6% among men and 0.1% to 70.6% among women. The prevalence of tobacco use differs throughout the nation, with the eastern and northeastern regions displaying the highest rates of consumption.

Prevailing sociocultural norms also gender the consumption patterns in India. On average in the country, nearly 9% women and 38% men aged 15 and above consumed tobacco. The neighbouring districts of Kolasib and Mamit in Mizoram had the highest tobacco consumption rates for women (70.6%) and men (80.6%), respectively. It is worth noting that smokeless tobacco products, linked to various health issues, including several types of cancers, higher risks of premature delivery and stillbirth during pregnancy, nicotine poisoning in children, and an increased risk of death from heart disease and stroke, are deemed more acceptable for women’s consumption. According to WHO’s Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS, 2016-17), consumption of smokeless tobacco was the highest in Tripura.

More recently, a study of India’s progress on SDGs and subsequent SDG tracker published by IPI, showing 2021 performance data for all Indian districts, raised serious concerns regarding the consumption of tobacco among men. Approximately 83% of all districts in India are not on track to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use among men aged 15 years and older to 5% by 2030. For women, however, the data is more reassuring, as a majority (69%) of districts have either already achieved or are on track (17.4%) to achieving the SDG target. This disparity underscores the importance of closely monitoring the progress of anti-tobacco initiatives and tailoring interventions to address the specific needs and challenges faced by different population groups.

Tobacco use increases the risk of developing non-communicable diseases like chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, and diabetes. It is alarming that the prevalence of moderate to high blood pressure and diabetes, among men and women, has risen in most districts across the country. Controlling tobacco consumption becomes even more crucial in this backdrop, given its significant role in reducing the risk and burden of non-communicable diseases.

To strengthen anti-tobacco efforts, the Government of India launched the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) in 2007-08, focusing on training, information campaigns, school programs, monitoring laws, and setting up cessation facilities. However, according to reports from WHO , there is a concerning decline in India’s score on monitoring performance data. Therefore, prioritising regular evaluation of policies is crucial to ensure effective monitoring and improve data collection on tobacco consumption. Robust monitoring mechanisms, such as leveraging tools like the IPI’s District and SDG Trackers, can enhance the government’s data monitoring capacity and provide valuable insights for informed decision-making.

On World Tobacco Day, the significance of monitoring and evaluation in anti-tobacco programs cannot be overstated. Equally important is the consideration of tobacco farmers and their communities during the shift away from tobacco cultivation. The implementation of “just transition” strategies, prioritising the well-being and economic stability of tobacco farmers, plays a pivotal role. This can encompass providing financial support, organising skill development programs, and ensuring access to resources for transitioning to alternative crops or industries.

Swathi Rao and Mayank Mishra are, respectively, Analyst and Manager at The Quantum Hub

The IPI Policy Tracker for Districts can be accessed here
The IPI SDG Tracker can be accessed here

The proposed ‘Digital India Bill’ holds out the promise of not only upgrading the current legal regime but also redefining the contours of how technology is regulated.

Authors: Rohit Kumar and Kaushik Thanugonda
Published: June 27, 2023 in The Hindu

The Ministry of Electronics and IT has been actively organising consultations on the proposed “Digital India Bill” to build conceptual alignment on a new law that will replace India’s 23-year-old Information Technology (IT) Act.

The goal is to upgrade the current legal regime to tackle emerging challenges such as user harm, competition and misinformation in the digital space. The Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that the first draft of the Bill should be out by the end of June. This is a much-anticipated piece of legislation that is likely to redefine the contours of how technology is regulated, not just in India but also globally. Changes being proposed include a categorisation of digital intermediaries into distinct classes such as e-commerce players, social media companies, and search engines to place different responsibilities and liabilities on each kind.

Why the present regime is untenable

The current IT Act defines an “intermediary” to include any entity between a user and the Internet, and the IT Rules sub-classify intermediaries into three main categories: “Social Media Intermediaries” (SMIs), “Significant Social Media Intermediaries” (SSMIs) and the recently notified, “Online Gaming Intermediaries”. SMIs are platforms that facilitate communication and sharing of information between users, and SMIs that have a very large user base (above a specified threshold) are designated as SSMIs. However, the definition of SMIs is so broad that it can encompass a variety of services such as video communications, matrimonial websites, email and even online comment sections on websites.

The rules also lay down stringent obligations for most intermediaries, such as a 72-hour timeline for responding to law enforcement asks and resolving ‘content take down’ requests. Unfortunately, ISPs, websites, e-commerce platforms, and cloud services are all treated similarly.

Consider platforms such as Microsoft Teams or customer management solutions such as Zoho. By virtue of being licensed, these intermediaries have a closed user base and present a lower risk of harm from information going viral. Treating these intermediaries like conventional social media platforms not only adds to their cost of doing business but also exposes them to greater liability without meaningfully reducing risks presented by the Internet.

Globally, not much to build on

So far, only a handful of countries have taken a clear position on the issue of proportionate regulation of intermediaries, so there is not too much to lean on. The European Union’s Digital Services Act is probably one of the most developed frameworks for us to consider. It introduces some exemptions and creates three tiers of intermediaries — hosting services, online platforms and “very large online platforms”, with increasing legal obligations. Australia has created an eight-fold classification system, with separate industry-drafted codes governing categories such as social media platforms and search engines. Intermediaries are required to conduct risk assessments, based on the potential for exposure to harmful content such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or terrorism.

Focus areas for India

While a granular, product-specific classification could improve accountability and safety online, such an approach may not be future-proof. As technology evolves, the specific categories we define today may not work in the future. What we need, therefore, is a classification framework that creates a few defined categories, requires intermediaries to undertake risk assessments and uses that information to bucket them into relevant categories. As far as possible, the goal should also be to minimise obligations on intermediaries and ensure that regulatory asks are proportionate to ability and size.

One way to do this would be to exempt micro and small enterprises, and caching and conduit services (the ‘pipes’ of the Internet) from any major obligations, and clearly distinguish communication services (where end-users interact with each other) from other forms of intermediaries (such as search engines and online-marketplaces). Given the lower risks, the obligations placed on intermediaries that are not communication services should be lesser, but they could still be required to appoint a grievance officer, cooperate with law enforcement, identify advertising, and take down problematic content within reasonable timelines.

Intermediaries that offer communication services could be asked to undertake risk assessments based on the number of their active users, risk of harm and potential for virality of harmful content. The largest communication services (platforms such as Twitter) could then be required to adhere to special obligations such as appointing India-based officers and setting up in-house grievance appellate mechanisms with independent external stakeholders to increase confidence in the grievance process. Alternative approaches to curbing virality, such as circuit breakers to slow down content, could also be considered.

For the proposed approach to be effective, metrics for risk assessment and appropriate thresholds would have to be defined and reviewed on a periodic basis in consultation with industry. Overall, such a framework could help establish accountability and online safety, while reducing legal obligations for a large number of intermediaries. In doing so, it could help create a regulatory environment that helps achieve the government’s policy goal of creating a safer Internet ecosystem, while also allowing businesses to thrive.

Rohit Kumar is Founding Partner and Kaushik Thanugonda is Senior Analyst at The Quantum Hub (TQH).

The availability of PC-level data can help elected representatives identify unmet needs in their constituencies and subsequently work with the administration and civil society to bridge the gap.

Authors: Mayank Mishra and Swathi Rao
Published: April 26, 2023 in Times of India

Earlier this year, a Lok Sabha MP sought data from the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the number of agricultural labourers registered as beneficiaries under a particular scheme. Specifically, the MP sought data for her parliamentary constituency (PC). However, this PC-level data, she was told, is neither available nor collected for the scheme.

The PC, a geographical unit of administration, is representative of the needs and aspirations of its people. Therefore, for parliamentarians to effectively address the needs of their constituents, it is imperative to understand and prioritise PC level issues for policy focus and intervention.

Historically, the district has been the smallest administrative unit for which data pertaining to government schemes and campaigns has been collected; however there has been a dearth of data at the PC level. While district-level data is necessary, the boundaries of districts and PCs rarely, if ever, coincide. Although 391 of the 543 PCs share their names with districts, their population and demographics are different. For example, Udaipur PC which is homonymous with Udaipur district, intersects parts of Udaipur, Pratapgarh, and Dungarpur districts. This is further complicated by the constantly evolving geometry and number of districts; Rajasthan, for example, recently announced the creation of 19 new districts. The incongruous nature of PCs and districts could eventually prevent elected representatives such as MPs from gauging the well-being and progress of their constituency.

Evaluating the health of a PC using NFHS data

The UK, for instance, has created interactive dashboards across several indicators – like broadband coverage, household profiles, universal credit rollout, health conditions, etc. for parliamentary constituencies. Although the Government of India has also made significant strides in collecting and disseminating data across sectors, especially with its data.gov.in platform, not all data that is available to the public is user-friendly; and the data that is available, is mapped to administrative boundaries. However, more recently, a UK-like data tracker has been developed at Harvard for Indian PCs, using publicly available data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The NFHS, first conducted in 1992-93, is a periodic survey that provides information on several health, nutrition and population indicators such as fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition, clean fuel usage, etc., at the district, state and national level. The survey covers approximately 610,000 households across the 707 districts in the country. Since 1992-93, five surveys have been conducted, with the most recent one in 2019-21.

Given the sample size, scale and periodicity of the NFHS surveys and the indicators covered under it, NFHS data is a treasure-trove for policymakers, researchers, media, and other stakeholders in the public policy and research ecosystem. Furthermore, the availability of health, nutrition and population indicators at the PC-level in an interactive and user-friendly format could be transformative for policymakers. It would provide them with the tools to assess the impact of schemes in their constituency and identify unmet needs.

To elucidate this further, let us look at school attendance rates among girls. The NFHS measures this as a percentage of girls aged 6 and above who ever attended school. Over the years, many governments at the centre and states have envisioned and implemented several schemes to improve female school attendance. In 2009, the Government of India also codified the right to free and compulsory elementary education. PC-level data shows that these schemes have resulted in a significant improvement in girls’ school attendance over the years, with several PCs recording over 90% attendance. However, despite the tremendous progress registered, some PCs in the country still reported attendance rates below 50%, while some others saw a decline from the NFHS-4 levels. The availability of PC-level data can help elected representatives identify unmet needs in their constituencies and subsequently work with the administration and civil society to bridge the gap.

Linking Data to Governance

To improve coordination between district administration and elected representatives, the Ministry of Rural Development created the District Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DDMC) in 2016, chaired by MPs from the districts, to oversee the implementation and monitoring of central schemes. Access to and ready availability of PC level data could be crucial for these committees for their deliberations and decision-making.

States like Andhra Pradesh, in an attempt to reduce inefficiencies, have taken streamlining a step further by reorganising districts to match PCs; AP now has 26 districts and 25 PCs. While this is a move in the right direction, reorganising districts may not be a feasible solution in all contexts and therefore, ensuring the availability of PC-level data would better align MPs with the needs of their constituents.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2019, announced the government’s intention to move towards evidence based policy making in 2022. The launch of the National Data and Analytics Platform in 2022 is an acknowledgement of this intent and marks a milestone in democratising data. Having got the ball rolling, the government now has the opportunity to incentivise the collection mapping of data to the parliamentary and assembly constituency levels and disseminate it in more user-friendly and interactive formats. The availability of such data will not only aid elected representatives in allocating resources better, but also elevate the policy discourse in the country by making it more participative.

Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General wrote on the role of good data in ending malnutrition in Africa, “Without good data, we’re flying blind. If you can’t see it, you can’t solve it.”

Authors: Shubham Mudgil and Mayank Mishra
Published: January 10, 2023 in Hindustan Times

The polio virus unexpectedly resurfaced in 2022 in many “polio-free” countries, like the US, UK, and Israel. A country is called “polio-free” when no case of wild polio transmission is detected for 3 consecutive years in the presence of high-quality surveillance systems. This is a cause for concern because 68 countries witnessed moderate-to-severe disruptions in polio vaccine campaigns due to COVID-19, with some countries completely halting their polio inoculation programmes, according to a 2020 WHO report. India, which was declared “polio-free” in 2014, should share the concern because different regions within India show wide disparity in polio vaccination coverage.

What are the places that lag in this coverage? Unit-level data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in
2019-21, which was fully published in May 2022, allows us to check this at the district-level. However, since political representatives represent parliamentary or state assembly constituencies, it might be useful to study polio vaccination coverage in those regions. Estimates for parliamentary constituencies (PC) generated by the Geographic Insights Lab at Harvard University using NFHS data allow us to do that.

Click here to read the Data Story

Shubham Mudgil is Associate, Public Policy and Mayank Mishra is Manager, Public Policy at The Quantum Hub.

Now is an opportune time to see how we can take our population-scale shared infrastructure to go beyond its role of ‘identifying and authenticating’ to solve for contemporary challenges that are impeding the competitiveness and resilience of the Indian economy.

Authors: Rohit Kumar and Aishwarya Viswanathan
Published: March 31, 2023 in Hindustan Times

With growing consensus around its role as a driver of innovation and inclusion at population scale, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has found its way into key priorities at the highest levels of policy making in India. The tech that has been developed under the DPI banner (Aadhaar; UPI etc.) has today become the bedrock of the digital economy.

The Finance Minister’s budget speech this year very clearly articulates the importance of digital public infrastructure in furthering development in India and for raising the country’s profile globally. DPIs are also a key agenda of the Indian G20 Presidency.

While the first phase of creating the core, foundational digital public infrastructure in India – DPI 1.0 – has been a big success, the current phase of building sectoral infrastructure – DPI 2.0 – requires careful thinking on governance architectures and models of financing to ensure sustainable and equitable outcomes for citizens.

Over the last decade, every one of us has watched India Stack, and its foundational ID and payment layers i.e. Aadhaar and UPI, transform the way we interact and transact. The Economic Survey 2023 notes that Aadhaar has authenticated more than 8,600 crore transactions so far, and UPI accounted for 52% of financial digital transactions in FY22 – clearly indicating how this DPI 1.0 movement that built the ‘horizontal’ or foundational layers has transformed life for the common man.

It’s now an opportune time to see how we can take our population-scale shared infrastructure to go beyond its role of ‘identifying and authenticating’ to solve for contemporary challenges that are impeding the competitiveness and resilience of the Indian economy. The ‘open’ tech nature of DPIs and their protocols-based approach has tremendous potential and here is where DPI 2.0 or the next generation of ‘sectoral’ DPIs come into the picture.

Take for instance, the market for credit that is riddled with costly and time-consuming lending practices. CIBIL estimates that only 8% of the 400 million people aged between 18-33 years have access to credit. In the MSME sector, a key driver of the Indian economy – the credit gap is about Rs. 20-25 lakh crore. To address this problem of finance in the Indian economy, the latest additions to India Stack – the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) and the Account Aggregator (AA) framework that operate as its credit and consent layer respectively – can be promising interventions. By facilitating interactions between players in the credit value chain, OCEN and AA can together enable individuals and small businesses who may lack traditional collateral, to leverage their own digital financial footprint (in the form of tax receipts or sales invoices) to secure credit in an easy manner.

Similarly, in the e-commerce market, around 1.2 crore Kirana stores account for 80% of the retail sector in India, and 90% of them remain unorganised, or self-organised and digitally excluded. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), currently in the early stages of rollout, can enable such retail players by shifting the model of the e-commerce market from a platform-centric one to a facilitator-driven, interoperable network – making it easier for smaller players to enter and be discovered.

In all these examples, the DPI 2.0 movement leverages the digital infrastructure set up in the DPI 1.0 phase, the now ubiquitous ID, payments and data exchange layers, to enhance service delivery experiences across sectors and boost consumer ‘choice’. While this is tremendously exciting, we still need to get the foundation right to ensure accountability and sustainability of development outcomes.

First, we need to ensure that mainstreaming of DPIs across sectors is accompanied by adequate protections for citizens and the increasing reliance on tech does not lead to greater exclusion. In this regard, laying out a comprehensive framework to secure the data rights of users through protections under the law becomes critical. Recent evidence also suggests that the rate of increase in internet penetration is in fact slowing (after the uptick we saw during the pandemic). Even in terms of device ownership, while 61% men had a mobile phone, only 31% women owned one at the end of 2021. Therefore, it is essential that physical and human touch points complement digital endpoints to ensure inclusion.

Second, we need to ensure accountability and grievance redressal. While this is true of all population scale systems, it becomes particularly important in the context of DPIs, whose inherent architecture enables a wide set of actors in the ecosystem to participate in service delivery, without their necessarily being a central authority to hold all actors responsible for the outcomes they drive.

Finally, it is important to ensure that the DPIs we develop have financing mechanisms that are both sustainable and resilient. Budgetary allocations need to account for not only the upfront costs of design and development, but also the ‘lifetime costs’ of operations and maintenance, as well as the ‘non-tech costs’ of building and sustaining robust governance and community engagement. Philanthropic and multilateral capital can indeed play an important role in catalysing new DPI, but self-financing mechanisms that include a nominal fee for service provision or creating a fund with contributions from both government and private actors may need to be considered as long-term solutions.

While it is good to see India being recognised as a pioneer of the DPI movement globally, the next couple of years are a great window of opportunity for India to leverage its tech prowess to build solutions across a range of sectors that place the ‘rights’ and ‘choices’ of citizens at the heart of its digital economy. If done well, not only will this preserve the momentum of such a path-breaking agenda, it will also cement India’s image as its custodian.

Rohit Kumar is founding partner and Aishwarya Viswanathan is Analyst at TQH consulting.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill must serve as a basic layer of protection, with sectoral regulators having the ability to build on this.

Author: Sumeysh Srivastava
Published: March 29, 2023 in The Hindu

India’s digital economy is set to reach a whopping $1 trillion by 2026. People are going digital rapidly for everything — from shopping and socialising to education and government services. But, as we embrace convenience, we are also generating massive amounts of personal data. Understanding how this data is handled and protected is fast becoming critical.

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill 2022, that was proposed recently, comes after five years of discussion and deliberation on a framework to safeguard citizens’ information from misuse and unauthorised access. Even as the Bill outlines citizens’ rights over their personal data and the responsibilities of data collectors, it lacks specificity in certain clauses such as the interaction with sectoral data protection regulations.

On sectoral regulation, global approaches

The current draft of the Bill tries to tackle the issue of conflicting sectoral regulations; in Section 29, it states that the provisions of the Bill will complement and not create exemptions from existing regulations, but in case of conflict, the Bill will take precedence. The first part allows the Bill to fill in any regulatory gaps, but the second part raises concerns about sectoral regulations that may go beyond what the Bill provides.

Data protection and privacy are highly dependent on context, including the type of data collected, how it is collected, the intended use and the associated risks. This makes sectoral expertise crucial to regulate effectively. Sectoral expertise offers a deep understanding of a particular sector, including its market dynamics, technologies, risks and business models. It also enables regulators to engage with stakeholders and industry experts in a well-informed and productive manner.

The global community has adopted two major approaches to regulate privacy and protect data: comprehensive legislation and sector-specific regulations. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) embodies the comprehensive approach, offering the strongest and most stringent framework to date. Meanwhile, the sectoral approach in the United States, as seen through laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in health care, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) for financial institutions, is a patchwork of regulations tailored to specific industries.

The GDPR, despite being a comprehensive framework, has specific provisions for certain industries such as health care (Article 9). Additionally, GDPR also permits EU Member States to implement measures which go beyond the provisions given in the GDPR. For example, Germany also has Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG), which in some cases, has stricter provisions compared to the GDPR. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB), made up of representatives from each EU member state’s data protection authority, provides guidance on the implementation and interpretation of the GDPR, including sector-specific issues.

The American sectoral approach to data protection has been deemed flawed for various reasons, including inconsistent protection, problems in enforcement, overlapping and contradictory provisions, and a lack of federal regulation leaving certain sectors unprotected. This creates confusion and coverage gaps for businesses, and there is no centralised authority to enforce data protection laws, leading to a lack of standardisation. Calls for a federal framework have become increasingly common, even in the United States.

The GDPR model may not work for India as the Data Protection Board is designed as a grievance agency, and not as a regulator. The earlier version of the Bill with a Data Protection Authority of India may have been better suited as an independent regulator such as the EDPB.

Therefore, the current draft of the Bill, while a major step towards ensuring the protection of citizens’ personal data, needs greater clarity and specificity regarding the interaction with sectoral regulations; we need to draw from our experience to find the right balance

Finding the right space for the Bill

In India, for example, we already have sectoral regulations regarding data protection such as the Reserve Bank of India’s directive on storage of payment data and the National Health Authority’s Health Data Management Policy. These are the result of extensive industry consultations and expert input. Neglecting these regulations and establishing a new framework would undermine the considerable effort invested in their creation. Any deviation from existing regulations will further require the industry to readjust their operations again at considerable cost.

The DPDP Bill, therefore, must serve as the minimum layer of protection, with sectoral regulators having the ability to build on these protections. This framework will be especially useful in India where not all regulators may have the same capacity. Data protection is a complex subject and we must create room for sectoral experts to weigh in to safeguard the interests of citizens more effectively. This will ensure a safer, more secure, and dynamic digital landscape in the years to come.

Sumeysh Srivastava is Manager, Public Policy at The Quantum Hub.

An attempt at drawing attention to regions in India with high levels of female child marriage, as well as discussing potential solutions to address the problem.

Authors: Shubham Mudgil and Swathi Ramesh Rao
Published: March 20, 2023 in Ideas for India

Child marriage signals the end of childhood. It is a serious problem with large-scale ramifications, not only for the underage girls married, but also for society at large. Studies show that child marriage restricts girls’ access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, and even leads to inter-generational effects like undernutrition in children (Field et al. 2016).

In 1978, the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 was amended to increase the minimum legal age of marriage for females from 15 years; almost 45 years later, the minimum legal age is 18 years, and female child marriage continues to be a pervasive problem in India. Data from the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) shows a 23.3% incidence of female child marriage in the country in 2019-21. The magnitude of this figure is especially concerning since India is currently estimated to have around 225 million girls below 19 years of age (National Commission on Population, 2020).

Until now, NFHS data for child marriage has been collected and made available at the district, state, and national level. As a result, elected representatives from parliamentary constituencies (PCs) have had to rely on available district-level data to monitor their constituencies. However, because PC and district boundaries do not overlap, it cannot be assumed that district-level data will provide accurate estimates for PCs. For example, the Kannauj PC, although homonymous with the district of Kannauj, actually intersects three different districts – Kannauj, Auraiya, and Kanpur Dehat. As of 2022, India has 543 Lok Sabha constituencies and 766 districts.

Given that Members of Parliament (MPs) are directly elected by citizens in their respective constituencies, a lack of PC-level data hinders meaningful, constituency-specific policy discourse, and hampers MPs’ engagement with their electorate. In this data story, we explore trends in female child marriage in India using NFHS data mapped specifically to the parliamentary constituency (PC) level.

We aim to highlight the status of this issue and draw attention to regions in India with high levels of female child marriage, as well as discuss potential solutions to address the problem. The continued prevalence of child marriage, despite the enactment of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012, suggests that criminal prosecution alone cannot be a deterrent; neither perhaps can retroactive action on families that allegedly engaged in the practice of child marriage.

Table 1: National prevalence of female child marriage across rounds

NFHS Round	Prevalence of Female Child Marriage
NFHS-1 (1992-93)	54.2%
NFHS-2 (1998-99)	50.0%
NFHS-3 (2005-06)	47.4%
NFHS-4 (2015-16)	26.8%
NFHS-5 (2019-21)	23.3%

Since its first round in 1992, the NFHS has measured female child marriage by surveying women who were first married by age 18. Even though data from the five rounds of NFHS, as presented in table 1, indicate that the practice has been on the decline, child marriage is yet to be eradicated. In fact, in Figure 1, dense clusters of PCs with high levels of female child marriage, highlighted by shades of red, can be observed throughout the country.

In the worst-performing states of Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh, 1.5 out of every 4 girls in the age bracket surveyed by the NFHS were married when they were underage. Additionally, female child marriage rates vary sharply among PCs, but while PCs in the bottom 10% have rates ranging from 41-61%, and the top 10% range more narrowly from 2.7-8%, India, unfortunately, has no parliamentary constituency where child marriage has ceased to exist.

National female child marriage rates have fallen from 26.8% in NFHS-4 (2015-2016) to 23.3% in NFHS-5 (2019-2021). The progress made over the last five years is notable, with 77% of PCs registering a decline (see Figure 2).

However, in the remaining PCs, child marriage rates have actually increased by 3.3 percentage points on average. Some PCs have even registered an increase of over 10 percentage points.

The PCs of Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), Salem (Tamil Nadu), and Parbhani (Maharashtra) also present a peculiar case – they regressed significantly while their surrounding PCs improved. These exceptions require immediate attention to identify the causes behind the increase and address them through effective solutions.

The path to progress in bigger states with high levels of child marriage 

Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are both large Indian states with high levels of female child marriage (see Figure 3). However, between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5, these adjacent states registered tremendous progress: the prevalence of child marriage has decreased from 35.4% to 25.4% in Rajasthan, and from 32.4% to 23.1% in MP (Figure 4).

This encouraging trend is also visible in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra. However, the respective state governments should remain unrelenting in their efforts, as most of their PCs still lie in the ‘red’ zone. Additionally, enhanced efforts should be directed towards PCs which have regressed over the same five-year period, such as Bikaner (Rajasthan) and Morena (MP).

Underreporting of child marriages: NCRB vs NFHS

Even though NFHS data suggests that female child marriage is still prevalent in many parts of the country, such marriages are largely underreported under the law. In fact, according to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual ‘Crime in India’ reports, since 2001 states like Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim have reported zero cases under the PCMA. However, NFHS still shows a significant prevalence of child marriage in all four states (see Figure 5).

Between 2001-10, an average of about 80 child marriage cases per year were reported nationally through the NCRB. This figure increased to about 360 during 2011-20. This national average is markedly lower than the numbers estimated by the NFHS, which has consistently reported high national-level child marriage rates –47.4% in the 2005-06 survey, 26.8% in the 2015-16 survey, and 23.3% in 2019-21. While the law has made some difference, it has not been able to eliminate the widespread social acceptance of child marriage as a practice, and the potential reluctance to register complaints against family members.

Alternative solutions

Female child marriage is symptomatic of a larger underlying issue of women’s agency and empowerment. Studies show that a woman’s age at marriage is linked to her education, income, and prevailing socio-cultural norms (Desai 2010). Child marriage is a complex issue, and tackling it calls for a holistic, bottom-up approach, with an enhanced focus on women’s socio-economic elevation rather than a singular focus on criminal punishment.

Several central sector schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Sukanya Samridhi Yojana have been implemented to address female child marriage by incentivising girls’ education and ensuring their financial empowerment. Along similar lines, various state governments have enacted schemes and programmes to advance the socio-economic status of girls and women.

The Kanyashree Prakalpa Scheme in West Bengal is an example of a programme that incentivises continued education for girls and their retention in schools. To ensure their financial independence, the scheme provides direct, conditional cash transfers to girls, while simultaneously addressing the norms around marriage in their communities. Along similar lines, the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust launched the Sphoorthi Project in 2015, to improve life outcomes for girls and women in 51 villages. The project sought to both empower adolescent girls, and encourage their parents to serve as role models to positively influence prevailing norms around girls’ education and age at marriage. The success of the project in the district of Koppal (Singh 2018) has prompted its expansion to other districts in the state as well.

While criminal prosecution may continue to be a strategy to tackle child marriage, the relationship between female child marriage and female personal agency must not be overlooked. Strengthening schemes that benefit girls and women will likely have a larger and more permanent impact on reducing (and perhaps eliminating) the prevalence of female child marriage across India

The gaming sector has grown into a whopping $2.6 billion industry in India, with an estimated count of more than half a billion gamers being served by over 900 companies.

Authors: Rohit Kumar and Deepro Guha
Published: March 14, 2023 in Livemint

Video games are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock and roll!” So noted Shigeru Miyamoto, an accomplished video-game designer. It’s a human trait: We take time to warm up to what’s new and unfamiliar. What was once true of rock music may be true of online gaming today.

The gaming sector has grown into a whopping $2.6 billion industry in India, with an estimated count of more than half a billion gamers being served by over 900 companies. But the history of online gaming in India has been riddled with regulatory confusion, with gaming often dismissed as gambling. In their battle for legitimacy, developers have been knocking on multiple doors in the central government and in Indian states, asking for a uniform regulatory framework and a clear definition of what is legal (games of skill) and what’s not (games of chance).

The debate between ‘skill’ and ‘chance’ is still far from settled, but the central government has recently taken a step to offer some form of recognition through a set of draft amendments to the IT Rules. And while there is disagreement over whether this is the right form of legislative intervention, there is also palpable relief within the gaming community to see a regulatory framework finally take shape. From the industry’s point of view, not only will this help mitigate uncertainty, it can also address emerging concerns of financial fraud, money laundering, user addiction and harm, all of which need urgent attention.

The draft rules adopt a light-touch approach to regulation and provide for industry-created Self-Regulatory Bodies (SRBs) that would be responsible for registering online games and developing a framework for user protection. While the proposed self-regulatory structure is promising, ensuring the independence of SRBs would be central to its efficacy and success.

The framework provides for multiple SRBs to be set up, and an entity keen to offer a game must first become a member of an SRB and then register the game before being able to offer it to users. The registration is meant to signal legitimacy to users to help weed out bad actors, including offshore betting and gambling entities. Although thoughtful and geared towards consumer protection, this approach can also backfire.

Requiring all games to be registered and approved by SRBs before launch gives these entities the power to deny market entry on grounds that include several subjective criteria like conformity with interests of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, conformity with gambling and betting laws (which have differing interpretations across states), etc. Not only can this be misused to create entry barriers for young startups and innovative disruptors, it can also lead to variance in decisions across SRBs. Even if an entity were to approach another SRB on denial of registration, an elongated process is likely to increase launch costs and delay speed-to-market, thereby reducing overall competition in the gaming ecosystem.

To ensure independence of SRBs, the registration conditions also call for provisions in the SRB’s Articles of Association to ensure independent functioning that is “at arm’s length from its member online gaming intermediaries”. However, there isn’t a lot of Indian jurisprudence to bank on, especially with respect to the term “arm’s length” in the context of self-regulatory bodies and their members.

Given that the efficacy of the government’s proposal hinges on the robustness of the self-regulatory architecture, it is critical to safeguard against risks associated with regulatory capture by interest groups. Therefore, what powers are delegated to SRBs and how they are designed and structured becomes important.

One way to reduce risk would be to adopt a tiered approach to registration, by requiring initial registration only for the gaming entity (rather than the game) based on a narrow list of predefined objective criteria. This could be done by surveying registration documents, promoter background, tax records and other such data points to check if the entity that is planning to offer the game is legitimate and has been operating with a clean track record, without assessing any specific game that the entity plans to offer.

Post-registration, the gaming entity could be allowed to directly offer its games to customers until a game crosses a specified threshold. Once an online game hits a predefined threshold—defined using metrics like the number of active users, gross transaction value, etc—the SRB could be required to register and approve the game separately. This approach would ensure agility of the overall gaming ecosystem while also protecting consumers.

To ensure the independence of SRBs, the government could also consider publishing guidelines outlining “arm’s length” and prescribing minimum dos and don’ts to establish a common baseline for all SRBs. Finally, to increase accountability, the rules could also provide that all SRB decisions be reasoned and in writing, with a right to appeal to a court of competent jurisdiction.

The proposed industry-led light-touch approach to online gaming regulation is indeed progressive. As the government prepares to revise and notify the draft rules, it’ll be good to bolster the regulatory framework with stronger checks and balances. This would create a more responsive ecosystem that not only caters to the needs of the fast-growing online gaming sector, but also protects consumers and spurs innovation, while expediting India’s journey towards a $1 trillion digital economy.

It is imperative that future digital citizens are equipped to traverse through the internet landscape safely, smartly and with nuance.

Authors: Aparajita Bharti and Himani Chauhan
Published: February 22, 2023 in Hindustan Times

With the slogan ‘Together for a Better Internet’, February 7, 2023 marked the 20th International Safer Internet Day. As the digital world no longer remains isolated from our physical world, conversations around safety on the internet need to move beyond the narrow understanding of protection from the more obvious threats to individuals such as hacking, phishing, identity theft, financial frauds, etc. to more societal threats such as echo chambers, hate speech and misinformation.

Today, in fact, a safe online space is an indispensable component of a safer world and we need a holistic approach that factors in the internet’s potential to influence people, geopolitics, markets, institutions, and the world as we know it. However, even as governments around the world wrestle with the legal and regulatory structures that can enable a safer internet, an important aspect that is often left out is building the capacity of people to avoid the pitfalls of the internet. An effective way to do this is to catch people young.

The 2022 McAfee report, titled Life Behind the Screens of Parents, Tweens, and Teens has found that children in India attain mobile maturity at an early age of 15-16 years with the smartphone usage of Indian children aged 10-14 being 7% higher than the international average. Data from Annual Status of Education report (ASER) also shows that the proportion of households with smartphones has almost doubled from 36% in 2018 to 74.8% in 2022. Besides accessing educational resources, the digital space has become a platform for self-expression and exploration for young people. The content being consumed is not limited to mere education and entertainment but also includes news, updates, and opinions about world affairs. This is particularly important as algorithms hold the power to shape world views by determining the kind of content one consumes. As the walls of these echo chambers continue to grow thicker, it is imperative that future digital citizens are equipped to traverse through this landscape safely, smartly and with nuance.

School curriculums serve as the primary means of imparting new knowledge, values, and skills to children at scale. While many central and state board curriculums have computer science as a subject for students, the content focuses mainly on hard skills such as using software and coding at an advanced level. However, we also need to include discussions on the softer aspects of the internet in our curriculum. It needs to sufficiently address concerns of cyber well-being and safety for children at the minimum. Further, we also need to alert children about the potential impact of the internet on our ability to think and take decisions critically because of echo chambers and social media algorithms, so that they can become more conscious users of the internet.

We also need to re-look at our civics curriculum to keep up with the changing world. Our identity and engagement on the internet today has become increasingly intertwined with our constitutional rights. For example, citizens’ ability to freely express their views online is a matter of great debate currently and would continue to be so in the foreseeable future. We need our citizens of tomorrow to be equipped to think critically about these issues as most of them would be exercising their rights online in some or the other form. Such an exposure could also go a long way in improving the quality of public discourse and make internet regulation more effective in the future by co-opting citizens into the process of online moderation.

To update these curriculums, a collaborative approach must be adopted. Findings and learning of civil society organisations and other stakeholders actively working in this field can be leveraged and built upon to effectively design digital citizenship education and remodel the current civic education syllabus.

Internet has so far been largely presumed to be a space unsafe for children. However, to build a digitally empowered nation, we require a generation of thoughtful citizens that can work their way around the digital world and make the most of its potential. To make internet (and our world safer), the right education and skills is an important part of the puzzle along with effective laws that regulate the internet.

The Union budget is not the only instrument for creating jobs for women in the economy, but it is certainly a significant one. To realize our ambition of a $10 trillion economy powered by ‘women-led development’, we need gender intentionality built into overall government spending.

Authors: Aparajita Bharti and Sonakshi Chaudhry
Published: February 23, 2023 in Livemint

India’s Republic Day parade this year witnessed a number of colourful tableaux from across the country celebrating ‘nari shakti’, or women’s power. This came close on the heels of the Prime Minister’s articulation of a vision for an ‘Amrit Kaal’, favourable period, powered by “women-led development”. This policy thrust is also reflected in official documents like the Economic Survey 2022-23, which spotlights the leadership of women self-help groups (SHGs) during covid and examines measurement issues in the calculation of India’s low female labour force participation rate (FLFPR).

Despite this attention, however, India’s budgetary outlays for 2023-24 stopped short of committing support to levers that could move the needle on women’s labour-force participation and empowerment. For example, as a percentage of total expenditure, the budget allotment for the ministry of women and child development has fallen from 0.64% in 2022-23 to 0.56% in 2023-24. Further, the budget heads for the ministry’s schemes changed again, making it difficult to capture year-on-year spending trends. The allocation for its Sambal schemes—including Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, One-Stop Centres, Nari Adalats and Mahila Police—has remained the same at ₹562 crore. While the mandate of the Samarthya schemes has expanded, the budget estimate has declined from ₹2,622 crore to ₹2,581 crore. There has only been a marginal increase in the budget for Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (1.01%).

The Centre’s outlay for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which is significant for women’s employment in rural areas (as of December 2022, women accounted for 56% of all person-days generated under it), has reduced from ₹73,000 crore to ₹60,000 crore. The decline is steeper when compared to the 2022-23 revised estimate of ₹89,400 crore. Given that MGNREGA is a demand- driven scheme, these numbers show high demand for livelihood support but a hesitation to spend on it. Similarly, in terms of grassroot women’s leadership through SHGs, the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) programme has only seen a slight increase of about 1.05%. On the urban front, there has been no allocation to the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) and it has not been replaced by any other scheme focusing on SHGs in urban India.

Overall, this year’s gender budget outlay (as per Statement 13 of the Union budget) stands at 4.95% of total expenditure, which is marginally higher than the previous year’s initial budget estimate (4.33%). However, it must be noted that this increase is still lower than the revised estimate for last year (when gender budget accounted for 5.21% of total expenditure) as well as actual expenditure back in 2021-22 (at 5.52%).

These numbers establish that the political salience of ‘nari shakti’ has not translated to commensurate budget allocations. This is perhaps explained by the overall approach to job creation adopted in this Union budget, where the government is banking on the multiplier effect of capital expenditure on job creation and consumer demand. However, we believe there is a need to do more.

First, while it is certainly relevant, it will take time for jobs to materialize from public capital expenditure—such as the building of roads and railways, where government spending could incentivize private investment. For tendering processes to be finalized, MoUs for such projects to be signed and works to begin in earnest, the time taken could be long. To illustrate, as of August 2022, according to data from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation on infrastructure projects above ₹150 crore, 647 projects were delayed, and the reasons for time overruns reported included delays in land acquisition, obtaining forest and environment clearances, and lack of infrastructure support and linkages. In the short-term, therefore, schemes that create paid employment for women are crucial to address immediate needs.

Second, once jobs from capital expenditure are created, for women to benefit from these opportunities, quality jobs that match aspirations, skills and desired geographies will be needed. The record shows that work created in and around the vicinity, such as localized projects, are likely to be better suited to women’s circumstances. So, while capital expenditure can create jobs in general, it may create fewer of these for women than men. A recent report shows that only 12% of the workforce in the Indian construction sector is female. Therefore, an over-reliance on capital expenditure would run the risk of being a gender-blind approach to job creation. Third, capital expenditure itself could perhaps be directed towards creating more gender-responsive public infrastructure that would make it easier and safer for women to work, such as public creches, public toilets, etc, but this budget seems to have missed this opportunity.

While the Union budget is not the only instrument for creating jobs for women in the economy, it is certainly a significant one. To realize our ambition of a $10 trillion economy powered by ‘women-led development’, we need gender intentionality built into overall government spending. Why women drop out of the workforce is a complex social problem that cannot be solved just by increasing the overall supply of jobs. We need to create jobs that can be easily accessed by women and create enabling conditions like care support and other infrastructure that could help Indian women manifest their ‘shakti’.

Aparajita Bharti & Sonakshi Chaudhry are, respectively, founding partner and manager, strategic partnerships and communications, at TQH Consulting.