Do you think digital technology promotes social empowerment? Explain with examples.

Digital technology has shifted empowerment from merely access to services towards access to information, opportunities and voice; however, its benefits depend on digital access, literacy and inclusion.

Digital Technology as an Enabler of Social Empowerment

• Financial Autonomy: Digital payments and banking enhance economic agency among women, migrants and informal workers; JAM–UPI enables low-cost transactions without dependence on intermediaries.

• Welfare Empowerment: DBT and Aadhaar-enabled delivery reduce dependence on middlemen and improve access to entitlements; this particularly empowers poor, elderly and vulnerable beneficiaries through direct and portable transfers.

• Educational Empowerment: Digital learning expands opportunities for rural, tribal and disadvantaged students; DIKSHA and PM e-VIDYA provide learning resources beyond geographical and infrastructural constraints.

• Healthcare Inclusion: Telemedicine improves access for rural communities, elderly persons and persons with mobility constraints; e-Sanjeevani enables remote doctor consultations, reducing distance barriers.

• Women’s Agency: Digital literacy and connectivity strengthen women’s voice, livelihood choices and access to markets; Sanchar Shakti supported rural women, including SHG members, in using ICT for skills and economic opportunities.

• Tribal & Marginalised Livelihoods: Digital platforms can connect tribal artisans and small producers to wider markets, reducing dependence on local intermediaries; platforms such as TRIFED’s Tribes India support digital marketing of tribal products.

• Voice & Civic Participation: Digital platforms enable marginalised groups to express concerns and access grievance redressal; MyGov and CPGRAMS provide channels for citizens to communicate with public authorities.

• Inclusion & Identity: Digital accessibility can improve social participation of persons with disabilities and other excluded groups; accessible digital services reduce barriers to information, welfare and public services.

Digital Technology as a Source of New Exclusion

• Access & Infrastructure Divide: Unequal connectivity and device access exclude remote and poorer communities; only 14.9% of rural households have internet access compared with 42% of urban households.

• Gendered Digital Divide: Social norms and unequal access to devices constrain women’s digital participation; NFHS-6 found only 64% of women aged 15–49 had ever used the internet, compared with 80% of men.

• Technology-Induced Welfare Exclusion: Authentication and connectivity failures can prevent genuine beneficiaries from accessing entitlements; a study in Ranchi, Jharkhand, found biometric authentication problems affecting PDS access.

• Cybersecurity Vulnerability: Greater digital dependence exposes citizens to fraud, identity theft and online exploitation; NCRB recorded 86,420 cybercrime cases in 2023, of which 59,526 (68.9%) involved fraud.

• Algorithmic & Accessibility Exclusion: Biased datasets can disadvantage under-represented groups, while inadequate vernacular and disability-friendly interfaces can exclude persons with disabilities and low-literacy users.

As Amartya Sen’s capability approach suggests, development is about expanding people’s substantive freedoms; digital technology can fulfil this role only when access, capability and inclusion accompany connectivity.