9. Conclusions

E-government development in India is currently poised at a critical milestone. This section attempts to bring together the key analytical threads from the previous sections to take stock of where the agenda of gender equality and women’s empowerment stands in relation to e-government development.

1. No strategic vision on gender equality and women’s empowerment in e-government

   India does not have a cohesive policy document on e-government at this juncture except the programmatic document of ‘Digital India’ (2014), encompassing:

   • On-demand provisioning of governance services through digital platforms
   • Universalizing access to digital infrastructure
   • Digital empowerment of citizens

   While Digital India marks a clear departure from previous piecemeal approaches to using ICTs in re-engineering governance and administrative systems, it overlooks completely the significance of e-government for gender equality. It does not spell out a strategic vision for furthering gender equality and women’s empowerment in, and through, e-government.

2. Ad-hoc approach to addressing the question of genderinclusive service delivery

   E-government for women’s empowerment is not an idea that has been institutionalized; it is an experimental trend that women’s rights champions in public administration have set. There are islands of innovation in e-service delivery such as the Mission Convergence initiative of the government of Delhi and the Sree Sakthi portal of the government of Kerala; and the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s Mission Mode Project for digitalizing its services. However, these initiatives do not add up to a clear direction on gender mainstreaming in e-service delivery. Such an ad-hoc approach cannot hence bring about sustained, large-scale gains for the gender equality agenda.¹⁰⁶

3. Absence of effective PPP frameworks in e-government can compromise last-mile service delivery and citizen interests in governance

   Currently, the Indian state has opted for PPP arrangements for last mile service delivery through the Common Service Centre scheme. Village level entrepreneurs and corporate franchisees running last mile service delivery centres have to balance commercial considerations with service delivery. The absence of a citizen entitlements perspective and of gender and social inclusion mandates are a significant reason why the scheme has failed to reach public information and services to women and other socially marginalised groups. Concerns about PPP frameworks with respect to public interest, transparency and accountability have also come up, as in instances of data management and control, and conflict of interest in policy development and service quality monitoring.

4. Connectively is largely seen as a technical issue

   State policy on connectivity infrastructure and broadband continues to cast connectivity as a technical issue, divorced from the question of creating empowering cultures of use at the last mile. The Sanchar Shakti pilot project that has used the Gender Budget of the Universal Service Obligation Fund, to bring meaningful connectivity to rural women (through mobile-based informational services) is an exception, and has not been scaled up.

5. Online citizen engagement is not tied to concrete processes of policy consultations, and the feedback loop is not effectively closed

   Online citizen engagement is a relatively nascent area for e-government programming in India, with the citizen portal mygov. in being launched only in 2014. However, there is no clear process for encouraging women’s participation or for closing the feedback loop with citizens, on the policy issues debated or discussed on the portal.

6. Digital literacy programmes recognize the need for specifically targeting women, but are narrow in their scope

   In 2014, the Indian state launched the Digital Saksharata Abhiyan (DISHA) that aims at equipping 5 million people across the country, in digital skills. A sub-component of this programme specifically targets women community workers. The active participation of girls and women as equal digital citizens depends on wider policy coherence on capacity development, education, employment, political participation and the role of e-government. While Digital India does speak of creating a ‘IT-ready workforce from India’s small towns and villages in 5 years’, the thinking on these lines is not gendered nor geared to take on the aspirations of young women and men.

7. The absence of data privacy legislation puts marginalized women at greater risk of social discrimination

   Currently, the Indian state is building a national citizen identity card scheme, with a unique identification number, to create a deduplication mechanism for direct benefit transfers. However, in the absence of data privacy legislation, the risk of tracking, profiling and surveillance of citizens at the margins, increases.

8. Open data policy frameworks exist, but implementation lags behind

   India has made some initial strides in the area of evolving Open data policies through the launch of the Open Government Data portal (OGD) and the adoption of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP). However, progress in implementing these policies has been very slow, and partly this is because NDSAP stops short of laying down concrete guidelines for developing a full-fledged programme for Open Government Data.¹⁰⁷ Without such a push, there is no progress on overcoming the shortcomings of legacy data systems such as: lack of interconnections between data sets of different departments, interoperability issues, and department-centric rather than citizen-centric focus in presentation. The promise of open data for monitoring gender outcomes of policy and programme implementation cannot be realized in this context.