Author: The Bachchao Project Team

The Bachchao Project is a techno-feminist collective that undertakes community-centric efforts to develop and support open source technologies and technical frameworks with the goals of mitigating gender-based violence and working towards equal rights for women, LGBTQIA people, and gender non-conforming groups. We conduct research and advocacy in all the above areas and guide communities in determining appropriate technological interventions for themselves.

Disclaimer about a talk made by our former contractor at Internet Governance Forum 2018

July 24, 2020

In the wake of certain recent events, The Bachchao Project (hereinafter “TBP”) has been compelled to publish this disclaimer regarding a talk made by an erstwhile contractor of TBP at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on 13 November 2018. A video of the talk is available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nXB9if23Oo. The erstwhile contractor Ms Raashi Saxena has spoken for approximately 1 minutes 48 seconds from the time 33:50 to 35:38 in this video.

The talk is part of a panel discussion entitled “Impact of supplementary models of connectivity in enabling meaningful Internet access for women and gender non-binary persons”. It was delivered by Ms Saxena who represented TBP at this specific session as well as the rest of the IGF 2018. The talk was a part of IGF Best Practices Forum (Gender and Access) 2018. Her trip to the IGF was funded by TBP.

Ms Saxena was terminated from The Bachchao Project on 12 July 2019.

The contents of Ms Saxena’s talk are either half-correct or factually incorrect or misleading and portray our work as being of poor quality. In light of certain recent events, we are now publishing this public disclaimer that we do not approve of the contents of this talk. This talk is not a true reflection of the organisation’s research, advocacy and capacity-building efforts on intentional Internet shutdowns and access to the Internet in the northeast, which we have been doing since late 2017. This talk also does not reflect the tenacity, rigour and diligence that people at TBP bring to their work, and in which we take great pride.

Unfortunately, this talk has been referenced on several online pages, most of which were published after the former contractor’s affiliation with TBP had ended and in violation of the terms of her exit. Some of them have been listed below. On account of the disclaimer published above, these references are a misrepresentation of our organisation and its work:

“Through serving as a panelist at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, Raashi has also been a strong voice for women in North East India, helping them with network accessibility issues and fighting against Internet Shutdowns faced by those living rurally.”

URL: https://www.studio-into.com/people/raashi-saxena/

Date: October 2019 (according to publicly available and searchable information on LinkedIn)

Archive URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20200724110415/https://www.studio-into.com/people/raashi-saxena

Our attempts to contact Studio Into have not elicited a response.

“In 2018, she served as a panelist at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum and presented her work on the network accessibility issues women face in North East India.”

URL1: https://igf2019.sched.com/raashisaxena

Date: November 2019

Archive URL1: https://web.archive.org/web/20200724193139/https://igf2019.sched.com/raashisaxena

URL2: https://voicefromthais.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/speakers-bios-1.pdf

Date: November 21-22, 2019

Archive URL2: https://web.archive.org/save/https://voicefromthais.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/speakers-bios-1.pdf

URL3: https://www.facebook.com/455359008576002/photos/a.483712769073959/483712742407295/?type=3

Date: 22 July 2019

Archive URL3: https://web.archive.org/web/20200724111903/https://www.facebook.com/455359008576002/photos/a.483712769073959/483712742407295/?type=3

“Raashi has been a speaker at several international forums such as UN Internet Governance Forum… for her contributions in the Internet Governance space. Her capacity building & advocacy efforts in the North East region of India have helped rural women fight against Internet Shutdowns.”

URL: https://women-in-tech.org/events/women-in-tech-monthy-forum/

Date: 30 January 2020

Archive URL: https://web.archive.org/save/https://women-in-tech.org/events/women-in-tech-monthy-forum

Online talk on “Usability and privacy issues in government-issued Covid-19 apps in India”

June 25, 2020

Poster of Rohini's talk on Covid-19

Rohini Lakshané delivered a talk on “Usability and privacy issues in government-issued Covid-19 apps in India” on June 22, 2020. The talk was organised by Thus Critique and Hasgeek and moderated by Nishthaa Manchanda.

Event details: https://hasgeek.com/thus/usability-and-privacy-issues-in-government-issued-covid-19-apps-in-india2/#about

Video recording of the talk: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1mrxmEVawgZxy (Periscope)

About the talk: A slew of mobile apps were released by different government bodies in India as a response to the Covid-19 outbreak. State and Union Territory (UT) governments released apps for the purposes of quarantine management, ensuring compliance to quarantine rules, providing healthcare information and updates, and so on. Public health being a subject on the State List, the federal governments were the first to respond to the outbreak with technical interventions, much before the Aarogya Setu app was released. While Aarogya Setu has received much attention, the apps issued by state and UT governments in India have posed their own technical, privacy and usability issues. In this talk, Rohini Lakshané will speak about her findings from a preliminary analysis of approximately twenty government-issued Covid-19 apps from the perspective of privacy and usability of the end-user and will take the audience through a brief timeline of their deployment and subsequent events.

Spreadsheet with information about 50 government-issued Covid-19 apps in India: https://bit.ly/2BB3R32

The talk was also streamed live on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

An article on the talk was published in Herald Goa: https://bit.ly/389Z3Oj

“Public Safety Tech, Women’s Agency, and Privacy”: Session at GDDF 20

June 25, 2020

A breakout session entitled “No Woman, No Panic: Public Safety Tech, Women’s Agency, and Privacy” was held at the Global Digital Development Forum (GDDF), a virtual conference held on May 6, 2020. The speakers were Rohini Lakshané (The Bachchao Project), Chinmayi S K (The Bachchao Project) and Kate Sim (PhD Researcher, Oxford Internet Institute). The session was moderated by Dr Becky Faith, Research Fellow & Digital Cluster Lead, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK.

The session elucidated on the efficacy, evaluation, and audit of technological interventions such as mobile apps and panic buttons for public safety and their impact on women’s agency and privacy.

GDDF Agenda: https://digitaldevforum.com/agenda

Video of the session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgJGLJMCwfo

The Bachchao Project and the Centre for Internet and Society had jointly conducted a preliminary study in late 2016 on “Evaluating Safety Buttons on Mobile Devices“.

“Holistic security strategies to address non-consensual intimate images”: Session at GDDF 20

May 30, 2020

Rohini Lakshané moderated a breakout session entitled “Holistic security strategies to address non-consensual intimate images” at the Global Digital Development Forum (GDDF), a virtual conference held on May 6, 2020. The speakers at this session were Peace Oliver Amuge, Sandra Aceng and Patricia Nyasuna of the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET).

This session elucidated on some of the recommended strategies and measures for holistic security (digital, physical, and psychosocial) that women and no-binary persons may adopt in order to recognise and prevent incidents of non-consensual intimate images (NCII), commonly known by the misnomer “revenge porn”.

GDDF Agenda: https://digitaldevforum.com/agenda

An article based on the talks made in the session was authored by the speakers and moderator: Holistic security strategies and measures to address non-consensual intimate images (NCII)

Slide deck:
Slides_Holistic_security_strategies_to_address_non-consensual_intimate_images_GDDF_2020

Call for volunteers: The Glass Room Exhibition, Bengaluru, 22 to 24 November 2019

November 4, 2019

The Bachchao Project invites volunteers for The Glass Room exhibition scheduled to be held in Bengaluru from November 22 to 24, 2019 at UB City. The Glass Room is a global pop-up exhibition that is generating a conversation about data and privacy. This will be the first-ever edition of the exhibition to be held in India.

Tasks for volunteers

Interact with visitors
Talk about the exhibits assigned to them, and answer questions that visitors may have
Distribute handouts to visitors who are interested
Collect feedback from visitors

Who can volunteer?

Individuals who:

Speak English.
Live in Bengaluru.
Are available for at least four hours at a stretch during the three-day exhibition.
Are available to attend a briefing session on the evening of November 21.
Have at least a basic knowledge and understanding of common Internet technology and its interplay with privacy (preferable).

All volunteers will receive a daily allowance for covering expenses towards meals and conveyance to and from the exhibition venue.

How do I sign up?

Email theteam@thebachchaoproject.org with this information:

Your name
Dates when you’re available to volunteer
Approximate number of hours you wish to dedicate
Why are you interested in volunteering for this event?
Do you have previous experience of working on the topic of digital privacy and security, in a professional or volunteer capacity?

(For media inquiries, contact Rohini Lakshané: rohini@thebachchaoproject.org)

More about The Glass Room

The Glass Room is a public intervention that provides an interactive, fun, and challenging experience, bringing to life the most pressing challenges facing people and the tech industry today. As technology reaches a global scale and becomes embedded in every part of our lives and our environments, The Glass Room examines its impacts and helps visitors explore practical solutions to mitigate them. The consequences of a “move fast and break things” industry are catching up with us and now we must examine what has been lost and gained along the way. (Text from: https://theglassroom.org/about-us)

The Glass Room is curated by Tactical Tech, an international NGO based in Berlin.

About The Bachchao Project

Twitter: @bachchaoproject

Venue

UB City mall, Vittal Mallya Road, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru 560001. The exhibition is a part of the art gallery event Art Bengaluru 2019.

[Event announcement] The Glass Room Exhibition, Bengaluru, 22 to 24 November 2019

November 3, 2019

First-ever edition of The Glass Room Exhibition in India to be held in Bengaluru

3 November 2019, Bengaluru, India

The first-ever edition of the global pop-up exhibition “The Glass Room” to be held in India has been organised by The Bachchao Project in Bengaluru from 22 to 24 November, 2019. The exhibition is a part of the art gallery event Art Bengaluru 2019. Entry is free and open to the public.

The Glass Room is curated by Tactical Tech, an international NGO based in Berlin. More at: https://theglassroom.org

The three-day exhibition invites volunteers: http://thebachchaoproject.org/call-for-volunteers-the-glass-room-exhibition-bengaluru-22-to-24-november-2019

About The Bachchao Project

Contact

For media inquiries, Rohini Lakshané: rohini@thebachchaoproject.org. For everything else, email Chinmayi S K: chinmayi@thebachchaoproject.org

Venue

UB City mall, Vittal Mallya Road, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru 560001
2^nd floor, Near lift lobby

Hours

11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on all days. Last entry: 8.30 p.m. on all days

The Bachchao Project at Rightscon 2019

June 29, 2019

Members of The Bachchao Project spoke at two sessions at RightsCon held in Tunis, Tunisia from June 11 to 14, 2019.

Rohini Lakshané spoke in the session “Studying the impact of shutdowns from the lens of gender, conflict and ethnicity” on June 13. The workshop was organised by The Bachchao Project to elucidate on the research methodology adopted for the study entitled “Of Sieges and Shutdowns“, which draws upon 16 qualitative interviews and as many first-person accounts to unravel and document how unreliable mobile networks and intentional Internet shutdowns affect the lives of women in Manipur, India. Other speakers were: Jan Rydzak (Associate Director for Program, Standford Global Digital Policy Incubator) who presented the research methodology he employed in the quantitative study “Of Blackouts and bandhs: The strategy and structure of disconnected protest in India“.
Rohini Lakshané was a speaker at a session organised by Least Authority and moderated by Betsy Bramon of the Kronia Collective. The session entitled “Is Open-Source Your Unicorn? Dialogue on the sustainability, data security, and ethics of human rights apps” was in the fishbowl format and found rich engagement with the participants. Other speakers in the session were Georgia Bullen (Simply Secure), Lauri Hmel and Liz Steininger (both from Least Authority).

Session on Internet shutdowns, ICT4D Conference 2019, Uganda

May 22, 2019

Slide deck_Of Sieges and Shutdowns_ICT4DCon_2019

Rohini Lakshané of The Bachchao Project spoke at a session entitled “Impact Of Intentional Internet Shutdowns And Unreliable Mobile Connectivity On Women In Conflict-Strained Manipur” at the ICT4D Conference 2019. The session was featured under the “Humanitarian Response and Resilience” track. In the session, Rohini presented the most significant findings of the study “Of Sieges and Shutdowns“, which she conducted with Chinmayi S K in late 2017 in Manipur, India. The exploratory research project was aimed at studying the impact of intentional Internet shutdowns from the lenses of gender, conflict and the status of ethnic minority.

Read the full report of the study at: Of Sieges and Shutdowns

The conference was held from April 30 to May 2, 2019 at Kampala, Uganda. Details: https://www.ict4dconference.org

Panel discussion on intentional internet shutdowns at Digital Citizen Summit 2018

November 3, 2018

Rohini Lakshané of The Bachchao Project was a speaker on a panel on the topic of intentional internet shutdowns at the Digital Citizen Summit held in New Delhi on November 1-2, 2018. The panel discussion entitled “Living in Digital Darkness — Internet Shutdowns in India” was organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) and Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC).

Lakshané spoke about the findings from The Bachchao Project’s research report entitled “Of Sieges and Shutdowns” on the impact of intentional Internet shutdowns on the lives and livelihoods of women in Manipur, India.

The other panelists were Prashanth Sugathan (SFLC), Tripti Jain (SFLC, moderator), Nikhil Pahwa (Medianama) and Mansi Kedia (ICRIER).

View conference agenda.

View event report by the organisers [PDF].

South Asia Online Safety Summit, New Delhi, October 2018

November 1, 2018

As part of our focus on issues of technology-mediated violence against women, Rohini Lakshané attended two events organised by Facebook in New Delhi:

South Asia Online Summit held on 29 October 2018. The day-long event was organised by Facebook in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. Live-stream video of the event
Roundtable on Facebook’s Approach on Online Safety on 30 October 2018.