2015 Workshop: Internet Rights-Human Rights
By: Rahul Kumar -- Community Information Resource Centre Kapashera, New Delhi
Internet Rights are Human Rights – a special workshop for the community at Kapashera, Delhi 30th July, 2015, Kapashera – A special workshop on the theme „Internet Rights - Human Rights‟ was conducted on 29th July, 2015 with an aim to generate awareness among the residents of Kapashera about their social and internet rights. The session was organised by team IRHR with team CIRC of Digital Empowerment Foundation with the motive of introducing the community with ICT tools and encourage them to exercise their right of „freedom of expression‟ online. Besides, the workshop also guided them how to make effective use of the internet in their daily life, booking of Rail Ticket & accessing information on Web.
The basic objective of the workshop was to make the community of Kapashera aware of their right to ‘freedom of expression’ online Digital Empowerment Foundation | House No. 44, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi – 110016 Telephone/Fax: 91-11-26532786/87 E-mail: def@defindia.net Website: www.defindia.org | www.circindia.org
Community participation The participants of the workshop were essentially a mixed group, people coming from every age group and strata, including youth (School & College going students), Migrant workers, Working women & Housewife. Some even took an off from work so that they could be a part of the training. Coordinators and members from Naari Shakti Manch & Mazdoor Ekta Manch also played a major role in the workshop, who motivated community members to progress towards social empowerment.
One of the activities conducted at the workshop
Digital Empowerment Foundation | House No. 44, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi – 110016 Telephone/Fax: 91-11-26532786/87 E-mail: def@defindia.net Website: www.defindia.org | www.circindia.org
Advantage of the Workshop The training positively impacted each and every participant in some way, or the other, whether they were the youth, the workers or the women. The workshop helped them learn about their internet rights and the right to freedom of expression and how they could exercise them on social networking sites. One of the highlights of the program was the people who confidently shared their views, helping us assess how interactive and engaging the training session was. A series of stimulating activities further helped break the ice as more participants opened up and shared with us the personal and social problems they face in their daily lives. Remarkably, almost every school going student and the youth were aware of the right to „freedom of expressionâ€&#x;. This encouraged a healthy debate among the participants, helping us foster a better understanding of the motive of the training.
The workshop encouraged free exchange of ideas and thoughts Digital Empowerment Foundation | House No. 44, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi – 110016 Telephone/Fax: 91-11-26532786/87 E-mail: def@defindia.net Website: www.defindia.org | www.circindia.org
Feedback from participants & organisers The IRHR training garnered a greatly positive feedback from the participants. Everybody looked very enthusiastic and eager throughout the training program. The feedback was collected at the end of the session as the participants told us how so many things were learned out of this workshop. They shared with us their stories of struggle and the problems that the face in the society, how knowledge of these rights would empower them to lead a change within their community.
Team IRHR with team CIRC conducted a video screening for the audience
Digital Empowerment Foundation | House No. 44, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi – 110016 Telephone/Fax: 91-11-26532786/87 E-mail: def@defindia.net Website: www.defindia.org | www.circindia.org
The organisers too were delighted to find the participants thoroughly enjoying the activities and freely interacting during the workshop.
Community members showed great enthusiasm during activities
Digital Empowerment Foundation | House No. 44, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi – 110016 Telephone/Fax: 91-11-26532786/87 E-mail: def@defindia.net Website: www.defindia.org | www.circindia.org
Looking ahead… We are looking forward to many more similar training sessions and workshops, so that the people could create better lifestyles and take pride in their existence. At the same time, we wish to conduct regular internet training, mobilization camps and explore innovative ideas to work with and for the people in community. We are planning to conduct events which would drive greater number of people towards digital literacy, besides launching the “Buddy4Study” programme at our center. Additionally, we will keep organising more IRHR related activities on a frequent basis for the community.
Digital Empowerment Foundation | House No. 44, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi – 110016 Telephone/Fax: 91-11-26532786/87 E-mail: def@defindia.net Website: www.defindia.org | www.circindia.org