EcoHubs for local environmental action

While climate change issues are intensifying, its worst impacts are experienced by natural resources dependent communities that are historically marginalized but are also conservators of ecosystems and local ecological knowledge. Due to their geographic locations, resource dependence and social and economic marginalization, they are also particularly vulnerable to coastal erosion, sea level changes, draughts, wildfires and increased human-wildlife conflict. In India, natural resource dependent communities include indigenous communities who live by riverbeds and forests and coastal population who depend on the sea and seashores for subsistence. Communities such as these have been resisting many policies and projects that endanger their land and protect the environment.  

The top-down industrialization process has been particularly harmful to these communities and many local communities in India resist the projects that pollute their land and the natural ecological balance of these regions. In India, there are three categories of laws relevant to protecting the rights of traditional communities and regulating industrial development. Firstly, laws like the Forest Rights Act and Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996, are designed to protect the rights of forest- dwelling communities specifically. Secondly, there are laws like the National Environmental Tribunal Act 1995, The Environment (Siting for Industrial Projects) Rules, 1999 and the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, The Environment Impact Assessment notification and Coastal Regulation Zone notifications issued under the Environmental Protection Act, 1972. Finally, there are general laws that are often used to keep things in check, such as the Right to Information Act (RTI).  

However, despite these laws, vulnerable communities often lack awareness of their rights and the application of these laws to identify and challenge illegal and hazardous projects. Their ability to advocate for environmental justice concerns are often constrained by lack of access to information, tools and capacity.  Lack of access to information is particularly concerning as while the governments possess data about communities, communities have very limited access to data about themselves. This data inequality has real life impacts on their ability to conserve their environment and safeguard their lives and livelihoods. This also impacts the larger climate change movement by failing to incorporate their local ecological knowledge.  

 This information poverty is further exacerbated by their lack of access to digital devices, connectivity and digital literacy. A recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has revealed the stark inequalities in internet access in India; According to the report, as of 2020,  only 26% of women have access to the Internet compared to 42% of men. According to a report by the Social Policy Research Foundation, research conducted in villages of the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh found that only 6% of Scheduled Tribes (STs) had access to the Internet. .Even though specific studies are not available, it shows that the digital divide is particularly pronounced for ecologically vulnerable communities as they are also often socially- economically vulnerable and remote. 

To address this issue, we propose the development of an environmental rights curriculum to simplify legal jargon and provide accessible information to ecologically vulnerable communities. We suggest organising sessions to educate communities on the different categories of laws and their application to empower them to identify illegal and hazardous projects. By doing so, we aim to raise awareness of the laws in place and strengthen the voices of marginalised communities in India.  

In addition to developing an environmental rights curriculum, we propose setting up ten EcoHubs in locations where environmental issues are prevalent such as the areas affected by mining, water and air pollution, loss of marine ecosystems, loss of biodiversity due to plantations, floods etc. and where there is strong community engagement and support for environmental activism.  

These centres would provide community internet access to vulnerable communities to advocate for environmental rights. The curriculum will also be delivered through these centres. Digital Empowerment Foundation’s existing work model would be replicated and scaled here where a community woman is selected as the SoochnaPreneur (Information entrepreneur), who would be running the EcoHub centres and delivering internet services, e-governance services, digital services and digital financial services. Here, the centres would also help the community access information related to environmental rights and rules, news, file RTIs and access the internet for sharing their voice with the world.  

In addition to environmental legal literacy and digital literacy, the centres will support creation of local environmental monitoring at the grassroots by equipping each centre with a water quality sensor, air quality sensor and soil fertility sensor which will gather local environmental data. This data will enable communities to better engage in civic action and also contribute to climate change adaptation measures. Selected members from the community will be trained in using these sensors. They will also be trained in using various open-source environmental monitoring apps.  

We propose to set up ten centres in  states with active environmental movements and community engagement on the issue. The final selection of the grassroots movements will be made after consulting with various movements, and the network Digital Empowerment Foundation is part of. The selection of the grassroots movement will be made through the existing network of E-NGOs, a network of 6000 NGOs which was digitally enabled by DEF, and A-CODE, a cohort of 17 civil society organizations working on art and social change. Broadly we propose three regions in India for setting up the centres. We aim to expand this model and incorporate the lessons learnt once the initial phase is over.  

To enable better reach, the training will occur via blended mode: there will be offline training sessions in center as well as online sessions via our Telegram learning bot, which is multilingual, multimedia and easy to learn. Telegram is chosen as unlike WhatsApp; its bot is free and easy to customize due to being open source.

The proposed project aims to benefit the ecologically vulnerable communities in India by empowering them with information and tools to identify and challenge environmental threats, access environmental information, and strengthen their voice in advocating for environmental rights. The development of an environmental rights curriculum in three languages that simplifies legal jargon and provides accessible information to ecologically vulnerable communities and the establishment of ten EcoHub centres in ecologically vulnerable regions will provide community internet access to vulnerable communities to advocate for environmental rights, deliver the environmental rights curriculum, and help the community access information related to environmental rights and rules, news, file RTIs, and access the internet for sharing their voice with the world. 

 Additionally, equipping them with tools to monitor environmental data would help them to engage in evidence based environmental advocacy. This would strengthen their position in environmental advocacy

The project will benefit the organization by providing an opportunity to delve deeper into the laws and policies related to the environment. It will also promote lifelong learning among the communities we serve, as many of them lack access to higher education or formal institutions. Additionally, the project will enable them to participate in decision-making processes, which were previously unavailable to them due to the distance between these meetings. The organization will explore innovative ways to simplify complex issues and deliver information in a more accessible manner.  

It will particularly place women in a leadership role changing the sexist perception that they are dependent on men for information. Training in wireless technology, it will also change the perception that women are bad at technology. Through the positionality of women as information agents, it will also encourage more women to access the centres and receive trainings.

Our organisation works across different sectors based on the belief that information is an essential aspect of social change and acknowledges the Internet as a medium that has immense potential to change rural lives through access to information. DEF has been working on various projects designed for rural communities depending on their cultural and geographical settings. For example, a few communities are entirely unconnected. DEF uses wireless networks to set up internet infrastructure in the community and distribute it through a few HUB centres. In locations where people have Internet but are under-connected in terms of access to digital equipment and faster Internet, we set up Community Information Resource Centres, also known as SoochnaPreneur centres (Information social entrepreneur’s centre), through which the community has access to standard digital equipment such as a computer, printer, scanner etc. These centres also impart digital literacy to the community. More recently, we have also observed that spreading misinformation and fake news is a side effect of increasing digitisation. OTP fraud and phishing risks are growing and mainly target digitally vulnerable communities. Seeing these as critical issues, we have been designing projects on critical digital literacy delivered through the EcoHub centres. We pay attention to select women, Person With Disabilities (PWDs), members of minority communities, indigenous communities, members of backward castes and Dalit communities as the people running these centres so that they also obtain a dignified livelihood while being the change-makers in their community.  

We have also been developing curriculums on the context- specific needs of the community to address this issue. For example, we are currently imparting a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum for young women and girls from socially disadvantaged communities to encourage participation in scientific society. We are also developing courses on gender, mental health and reproductive health for rural women and young girls. Another critical curriculum we have created is on data rights for communities, where we teach the rural community about cyber security, privacy and protection, data rights etc. The underlying objective of developing and imparting this curriculum is to ensure that people who are socially, economically and geo-politically disadvantaged have access to resources and information for the development of their community. The proposed project fits this range of activities undertaken where we design context-specific programs to bridge the information gaps and provide meaningful access to the Internet.  

Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) is a ‘learning by experimentation’ organisation. It’s close to 20 years of existence, knowledge building, value addition, observations, learning, critical insights, ideas and innovations are all based on years of ground-level work, movements, networks, and activities with communities living in adverse conditions and limitations needing relief, support and assistance, solutions driven especially in ways digital access and resources can empower them.  
Our team consists of social science graduates and researchers in the team who bring a critical framework to these designs, ensuring that the projects are participatory and we do not take away the agency of the communities we are working with. 

DEF operates with an intersectional perspective and believes in bottom-up civic action. We noticed that Solve’s philosophy and the thematic areas align closely with ours. We were particularly heartened to see themes such as civic action, climate adaptation and learning for civic action. Other themes also align with our current working areas such as financial inclusion and evidence-based education as we have been working in STEM training and digital financial literacy over years 

Additionally, we look forward to the technological support from the MIT team that will help us in designing bottom up solutions with appropriate technology. The use of appropriate technology is important to us as it will enable local communities to be involved in decision making with regard to technology. Over the years, we have observed that unnecessary complication of technology and creation of solutions that are not citizen centric has led to centralistaion of power, be it with large corporates or governments and this has further marginalised local communitues. 

The innovative aspects of our project are both technical and social. Technically, we plan to leverage PM Wani program by the government of India where internet is distributed through PM Wani boxes. This scheme allows small entrepreneurs to become commercial hotspot providers by waiving off licensing, registration and fee requirements for offering public broadband access at small scale. The centre coordinators would undertake this distribution, thus earning income and adding to economic sustainability of the project while helping the community overcome the digital divide and provide much-needed access to information and communication technologies. Socially, our project is innovative in the sense that we aim to empower local communities to take ownership of these networks and become self-reliant.

Furthermore, we will develop an interactive curriculum more focused on audio and visual materials to ensure that people who are unlettered can also be learners of this project. We recognize that literacy is a significant barrier to accessing information and communication technologies, particularly for women and other marginalized groups.The mesh network will also ensure that people with mobility issues do not have to come to the centres to learn.

Finally, our research will also be innovative, as we plan to use a participatory action research approach to involve the local communities in our project's design, implementation, and evaluation. By doing so, we can ensure that our project is sensitive to local needs, culture, and practices and that our solutions are sustainable and effective in addressing the digital divide in ecologically vulnerable communities. 

Additionally, EcoHubs will acts as centres for facilitating local environmental monitoring, citizen science and climate action at grassroots. It would also enable communities to claim ownership over their environmental data.  

Year 1:  

Impact: creation of a local hub for grassroots environmental action in 10 places spanning three states  

Increased access to digital services among the community members  

Activities: setting up of EcoHubs with equipment, creation of training material , selection of centre coordinators, capacity development of centre coordinators , centre begins to provide services to the community  

Year 2:  

Impact: Increased access to digital services and increased environmental literacy in the area.  

Creation of a local community database of environmental data  

Activities : training activities to be extended to local self government representatives and bureaucrats by charging a nominal amount. Lighter version of training to be provided to students of educational institutions nearby by charging a nominal amount; setting up of local ecohealers groups; local women in leadership,collaborations with CSR 

Year 3: 

Impact:  Increased environmental action at the grassroots 

Creation of a cohort of eco healers  

Activities: expansion into more areas; collaboration with local self-governments; increased community involvement in environmental policy starting at the local governance levels; induction of more monitoring tools , collaboration with CSR 

Year 4: 

Impact:  locally environmental action at the state levels 

Activities: creation of community owned data bases with the collected data at district and state levels ; community collaborations with officials of forest department, coastal regulation authorities, pollution control board and scientists  

Year 5:  

Impact: locally grounded environmental action at the national level 

Activities: creation of community owned databases at the national level. Collaboration across various communities. Increased people involvement in environmental action , collaboration with national government 

The M&E strategy includes both process and impact evaluations. Team uses the following criteria:

Community engagement: The level of participation from ecologically vulnerable communities, including women and marginalized groups, in project activities  

Digital empowerment: The number of people who have gained access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet through the establishment of ECOnnect centres  

Increased awareness: The number of people who have gained knowledge and awareness of their environmental rights and the tools to advocate for those rights.   

Environmental monitoring: The number of parameters on which the local community members were able to collect data    

1. Number of individuals who complete the environmental rights curriculum  

2. Number of Right to Information (RTIs) applications filed by learners

3.  Number of community members who report feeling more confident in their understanding of legal tools and their ability to use them to fight environmental issues  

4. Number of community members who report feeling more empowered to take action on environmental issues  

5. Percentage of women and indigenous community members who report feeling more confident in their understanding of legal tools and their ability to use them to fight environmental issues  

6. Number of people accessing EcoHub centres for digital services and entitlements  

7. Number of people accessing government benefits specifically designed for specific communities (Adivasis, other indigenous communities, traditional fishing communities etc.)  

8. The number of parameters on which the local community members were able to collect data

• We plan to establish our own wireless infrastructure by using PM-Wani scheme of government of India. To manage the proposed solution, we will be training women who run EcoHub who will be responsible for the installation and maintenance of the network.  

• Telegram chatbot  

• Mera App

• sensors to collect enviromental data

he proposed project aims to bridge the digital divide among ecologically vulnerable communities and encourage women to take up more leadership roles as information providers.

The objectives of the project is to set up ten EcoHub centres in ecologically vulnerable regions, where a community woman would be selected as the SoochnaPreneur (Information entrepreneur), who would be running the EcoHub centres and deliver internet services, e-governance services, digital services, and digital financial services. These women would also be trained as barefoot wireless engineers, along with delivering the curriculum to the communities. The project management team also has an equal representation of women to ensure that diverse perspectives are considered in decision-making.  

During the selection process of the community women to run EcoHub centres and to be trained as wireless engineers, attention will be paid to including persons with disabilities in the selection. The curriculum will be available in audio format to include visually challenged people. The setting up of the mesh network will ensure that the learners with mobility issues also have smooth access to the curriculum.  

The curriculums will be developed in three languages, English, Hindi and one local languages in each of the areas where
EcoHub centres will be set up. This is aimed at simplifying legal jargon and providing accessible information to ecologically vulnerable communities. The need assessment exercise will also pay attention to the language needs of the community (indigenous language, regional dialects etc). The project also give importance to community engagement in each stage of the project to ensure that the cultural values and ethics of the community served are respected.

Our strategy is based on the conceptualizations of digital as a right and digital as a service. While we are guided by the belief that Digital is a right, our project implementation is based on the premise of digital as a service so as to make our model sustainable. Lack of digital literacy, information, and access to digital infrastructure as well as time poverty and limited transport facilities prevent the ability of rural poor to access digital services. Our information entrepreneurs fill this gap by setting up centers in rural areas where the government-sponsored common service center program is not active. We also facilitate CSC registration and Banking correspondence registration to our soochnapreneurs. In short, we create an ecosystem that enables entrepreneurs to earn a livelihood while simultaneously becoming changemakers in their communities. 

Ensuring sustainability for our work has been a core concern for DEF since its inception. As such, right from the beginning, we envisaged ourselves as a mother social enterprise nurturing grassroots social entrepreneurs. We employ the following strategies to achieve these: a. Since all the women will be trained in facilitating digital services and accessing government schemes and entitlements, they would be able to earn by charging for these services. Along with Wireless Engineering, they will also be trained in digital literacy. They can find institutions that can hire them to impart digital literacy and earn an income from the same. Another option is that EcoHub centres can also acquire Banking Correspondence licences and Common Service Centre licenses to be integrated into the government E-Governance program; DEF can assist them in obtaining this. Similarly, we have noticed that renting physical space to run centres are not sustainable in the long term as payment of rents can become a concern after the initial project year. As such, we encourage women to either operate out of their own houses or travel to nearby communities, or we collaborate with local self-government (Panchayati Raj institutions) to provide space. We would also be absorbing them into our other programs  

A Wireless for Communities project was undertaken by Internet society and Digital Empowerment Foundation organised and managed by a weavers cooperative in Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh. This created opportunities for skill transfer and productive utilisation of digital. Subsequently, weavers' income doubled due to access to online library of improved designs. For more details, please see ‘ Digital Infrastructure Finance: Issues, Practices and Innovations’ G20 compilation of case studies published on September 2022.  

We also have multiple testimonials from various soochnapreneurs ( information entreprenurs) . Some are shared below:  

• “Before I became a SoochnaPreneur (Information Entrepreneur) and associated myself with DEF, ‘independence’ was just a concept to me, not a reality. Today I can say confidently that it provides me with a steady source of income that has sustained my family through the pandemic.” (Hemlata, Madhyapradesh)  

• “I never knew I was capable of so much. Prior to my involvement with DEF, I would just stay home and take care of the children while my husband went out to work. After being approached by DEF I felt like I wanted to do more- so I stepped out and became part of women’s groups. Seeing my progress, DEF gave me computers and I set up a SoochnaPreneur centre in my village. Today, at least thirty people come to my centre everyday and I feel very happy that I have the good fortune to serve them, while at the same time earning my livelihood. I truly am grateful to DEF because along with providing them with access to digital tools and information I am also able to earn about 10,000 to 15,000 rupees every month.” ( Poonam,Rajasthan)  

• For more details, please see https://www.defindia.org/sooch...