A little survey that we carried out in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu tells us why it is extremely crucial to improve the livelihood of weaver communities to ensure that the handloom industry continues to stay exist and thrive. Natraj Nagar is home to 130 weaver families. However, only 30 of those families still depend…
Information as a means is transforming India into a knowledge economy. The level of awareness in Indians is improving as they are accessing desired information through various digital and non-digital sources. However, there is still a large section of society which is living in information darkness. To digitally connect and empower such vulnerable communities with…
Celebrated journalist Sir William Mark Tully visited Baank-e-Loom in October 2016 to cover a special story titled ‘70 Years of Independent India’ for BBC World Radio. This segment of the show, which will be aired worldwide in February 2017, will present interviews with weavers and digital literacy students to understand the changes, if any, the…
An ICT capacity building workshop for grassroots organisations was held in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, on October 10, 2016. Organised with the support of Mission for Anath Development & Welfare Society, the workshop saw participation of 25 organisations that learnt about ICT and digital tools, digital content creation and crowdfunding. The aim of the workshop was to make…
It’s been a very productive year for DigiKala, an initiative of DEF and Microsoft India under the former’s Digital Cluster Development Programme (DCDP), in Barpali and Nuapatna villages of Odisha. From digital literacy, community mobilisation and enabling access to government schemes to creating self-help groups and shifting traditional weavers to computer-aided design software, a lot…
Last month, a workshop for adolescent girls and women was held at the Baank-e-Loom centre in Saidanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Women from various backgrounds and age groups participated in the workshop that was led by a gynaecologist. It is said that five out of 10 women in rural India suffer from kind of vaginal infection. Further,…
Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF), an independent society established to upscale civil society action in partnership with the government, has initiated a programme to take students from nomadic tribes of central India on a unique study tour across 13 states of India. During this tour, the students will get a chance to visit multiple NGOs…
DEF, in collaboration with the British Council, has launched the latter’s English and Digital for Girl’s Education (EDGE) programme at CIRC Halduchaur in Uttarakhand. This course is designed on the concept of peer-to-peer-learning, making use of digital and non-digital tools and gamification of teaching methods. The programme is now running at 21 centres of DEF…
With the aim to orient stakeholders in the development sector to maximise the power of their social media presence, DEF in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) organised a Social Media for Empowerment workshop at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on October 26, 2016. The workshop targeted civil society organisations, youth, academicians and entrepreneurs…
The eNGO Challenge Awards is aimed at identifying, recognising and felicitating organisations that have done exceptional work amid communities using various kinds of new age digital tools. On October 24, 2016, a day-long jury for eNGO Challenge Awards was held at Sanskriti Kala Kendra, New Delhi, to choose the best innovators among 62 finalists. This…