Digital India and the Poor: Policy, Technology and Society

201 Pages·2020·1.408 MB·English

by  Suman Gupta

Digital India and the Poor
Digital India and the Poor examines how the poor are evoked in contemporary
Indian political discourse. It studies the ways in which the disadvantaged are
accounted for in the increasingly digitised political economy, commercial
and public policy, media, and academic research.
This book:
• Investigates the category of the poor in India and how they have come
to be classified in economic and policy documents over the past few
decades
• Explores the influential digital education technology ‘experiments’
conducted in Indian slums in the early 2000s, now popularly known as
the ‘hole- in- the- wall experiments’
• Discusses financial inclusion initiatives, predominantly as they
converged between 2014 and 2017, such as the Jan Dhan Yojana, the
Aadhaar Project, and the banknote demonetisation
• Presents an in-d epth study of the bearing of technology on domestic
employment in India
The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of South
Asian studies, politics, political science and sociology, technology studies,
linguistics, and development studies.
Suman Gupta is Professor of Literature and Cultural History at the Open
University, UK. He has held visiting positions at Delhi University, India;
Peking University, China; University of Texas Austin, USA; Federal University
of Campinas, Brazil, among others. He is Honorary Senior Research Fellow
at Roehampton University, UK. He has authored various publications
including Usurping Suicide: The Political Resonances of Individual Deaths
(2017, co- author), Consumable Texts in Contemporary India: Uncultured
Books and Bibliographical Sociology (2015), Globalization and Literature
(2009), and The Theory and Reality of Democracy: A Case Study in Iraq
(2006).

Digital India and the Poor
Policy, Technology and Society
Suman Gupta
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2020 Suman Gupta
The right of Suman Gupta to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 43894- 4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 01024- 1 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Bhola, Dhiren and Fuleshwar

Contents
List of tables viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction: theme, method, terms, structure 1
PART I
Top- down 17
2 Experiments in slums, 1999–2006 19
3 From ‘informal sector’ to ‘financial inclusion’, 2004–14 54
4 ‘Financial inclusion’ initiatives, 2014–17 80
PART II
On the ground 119
5 Domestic workers and the performance of hierarchy 121
6 Domestic workers and technology 143
7 Conclusion: slippages 176
Index 186
Tables
3.1 Main workers, marginal workers, non- workers and seeking
work, age 15–59 66
3.2 Literate and illiterate, age 15–59 66
3.3 Education-l evel, without education level/below primary/
primary, age 15–59 67
3.4 Number of MSMEs and numbers employed, 2012–13 and
2013–14 68
3.5 Income tax returns, all taxpayers, 2014–15 68
4.1 Network underpinning ‘financial inclusion’ initiatives in
India, especially 2014–17 108
6.1 Work conditions for placement- agency and non- placement-
agency domestic workers 165
Acknowledgements
For a project such as this, the researcher needs space and time, amenable
facilities and access to sources. The Open University, where I am employed,
has generously provided all these and more. I am extremely fortunate in
my colleagues. They have developed the excellent habit of overlooking my
shortcomings and evincing interest in my pursuits. I have come to regard the
campus of Roehampton University, where I have been an honorary fellow
for a considerable period, as an extension of my home. None there have let
me feel otherwise than at home.
Frequent visits to Delhi have played their part in the writing of this book.
I have plied strangers and acquaintances with questions, filled the (some-
times reluctant) ears of friends and relatives, been an interloper at various
events and conferences, pestered librarians and bookshop keepers. To name
a few would be to do a disservice to the others; that I still don’t know the
names of some or have just about crossed paths with others doesn’t mean
that I am any less indebted to them.
Thanks are due to Aakash Chakrabarty of Routledge India for taking this
book towards publication. Cheng’s scepticism and Ayan-Y ue’s doubts about
my ideas keep my research moving.
For any errors found in this book, I am to blame.
Suman Gupta
September 2019