December 19, 2019 was a black day in the history of the capital of the largest state in the country—Uttar Pradesh—as rampaging crowds thronged Lucknow’s streets in protest of the Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA). Their violent dissent was a blot and so was the government move banning Internet services (perhaps for the first time in several parts of the state) from that day onwards. While violent protests still continued albeit in other parts of the state but Digital Activity came to a standstill for almost a week in 21 districts where Internet services were suspended.
This brings us to a pertinent question: Will India’s aspiration in general & premier Narendra Modi’s vision of Make in India, in particular, to make the country a digital leader be realized if disruption in the Internet services become so common in the name of Law and Order and other sensitive issues in the country? Does it look a reality if we find that 67% of the world’s documented shutdowns have taken place in India!
In The Anatomy of an Internet Blackout: Measuring the Economic Impact of Internet Shutdowns in India, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a Delhi-based think tank, has noted that at a time when India was leveraging a generative technology like the Internet to boost its economy, the rising number of communications shutdowns “epitomizes the difficulties on the pathway to realizing India’s digital ambitions”.
In 2016, the UN declared that access to the internet is a human right—the resolution emphasized that “the same human rights that people have offline must also be protected online”. “People sometimes think that banning Internet only means that people cannot stream stand-up comedy or order a pizza online. But for a lot of people, the internet has become a very vital way to connect them to their professional and personal lives”.
It’s really concerning that the powers-that-be in the world’s largest democracy decided to shut down internet services thereby cutting off its citizens from communication at least in the virtual time space. This has severely impacted the common man, who has become dependent on digital services. It literally feels like losing a limb. “Does the internet shutdown even work to bring down incidents of violence or is there another way?” one cannot help but ask.
All those who did not have broadband /Wi-Fi and were completely dependent on data services on their mobile felt completely frustrated. Education is now inextricably linked to the internet. Most of the online transactions like: Google Pay, paytm and other App-based functions could not be used. Indeed education is only one casualty of the repeated internet shutdowns. The humanitarian and emotive impact is far greater.
For women, the smart phone has become a tool to assuage safety concerns and provide a means to alert their loved ones or the authorities in times of uncertainty. Imagine the ongoing shutdown in Kashmir and its cascading effect.
The internet today is not only a platform where dissent can be registered meaningfully, creating a democratized space cutting across distinctions of caste, class and gender in an unprecedented way, but also directly affects the lives and livelihoods of citizens. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India, it is a lot more. Many of the schemes rolled out by the government are linked to the internet. Many of them use digital payment options. So obviously an Internet blackout means most of their socio-economic existence is threatened or stalled. Further, given that every hour Google receives more than 2.3 lakh search queries shows how much people rely on the Web for information gathering today.
Internet shutdowns simply cut off these channels of information for teachers, students, researchers, entrepreneurs, etc. So, shutdowns that last over months can literally paralyse almost all sectors in the region.
For instance, the Ayushman Bharat scheme, which provides subsidized medical care in government hospitals, depends on the internet—several subsidy payments are made electronically. Even availing of rations now relies on biometric authentication. It impacts people who are the most vulnerable.
Internet now is not a privilege rather it has become a basic need. At the end of the day, the biggest takeaway is like silencing people’s voices.
When a country like India is aiming to become a $5-trillion economy and wants to anchor the growth on its information and communication sector, Internet shutdowns send the wrong signals to investors and consumers. With India’s e-commerce sector poised to touch $150 billion by 2020, it makes business sense to leave the Web as open as possible.
