Digital Futures and Digital Dignity: Caste, Gender and Educational Justice for Scheduled Caste Women in India
Author : Dr. Heena Nityanand Makwana
Abstract :
The Indian government's "Digital India" initiative and the National Education Policy 2020 envision a technologically integrated future, promising equitable access to education for all. This paper argues that this optimistic narrative obscures the grim reality faced by Scheduled Caste women, for whom the digital transition has amplified, not dismantled, entrenched social hierarchies. The research moves beyond the conventional, limited discourse on the 'digital divide,' which is a problem of access. Instead, this paper introduces and defends the concept of 'Digital Dignity,' a rights-based framework encompassing qualitative access, individual agency, digital literacy, and most critically, the right to safe participation. Grounded in the Ambedkarite philosophy of education as a tool for social emancipation, this paper examines how the promise of technology is broken by socio-cultural barriers. An intersectional analysis of government data from the NSO and NFHS-5 reveals a deep 'infrastructure of inequality' that structurally disadvantages SC women. The paper then illuminates a critical, less-discussed barrier: the 'unseen battlefield' of digital learning environments. It introduces the concept of 'digital untouchability' to describe the pervasive caste-based cyberbullying and harassment that transforms educational platforms into sites of trauma and exclusion. A doctrinal analysis of the existing legal framework, including the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, finds it inadequate for addressing these new forms of atrocity. However, by synthesizing distinct streams of judicial precedents, including the Right to Education, the Right to Internet Access, and progressive interpretations of the Atrocities Act, this paper argues for the emergence of a composite right to a 'dignified digital education.' It concludes by proposing concrete legislative, judicial, and policy reforms required to make 'Digital Dignity' a substantive, enforceable reality, thereby aligning the nation's digital future with its constitutional vision of an egalitarian society.
Keywords :
Digital Dignity, Digital Untouchability, Scheduled Caste Women, Intersectional Equity, Right to Education, SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
