Tech for Moms Ilam 2022
I recently went to a gift store in Thamel.
The store was clean and bright. The employees were friendly.
I picked an art piece that seemed like the perfect gift for my friend’s birthday. And I went to the counter to get it packed and pay the bill. Naturally, I took out my wallet to pay for it. The cashier interrupted, “Sorry, we only accept Fone Pay or Esewa here.”
I was stunned. This was the first time I had ever encountered a store that had gone completely digital. I inquired if there were any other issues. They simply clarified that they started doing so during the pandemic and decided to continue ever since because they found it safer and more convenient.
I didn’t see any issues so I made the payment via Esewa. But my mind immediately drifted toward an incident that happened the night before.
At around 9.30 the night before, I had gotten a call from my aunt who wanted me to teach her how to send money to someone via Esewa. My cousin had decided to apply for some program and my aunt had to make the application fee payment by midnight. I called her on video and went through the steps of creating an account, linking it to one’s bank account, loading funds, and then transferring money to another account. After around 45 minutes of my explaining everything, my aunt exclaimed that she had had enough and that she would rather me make the payment for now. She would learn all this later when she felt like it.
That was my aunt who had a bachelor’s degree and had been working as a teacher for years. I couldn’t help but think about all the other times I have seen older people, especially older women, struggle with keeping up with the recent developments in technology. I know how disheartening and exhausting it can be and I am speaking as someone who basically grew up with technology.
Older women, in particular, have been systematically marginalized from actively participating in digital spaces because of their comparatively lower prowess in the English language, lack of decision-making powers, lack of financial independence, lower education levels, and so on [1]. Their identity lies in the intersection of systemic misogyny and ageism thereby making it harder for them to ask for and receive the required support [2]. This lack of support in gaining digital literacy means that older women are left bereft of financial independence, civic participation, and so on.
Keeping this in mind, we at Safer-I, started our first workshop for our ‘Tech for Moms’ program. ‘Tech for Moms’ is a program designed to educate and aware women from older demographics regarding the basics of creating digital IDs, safely using different social media platforms, and using digital wallets like Esewa.
This workshop was conducted for the women of Mahila Jagran Sangh in Ilam Bazar, Ilam. A total of twenty-four participants representing different professions, ethnicities, and backgrounds were introduced to the basics of digital literacy and security. Divided over two days, the workshop took theoretical and practical approaches to understanding safer and more accessible digital practices.
We started the first day of the workshop with an introduction to the terms ‘Internet’, ‘Wi-Fi’, and ‘Mobile Data’. We were surprised to see how most women were made unaware of those distinctions.
We then moved on to the topic of digital accounts.
We ran a baseline survey to gauge the experience of the participants when it came to using emails and social media. 92% of the participants had a social media account but only 5% of them knew how to create a social media account on their own. Only 46% of the women knew their social media passwords, with an overwhelming majority having it noted on a piece of paper. A participant shared how they use their social media only for scrolling the content and texting. The other participants raised their hands in agreement.
This was not just an issue of data risk, but also a privacy breach and loss of individuality. We then shared some safer password practices with the women.
We then moved on to the concept of digital wallets. We asked each participant to download Esewa on their phones if they already hadn’t. We then taught them how to create and confirm their accounts if they already hadn’t. Getting them to fill up their details and fill out their KYC form requirements was the most challenging part of the workshop because of connection issues, form-filling formalities, and the difference in capacities between the participants.
We continued this on to the next day where we demonstrated how to make payments or transfer balances via Esewa. Many participants seemed to have found this very helpful. During the ending remarks, one of the participants mentioned how this would now allow her to pay the household electricity bills without having to ask her husband to do so.
During the second day of the session, we brought up the ideas of disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation. This understanding is important because not only are older people four times more likely to be victims of misinformation, women, more than so their male counterparts, are more likely to be targeted with false information. We shared how the participants can fact-check their sources and information before spreading it. We also discussed the ideas of digital consent, especially in the discussion of information sharing.
Next, we discussed the ideas of reporting culture. We shared how the participants can learn to report users and content on Facebook. We also shared how they can access more content that they like by filtering their likes and dislikes. We also taught how to use Messenger safely. One of the participants found it helpful, as she had been getting Messenger calls from an unknown number and didn’t know how to block or report the number.
We ended our workshop with a summary and quick reflections. The participants thanked us for designing a session that was practical and applicable. We exchanged our gratitude for their active participation and enthusiasm.
Even after the end of the workshop, many participants stayed after. Some provided testimonials of their experience. Some to clarify the questions that they might have had during the day. And a few others wanted to learn about additional topics like learning to use ConnectIPS, understanding the mechanisms of WhatsApp and Viber, and using Google Workspace.
Reflecting on the session, the Safer-I team has realized the need to continue and expand our program. We are looking to conduct the sessions in more remote areas in the future and we plan to partner with agencies that can help us with the continuation and expansion of the program. This workshop highlights the grim reality of the motto of digital inclusion but the success of the workshop also inspires us to continue with our goal with our ‘Tech for Moms’ project.
References
[1] Women are Targeted With Fake News More than Men — Why?
[2] Older People More Susceptible to Fake News, More Likely to Share It
