When it comes to technology, five years can feel like two decades. So, where would you locate the year 2002 in terms of digital age? Early years, right? At that time, few of us were even aware of the power of the internet, let alone understanding how it could empower society’s most marginalised communities. But Osama Manzar is not a regular person, after all. In 2002, he set up the Digital Empowerment Foundation at a time when Digital Empowerment itself sounded almost like a term borrowed from a sci-fi movie.
Twenty-two years after its inception, DEF now finds itself in a place where people are not only well aware of the power of the digital world but also that it can be an important tool in ensuring women’s empowerment. In a freewheeling conversation with Sangeeta Bhattacharjee, Manzar discusses the initial days, why he thinks women empowerment is not just a topic of interest, rather, indispensable to DEF’s work, how Udyamini has so much potential in building rural women entrepreneurs of the Northeast and so much more.
Listen to Episode One here.
Listen to Episode Two here.