Author: Radhika Radhakrishnan

This was first published in Article 14. The views are of the individual author.

Indians over 60 or over 45 with comorbidities can now register for vaccination against Covid-19 but mainly through a government portal or the Aarogya Setu application. Even if registration is offline, your details will be added to a government database and you will get a certificate with a digital QR code. Such data-enabled surveillance undermines data privacy, autonomy and dignity of individuals and specifically disadvantages women, research has shown, including my own. The reported spike in domestic violence during the lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic focused attention on an ingrained problem in a country where over 25% of women in seven states reported domestic violence to the latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). 

Read the full article here.

• Privacy
• Covid-19
• Technology