Journal of Advances in Developmental Research

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Clicks to Civic Power: E-Governance as a Tool for Political Participation and Self-Representation Among SC Women in Andhra Pradesh

Author(s) Kiran Estarla
Country India
Abstract The intersection of digital governance and political marginalisation presents a critical space for examining how Scheduled Caste (SC) women in Andhra Pradesh negotiate civic agency in the twenty-first century. This paper investigates the extent to which e-governance platforms—ranging from MeeSeva portals and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) systems to voter registration interfaces and digital literacy programmes—function as tools for political participation and self-representation among one of India's most socially excluded demographic groups. Drawing on secondary data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the Andhra Pradesh State Government's ITE&C Department reports, Election Commission of India data, and peer-reviewed scholarship published between 2010 and 2023, the paper argues that e-governance holds ambivalent potential for SC women: while digitised public service delivery reduces dependence on intermediaries and expands access to welfare entitlements, structural barriers including low digital literacy, inadequate infrastructure, patriarchal gatekeeping of devices, and caste-based exclusion in technology ecosystems significantly attenuate transformative outcomes. The study identifies Digital Sakhi programmes and SHG-linked digital mobilisation as the most promising enabling mechanisms. Policy recommendations emphasise vernacular interface design, community-based digital facilitation, and integration of e-governance modules into existing caste welfare delivery architectures. The paper concludes that digital access, without concurrent dismantling of social hierarchies, reproduces rather than transcends the conditions of exclusion it purports to overcome.
Keywords e-governance, Scheduled Caste women, Andhra Pradesh, political participation, digital exclusion, MeeSeva, Digital Sakhi, self-representation, civic agency, social inclusion.
Published In Volume 14, Issue 1, January-June 2023
Published On 2023-06-02
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Crossref DOI prefix of IJAIDR is 10.71097/IJAIDR

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