Understanding Trust in the Rural Digital Space
With the internet, you don't face anyone and hence the belief that the virtual world is safer. But just because you don't see the danger, doesn't mean it is not there.
Imagine this.
Story:
In a village in Uttar Pradesh, lives Madho, who is known as the local gunda.
He is a drunk but comes from an influential family and so has the power to influence the local panchayat.
Mira is a middle aged mother of 2 sons and a young daughter. As her daughter grows, Mira, based on her experience of the world, warns her daughter to avoid Madho.
She gives her the tips and tricks - don't stand around outside chit-chatting with friends, don't stay out too long, don't confront Madho, avoid the area where he is to be found.
This is how Mira's mother had trained her.
Now, Mira has a smartphone and a young boy from a nearby village has started messaging her young daughter. She watches as her daughter talks to him on the phone. She hears the casual language, sometimes teasing sometimes challenging. She sees the selfies, all ordinary, that her daughter has sent to this boy.
She has a vague sense of worry but no words of warning or wisdom. Her mother's learning now does not hold true.
And that's where the problem is.
1. Women's sense of caution is far more developed in the real world - they read, facial expressions, body language, situations and sense danger.
But with the internet, there is a lack of sensory perceptions and a lack of generational learning - those that warn us of impending danger.
You don't face anyone and hence the belief that the virtual world is safer. But just because you don't see the danger, doesn't mean it is not there.
When a mother sees her son loitering about with friends, not working, she'll take a stick to his behind...
But if he is mostly at home and does "work" on his phone, she does not question it. She praises him.
But what is it that he does on his phone?
Since, mothers cannot teach their children, children learn from the wrong sources.
Some Reasons for Cybercrimes in Villages
1. Not knowing whom to trust or what to base that trust on
2. Very low segregation of safe spaces - fields in place of toilets, unsafe and common bathing spaces - peeping tom cases
3. In 2014, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana introduced bank accounts for the unbanked and with it came ATM cards in every hand. But many did not know what to do with them. And so they turned to “trusted” middlemen or relatives and often get cheated.
4. Fear and greed