From healthcare services to policing and vaccination drives, the Indian government has rolled out a series of ambitious technology platforms in an attempt to streamline services for its 1.3 billion population. Yet a number of these projects, including Aadhaar, the country’s controversial biometric identification system, and mass CCTV surveillance, have exacerbated the marginalization of poor and vulnerable groups. 

In May, a team of lawyers and researchers from the Criminal Justice & Police Accountability Project, a Bhopal-based initiative focusing on the criminalization of marginalized caste communities, published an essay on the website of The Transnational Institute, an international research organization linking scholars and policymakers. It outlined how the use of law enforcement technology, including biometrics and video surveillance, is accelerating caste-based discrimination in India’s second largest state, Madhya Pradesh. 

The team examined the police treatment of socially excluded groups in Madhya Pradesh. I spoke with Nikita Sonavane, a lawyer and the project’s co-founder to find out more. 

Coda: What drove you to study the links between law enforcement technology and caste prejudice in India?