The recent proliferation of digital technologies for development has led to a new paradigm of state-citizen relations in which technology mediates the citizens' interactions with the agencies of government. The use of digital technologies has enabled the state to effectively distinguish between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor, so as to parse the digital subject that is worthy of the state’s projects of governmentality. However, the top-down use of technology occurs within a specific value system that is oblivious to contextual reality and does not question existing power asymmetries. Recent initiatives in northern India have questioned the state’s use of such technologies to devalue the agency of the poor and their autonomous capacity to contribute to development policy and practice. This Commentary will briefly examine two examples from India, where citizens’ movements have reshaped the terms of engagement through the medium of digital technologies, towards creating a more responsive state. Such initiatives have the potential to reframe the very objectives from the perspective of the affected people, and to reclaim digital technologies towards promoting equity.

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声称数字技术促进健康公平：印度有希望的实践的早期教训

最近数字技术促进发展的激增导致了国家与公民关系的新范式，在这种范式中，技术调解了公民与政府机构的互动。数字技术的使用使国家能够有效区分“应得”和“不值得”的穷人，从而解析出值得国家治理项目的数字主体。然而，自上而下的技术使用发生在一个特定的价值体系中，该体系无视情境现实，也不质疑现有的权力不对称。印度北部最近的举措质疑该州使用此类技术来贬低穷人的能动性及其为发展政策和实践做出贡献的自主能力。本评论将简要分析来自印度的两个例子，在这些例子中，公民运动通过数字技术的媒介重塑了参与条款，以创建一个反应更灵敏的国家。这些举措有可能从受影响人群的角度重新制定目标，并恢复数字技术以促进公平。