Background

Many Indian teens from marginalized communities have limited access to and ability to engage in global political awareness and international political discourse. The educational system largely focuses on national politics. Resultantly, this may not create enough space for conversation about global affairs—-schools in rural areas and poor urban areas do not have the means to provide relevant education on global politics.

Finally, the lack of access to the internet and language costs of educational materials also prevent these teens from being aware of global events or even having meaningful conversations. Inequalities in society and caste-related problems, on the other hand, promote a feeling of estrangement from the discussion of political issues. That being said, safe spaces and resources help develop the prevalence of such conversations among Indian teens coming from socially disadvantaged environments.

These teenagers are growing up in a strongly polarized world in which political influence can result in divisions between academic institutions and the communities in which they operate. Such an expansion exacerbates rather than encourages the sense of oneness among the young. In the absence of critical thinking and indistinct reasoning, they are prepared to be swept away by biased, politically-charged violence and/or extreme actions.

In light of this larger context, DEPO was launched as a social initiative that focuses on global political awareness and creating a space for international political discourse accessible to teens from communities that have traditionally been marginalized in political processes and conversations. The goal of this initiative is to address the fundamentals of depolarization and the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in this context.