Dr. Pragya Kaushik is a media educator hailing from Hisar, Haryana. She also serves as a guest faculty at SD College and Government Polytechnic Institute. For Pragya, media literacy isn’t just a part of her work—it’s the core. Her PhD thesis highlighted the importance of media literacy awareness for school-going children and suggested integrating it into their daily lives through television cartoon programmes.
In 2020, Pragya was among the first batch of people to join FactShala’s Media and Information Literacy Programme. Reflecting on her experience, she says,
“FactShala’s exposure and reach in terms of media literacy ensured I could fulfill my dream of seeing a truly media-literate society”
In her many endeavors of training different communities across Hisar, Pragya discovered a group of senior citizens who are redefining their purpose and making a profound impact. These dedicated women had transformed a temple into a hub of social good, using the sacred space for much more than worship.
In the temple, these women of the Ram Kripa Foundation offer tuition classes for underprivileged students and teach stitching skills in the common hall. They host motivational and social awareness lectures, featuring experts from various fields. Traditional and ritual activities are celebrated throughout the year, encouraging a sense of community and belonging. They also provide financial support for the marriages of girls from low-income families.
Inspired by these remarkable women who demonstrated that temples could serve as powerful centers for community empowerment, Pragya decided to use that space to create conversations around her true passion — media literacy
Pragya was eager to conduct the workshop for this group of elderly women for two main reasons. One, she had noticed that senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to online scams. She stresses,
“Senior citizens are often easy targets for scammers due to their limited familiarity with technology. Media literacy can change that. When we empower the elderly to identify and protect themselves against fraud and scams, they become valuable assets to society”
And two, seeing the remarkable efforts these seniors were putting into empowering others, Pragya felt it was only fair that they themselves received the empowerment they deserved.
Leading the workshop was fairly easy was Pragya, given the eagerness and determination of these remarkable women to learn. The topic of media literacy struck a chord with the group. The workshop gave them a space to openly share their encounters with scams and frauds: from deceptive bank calls asking for account numbers and other details to text messages containing dubious links. One woman recounted an incident where she received a supposed Tanishq Gold gift, which led her to a link requesting personal information to claim the reward. The message appeared genuine, but fortunately, she reached out to her family, who quickly recognised that it was a scam.
Reflecting on these shared instances, the women collectively realised that it was all too common for the elderly to be on the receiving end of such scams and that without external help, they wouldn’t have been able to handle these situations effectively. And Pragya wanted to address just that – to empower the elderly to become their own guides, no longer needing to rely on others for assistance to navigate the digital world safely.
During the session, Pragya carefully guided the group through the basics of media literacy. She taught them the differences between information and misinformation. Using local examples, she showed how messages are sometimes intentionally designed to trigger emotions and prompt actions, and how to particularly stay careful of them.
Over the next few hours, the group found themselves with the confidence to navigate the digital world safely even when no one else was around to help them. Reflecting on the session, Kamlesh, one of the participants, shared, “Today’s session was really helpful. We learned quick and easy ways to identify fake messages. Pragya also showed us how to effectively use Google and Google Lens, which are already available on our mobile phones, to verify messages before forwarding them”.
Through the FactShala workshop, Pragya encouraged the elderly to embrace media literacy. This effort wasn’t just about teaching a skill; it was about empowering the elderly to become independent and informed in an increasingly digital society. In doing so, Pragya took one step closer to seeing a media-literate society, where everyone, regardless of age, gender, or background, is empowered to engage with media responsibly and effectively.