In India, achieving effective literacy, raising awareness of rights and ensuring access to technology still pose substantial challenges to social and economic advancement, especially in rural regions where linguistic diversity complicates communication. Numerous government initiatives and entitlements have fallen short of reaching their intended beneficiaries due to language barriers and limited information accessibility.

While many benefits are available to citizens in India, access can be challenging due to literacy barriers or the use of languages that are less represented in the digital world.

Addressing local needs

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To address these challenges, Thoughtworks, in collaboration with Agami, pioneered the development of Jugalbandi. This innovative open-source platform harnesses the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Indian language translation models to power conversational AI solutions across domains. The platform, designed as a chatbot, aims to break down language barriers and facilitate access to essential services such as Indian government welfare schemes in rural areas.

Thoughtworks data scientists crafted the platform to provide personalized assistance by understanding user queries in multiple spoken or typed languages. Jugalbandi translates spoken words or phrases from one Indian language to another using voice recognition technology and machine translation, and retrieves information from government programs, often available only in English, to present back to users in their local language. The first version of the Jugalbandi WhatsApp chatbot — now expanding to other sectors — allowed users to ask questions about more than 170 different government schemes.

Recognizing the platform's potential, the Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT adopted it and formalized it into an offering named Bhashini. Beyond government applications, Jugalbandi was adopted in social sectors and NGOs, facilitating the swift creation of chatbots to address various social challenges.

Creating social impact with AI

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The development and implementation of Jugalbandi has delivered significant benefits across multiple sectors:

Empowering citizens: Jugalbandi has empowered millions by providing access to critical information on government schemes and entitlements, breaking down language barriers and ensuring inclusivity. This chatbot can potentially help more than 500 million people living in India who are currently unaware of government schemes.?

International recognition: Jugalbandi's success was highlighted at the G20 India summit, attracting interest from the Bangladesh government for potential adoption at their administrative level and showcasing its global scalability and impact potential.

Ethical AI implementation: Thoughtworks prioritizes ethical considerations in AI development, employing custom rules to mask sensitive information and implement robust data privacy layers to secure user inputs. By utilizing the PostRAG reference architecture, Thoughtworks mitigates risks of harmful content generation and enhances ethical considerations in AI responses.

Commitment to Digital Public Goods: Thoughtworks’ work with Jugalbandi reinforces its commitment to accelerating the Digital Public Goods (DPG) segment in India. Leveraging technology for positive social change strengthens the digital ecosystem and promotes inclusive growth.

Today, several Indian Government institutions are in conversation to adopt the Jugalbandi framework, with a number of system integrators working to expand its use to empower millions of citizens in justice, education and health.