Dwai Banerjee’s Powerful Tech Truths: 5 Shocking Ways Innovation Fails the Marginalized

MIT Associate Professor Dwai Banerjee explores how technology reshapes lives through an interdisciplinary lens of anthropology and history. In Enduring Cancer, he reveals how Delhi’s marginalized patients navigate not just illness but systemic gaps in care, where poverty amplifies suffering and survival becomes a social struggle. Collaborating on Hematologies, he uncovers blood’s cultural weight in India—its ties to caste, kinship, and politics—challenging Western biomedical norms.

His upcoming book traces India’s post-independence tech ambitions, contrasting early dreams of self-reliant computing with the realities of globalization’s dominance. Banerjee’s work illuminates tensions between innovation and equity, asking who benefits from progress. By centering overlooked voices—from cancer survivors to policymakers—he reframes technology as a mirror of societal values, urging a balance between advancement and human dignity.

His research bridges academia and lived experience, offering a critical roadmap for ethical innovation in an unequal world.

Dwai Banerjee’s Powerful Tech Truths: 5 Shocking Ways Innovation Fails the Marginalized

At MIT, Associate Professor Dwai Banerjee doesn’t just study technology—he investigates how it intertwines with the fabric of human lives, often in unseen ways. From the emotional toll of cancer in Delhi’s slums to India’s fraught journey toward technological sovereignty, Banerjee’s work bridges anthropology, history, and ethics to reveal how systems shape—and are shaped by—everyday people.

When Cancer Meets Inequality: A Glimpse into “Enduring Cancer” 

In Enduring Cancer, Banerjee immerses readers in the lives of Delhi’s marginalized patients, for whom a diagnosis is more than a medical crisis—it’s a rupture of identity. Through intimate narratives, he exposes how poverty amplifies suffering. A daily wage worker, for instance, faces not just chemotherapy but the terror of lost income and societal stigma. Banerjee critiques a healthcare system where cutting-edge diagnostics exist alongside glaring gaps in palliative care, urging a shift from viewing cancer as a “battle” to understanding it as a lived experience shaped by systemic inequities. His work resonates globally, echoing disparities in low-income communities worldwide, where access to empathy is as critical as access to treatment.

Blood, Belief, and Belonging: Insights from “Hematologies” 

Co-authored with Jacob Copeman, Hematologies explores blood’s cultural weight in India. Beyond its biological role, blood symbolizes kinship, caste, and nationalism. Banerjee uncovers how blood donation drives can reinforce social hierarchies, while rituals like rakhi (tying a sacred thread) politicize familial bonds. This work challenges Western biomedical frameworks, highlighting how culture and power dynamics permeate even the most “scientific” aspects of life.

India’s Tech Dreams: From Post-Colonial Ambition to Global Realities 

Banerjee’s upcoming book delves into India’s early computing ambitions post-independence. In the 1960s–70s, policymakers envisioned a self-reliant tech sector, crafting indigenous machines like the TDC-312. Yet these efforts collided with globalization, as multinational corporations and economic liberalization redirected India toward software services and outsourcing. Banerjee frames this not as a failure but as a crossroads where nationalistic optimism met neoliberal pressures—a tension relevant to Global South nations today. His research asks: Can technology ever be divorced from geopolitical power?

Why Banerjee’s Work Matters Now 

Banerjee’s interdisciplinary lens offers urgent lessons. In an era of AI and telehealth, his focus on marginalized voices serves as a reminder that innovation often overlooks those it claims to help. For instance, India’s booming tech sector contrasts starkly with the resource-starpped public hospitals he studied—a disparity exacerbated by COVID-19. Similarly, his computing history warns against equating technological adoption with progress, urging policymakers to prioritize equity over growth metrics.

Conclusion: Technology as a Human Story 

Banerjee’s scholarship defies easy categorization, mirroring MIT’s ethos of blending disciplines to tackle complex challenges. By centering human experiences—whether a patient’s quiet resilience or a nation’s dashed tech dreams—he reframes technology not as a neutral tool but as a mirror of societal values. In doing so, he invites us to ask: Who benefits from innovation, and at what cost? As Banerjee’s work shows, the answers lie not in code or algorithms, but in the lives of those navigating their consequences.