Google India's digital educative initiative, Internet Saathi, under Helping Women Get Online campaign has been transforming lives of many women in the villages of Dholpur. The internet, which seemed a distant dream to village women, is now just a touch away.
"The usage of the internet among women in India is lower than most countries in the world. Only one-third of India's online users are women. This gender disparity of internet user base was the big concern that we wanted to address," said Sapna Chadha, marketing head of Google India.
Internet Saathi, which was started in 2015, has now reached around 4,000 villages with 1,900 trained 'saathis'. Google is adding up to 500 additional 'saathis' per week. More than 1 lakh women have been trained so far. Under this initiative, Google conducts various outreach and educational programmes.
The programme includes an awareness module, coupled with hands-on training modules aimed at teaching women how to use the Internet, including through mobile devices. Since the launch of this initiative, Google has directly trained over 1.5 million women on the basics of the internet.
Internet Saathi sends women out on bicycles, armed with a smartphone and a tablet, to let women in villages experience the net.
"In order to drive broader access and continuity in usage after the training, Internet-enabled devices like tablets and smartphones are also placed within the school premises, community centres, self-help group meeting venues, agriculture centres, PHCs and the like for optimum exposure and learning among the community," Chadha explained.
In the last 10 months, Google India has been active in villages across five states in India, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and is expanding the programme to four new states -- Assam, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
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