Tech giant Google has ties up with Tata Trusts to reduce the digital gender gap in rural areas of India. The initiative is called ‘Internet Saathi’. Areas like Purulia, where girls have now been trained to use the Internet and teach others in turn.
The initiative ‘Internet Saathi’, had been successfully launched in five states, and on July 2015, it began in four more states including West Bengal.
Sapna Chadha, Head of Marketing, Google India said in a survey, it was found that in rural India, only one in every 10 women knew how to use the Internet. “The major reasons are cultural barriers, lack of awareness and lack of perceived value,” she said on Wednesday here. Accordingly the project of identification of villages, choosing girls and then training them as Saathis began.
Rajan Anandan, VP of Google South Asia, explains that only 12% of rural internet users are women. While new male internet users grow at a pace of 57%, females lag behind at 27%. The most interesting thing about these growth rates, he explains, is that the next 100 million Internet users will not be fluent in English. According to Anandan, the fastest growing websites on the internet today are in local languages.
‘Internet Saathi’, Google and Tata’s joint-activity launched in West Bengal
