India has taken the lead to become the fastest growing
Internet user market in the world.
If you talk to a
few women deep within the rural village areas of India, and ask them what they
wish, you will be probably be surprised by their answers. “We want to
find jobs online,” “I want to see temples,” “I want to be able to buy from my
mobile,” “I want my kids to learn English,” “We wish we could talk to our
phones in our own native language.” These are a just a bunch of answers that
a few women revealed.
Previously, these
women were afraid to even touch a smartphone, worried that they will spoil it.
However, things are soon changing. They are now demanding services that can
help them get more from the Internet — they have come a long way.
Even as India has
taken the lead to become the fastest growing Internet user market in the world,
Google states that most of India’s Internet is still dominated by its male
users. ‘The digital gender divide is even wider in rural India where digital
literacy amongst women continues to be a challenge, this combined with
socio-economic challenges are the major barriers that prevent women from using
the Internet,’ says Google.
Google says that
they have been working hard to change this male: female ratio of new Internet
users in rural India by introducing the Internet Saathi program. Launched
with a pilot in Rajasthan in July 2015, they announced their plans to scale the
program, to cover 300,000 villages across India in December 2015.
Google now shares
that the Internet Saathi program, in partnership with Tata Trusts, is live
in over 100,000 villages across ten states in India.
There are
over 25,000 Internet Saathis who are working everyday across these
villages, and are helping over 10 million women learn about the Internet and
how they can use it in their daily lives.
Several Internet
Saathi’s in rural India are learning about the Internet or their own needs and
for their families, kids and their communities. These Saathis are now
increasingly seen as change agents in their villages and continue to find more
support from the communities and village heads for their work.
Google has reached
this milestone and is looking at measuring the impact of the program. Findings
of the research from IPSOS, a market research company on the socio-economic
impact of improving digital literacy amongst women in rural India, is providing
Google with insights on what more needs to be done. Almost 90 per cent of women
who have attended the trainings with the Saathis have a better understanding of
Internet, and on an average 25 per cent of women who have learned to use the
Internet continue to use the Internet today. At 35 per cent, Gujarat is
presently having the highest percentage of women continuing to use the Internet
after attending the program, while Rajasthan rides at 17 per cent, which is the
lowest.
The research
findings state that the primary use case for Internet is to learn new skills
and find information.
The research also
stated that the cost of smart phones is the biggest barrier for internet usage
after training and over half of the women trained cannot afford to buy the
phone
Impact on social
standing of women in rural India:
Seven per cent of
women trained under the program feel that their social standing has improved.
They believe their social standing has improved at individual, household and
community level — they feel more informed, more confident about themselves
Economic
Impact: Overall,
33 per cent trained women think that their economic condition have improved by
learning new skills on the Internet.
Women feel that
Internet has helped them to supplement their income in their existing
occupation; income increased by an additional 1 per cent in the villages where
training was conducted; and those who continue to use internet in their daily
lives believe they have upped their income additionally by another 4 per cent.
Loaded with
insights and learning’s from the last two years, Google is continuing to expand
the program further and have started to roll out Internet Saathi program in
Haryana and Bihar, covering around 1,000 villages, and 7,000+ villages
respectively.
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