Google India-Tata Trusts to Expand Internet Saathi program to Punjab, Odisha

Google India and Tata Trusts Tuesday said their Internet Saathi initiative, that aims to facilitate digital literacy among women in rural India, will be expanded to villages in Punjab and Odisha.

Launched in July 2015, the Internet Saathi programme has so far, trained 70,000 'Internet Saathis', who have in turn impacted 2.6 crore women in the country.

"The programme now reaches 2.6 lakh villages across 18 states and we are adding two more - Punjab and Odisha. Internet Saathi has contributed towards bridging the digital gender divide in rural India - female to male ratio was 1 in 10 in 2015 and in 2018, it has increased to 4 in 10," Neha Barjatya, Chief Internet Saathi, Google India told PTI.

In Punjab, the program will cover around 5,000 villages, like Paras Rampur, Kotli Than Singh, Burj, Vehra and from Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala districts.

In Odisha, the program has been kicked off from Sindhia in Baleshwar, Parakana in Puri, Bhuinpur in Kendrapara, and will cover over 16,000 villages.

The programme started as a pilot in Rajasthan and has been expanded to states including Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana,Tamil Nadu, Goa, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

"Internet Saathi program has shown us that with the right opportunities, there is no limit to what women can achieve. These women in rural India are learning about the Internet, not just for their own needs but for their families, kids and their communities," Barjatya said.



She added that some of the women trained under the programme have started their own micro-business like stitching, honeybee farming, and beauty parlours.

"There are also many who are driving awareness for issues like girl child education, menstrual hygiene and more within their communities," she added.

Raman Kalyanakrishnan, Head - Strategy, Tata Trusts said it is imperative that women in rural India are provided with adequate opportunities and knowledge for inclusive growth and societal progress.

"The Trusts have increasingly been using technology in all its programmes across 29 states in India. Punjab and Odisha being a geography of focus for several Tata Trusts' existing initiatives gives us an added advantage in planning and implementing the Internet Saathi programme in these regions," he added.

Barjatya cited a study with Kantar that found a significant number of the Internet Saathis saying they believe they are seen as a source of information in their village -- people are coming to them consistently for answers to help children with schoolwork, to learn new cooking recipes, search for jobs, or to run a business.

The study was based on interviews of over 2,500 people across rural India.

"The study shows that 8 in 10 Saathis and their beneficiaries believe people in their village respect them more. Also, 9 in 10 women beneficiaries believe in a woman's right to express herself, and earn a living for her family," she said. PTI SR DRR

After A Year of Its Launch, This Is How Google's Internet Bicycle Is Bringing India's Rural Women Online

About an year ago, we reported about how tech giant Google was making use of bicycle-riding internet tutors to bring the world of Internet closer to rural women in India. And now, more than a year later since its launch, Google's initiative is still going strong and has garnered tremendous results.

While Internet usage among urban Indian women is no longer a foreign concept, a majority of their rural counterparts still remain unaware of the medium's primary working and its capability in doing various things. This prompted Google to take some concrete steps. They concluded, if the rural women can't come to World Wide Web on their own, they can deliver it to them--by bicycles. Hence, project Internet Saathi was born. Saathi in the Hindi language refers to companion.

In order to make sure that they are able to reach a large number of rural women and connect them to the internet, the search giant has joined hands with local philanthropy Tata Trusts.

Google currently has an army of female trainers on work in various rural corners of the Indian subcontinent on two-wheelers. Each trainer's bicycle comes equipped with a box of internet connected smartphones and tablets on which rural women can take their baby steps to the big world of internet.



The basic idea behind Internet Saathi is to make the rural women understand how internet can help them in bettering their lives and offer them good employment opportunities. A majority of rural households who have the means of affording the internet, still prefer to remain offline as they don't understand its value. The aim is to break this myth by targeting the women of the household.

Google firstly gives a formal and detailed training to the female instructors on the working of the web, after which they are given bikes with internet-enabled devices running the company's latest Android mobile operating system. These newly equipped saathis then travel from village to village passing on their knowledge of the web to other females.

According to Google, since the program's launch, about 9,000 female instructors have successfully helped in connecting about 1 million rural Indian women to the power of the web. They also added, while some just want to learn to use Facebook, WhatsApp or make a simple call, others want to search for recipes, stitching guides etc. But, the bottom line being, that a majority of them were accepting of the internet and wanted to learn more about it.

India is an important market for the Califronia based search giant given its emerging internet economy. According to a recent survey, in a population of 1.2 billion people, some one billion people still don't have access to regular web services. With Internet Saathi, Google wishes to get more and more people on the web as that would translate to more users for various Google services.