Google’s Internet Saathi program now live in 100,000 villages across India

by Shrutee K/DNS

New Delhi: Continuing with its digital literacy initiative aimed at empowering women in rural India, Google India today announced reaching a milestone of 100,000 villages with its Internet Saathi program. Launched as a pilot in Rajasthan in July 2015 along with Tata Trusts, Google announced the ambitious plans to scale the program, to cover 300,000 villages across India in December 2015.

In its two year journey, the program has continued to gain momentum and is today live in ten states in India. 25,000 fully trained Internet Saathis are working everyday across these villages to help women and children learn about the Internet. In total, over 10 million women have gained from the program so far and have become familiar with the benefits of using the internet in their daily lives.

On the second year anniversary of the program, Google also announced the expansion of the program in two new states - Haryana and Bihar. In Haryana, the program has already started to roll out and will be covering ~1000 villages and in Bihar the program has kicked off from Ramnagar, Bagaha, Lauria, Manjha and Chakai villages and  we will be covering ~7000+ villages expanding it further later in the year.

Speaking about reaching the milestone, Sapna Chadha, Director Marketing,  South East Asia and India, Google said, “From being afraid to touch a smartphone, worried that they will spoil it, to now demanding services that can help them get more from the Internet -  women in rural India have come a long way. Even as India has taken the lead to become the fastest growing Internet user market in the world, India’s Internet is still dominated by 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.”

“We’re delighted with the progress we have made with the Internet Saathi model, and it is remarkable to see the passion of these women learning about the Internet, not just for their own needs but for their families, kids and their communities. Internet 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.” She added.

Google also released the findings of a research conducted to understand the net impact of program amongst women in rural India. IPSOS*, a leading market research company conducted the research to gauge the socio-economic impact of improving digital literacy amongst women in rural India and the results are very heartening.

Key findings of the research reveals:

Net Impact of the program on Internet awareness and usage amongst women in rural India

Almost 90% of women who have attended the trainings with the  Saathis have a better understanding of Internet

On an average 25% of women who have learned to use the Internet continue to use the Internet

At 35%, Gujarat has the highest percentage of women continuing to use the Internet after attending the program

At 17%, Rajasthan ranks the lowest in continuing usage of Internet

Primary use case for Internet is to learn new skills and find information

Cost of the smartphones is the biggest barrier for usage after training - Over half of the women trained cannot afford to buy the phone

Continued usage leads to better learning and more confidence in using more services on the internet

Impact on social standing of women in rural India:

7% 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 of the Program:

Overall, 33% 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% 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 four percent

About Internet Saathi: The Internet Saathi initiative is part of Google's Helping Women Get Online campaign which is designed to create awareness about the benefits of Internet among women in rural India. The program focuses on training women in rural India to explore the various uses of Internet, who then impart training to the larger rural community in their own and neighbouring villages. While Google provides internet enabled devices and training material, Tata Trusts with its vast network of NGO`s and federation across the country is helping in implementation and rolling out of the initiative. Internet Saathi is present across 12 states which include – Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Bihar and Haryana being the most recent.

About Google: Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.