When Google learnt that of the estimated 200 million Internet users in India only a third were women, the online search giant decided to do something about it. It started the Helping Women Get Online Programme to provide women across the country basic lessons in using the web.
Rajasthan was the first stop, where training was imparted at centres where women typically gathered. In the villages of Bhilwara, the digital literacy pilot programme touched one lakh women including teenagers and students.
The response was good, but when it came to the interior rural areas where women were unable to congregate at training centres, a new strategy had to be worked out. Google had to take into account the substantive distances between villages, and online connectivity was very low or non-existent.
So what did it do? In Madhya Pradesh, it borrowed a leaf from the local vendor’s book and did exactly what the ice cream or vegetable seller does. With the help of the women’s collective Women Weave, it built an internet cart on the back of a tricycle, equipping it with internet-enabled devices, information on how to use the web and an operator who was experienced and keen to answer all questions.
The pilot project rolled out in and around Maheshwar, in Khargone district, where the community of women weavers was introduced to the worldwide web and ways to use it to their advantage. Around five internet carts were used initially, reaching out to around 200 women. “The women approached the internet with awe and wonder. Slowly they found out how useful it was. We found many of them using it to explore government schemes and programmes of use to them,” says Google’s Sandeep Menon.
He cites the example of Varsha, the daughter of a weaver. With the dream to become a fashion designer the young girl took to the internet instantly. She mastered the way to use it as a design referral, take the aspects she wanted and, with the help of her mother, create dresses for her portfolio.
The company is now ready to introduce at least 100 such carts across the country with village-level partners. For Google it is an exercise in increasing internet’s reach among the Indian population, but for the women of these villages it is a window to a new world.