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Google, Tata to empower rural women

Launches ‘Internet Saathi’ to teach usage and benefits of net

Mumbai: Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s digital India campaign, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Trust on Friday said that a digitally connected India would bring tremendous power in the hands of citizens by connecting them to the rest of the world. On Friday, Google India and Tata Trust joined hands to launch a special programme called ‘Internet Saathi’ to empower women and their communities in rural India by enabling them to use the internet and benefit from it in their daily lives.

The initiative, which is another step towards the digital India vision of the country will provide basic training on the usage and benefits of internet by women through specially designed internet cycle carts that will visit villages to provide easy access to women.“Internet will help educate India, will give access to livelihood to many women who do not have a formal livelihood, help reach out commerce to far parts of India,” said Mr Tata.

The initiative will kick off from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand and will be rolled out across the country eventually reaching out to over 4,500 villages and five lakh women and rural communities across rural India over the next eighteen months. The internet cart would be available in the village for a minimum of two days every week for over a period of four to six months.

It will create awareness and also try to ensure that adequate training is provided to use the devices till women are confident of using the devices independently.“While women are making rapid progress on adoption of internet in urban areas, women in rural India are getting left behind,” pointed out Rajan Anandan, VP and MD of Google South East Asia and India. The female internet users have grown by just 27 per cent, according to Google.

( Source : deccan chronicle )
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