According to a Google study, only 1 in 10 woman in rural India have access to smartphones and internet. Phones are only given to the male members of the family, depriving women of access to the digital medium.
Which is why Google started this initiative called Internet Saathi, running in remote villages in the country, enabling women to get online and helping them become digitally literate.
The Quint went over to meet these women in a remote village called Gokulpur in Kharapur, West Bengal, to see how the internet is reaching into those corners where even roads are hard to come by.
Most women that we spoke to have just enrolled in the program, so it has been hard to see a tangible impact of Google or the internet in their lives yet. Nevertheless, it’s a start, and it puts these women well on the way to digital literacy and the freedom that has the potential to provide.
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad
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