Google and Tata Trusts expand Internet Saathi Program to Create Opportunities for Women

Building on its mission to improve  digital literacy amongst women in rural India, Google India and Tata Trusts  announced the extension of the Internet Saathi program, to support the Foundation For Rural Entrepreneurship Development (FREND) set up by Tata Trusts .

Under this initiative, Google will jointly work with the new foundation, to create digitally enabled livelihood opportunities for the Internet Saathis. FREND, will become a vehicle for other like minded companies and institutions to utilise the Internet Saathi network and enable dissemination of information and services in the rural areas thereby creating newer avenues of income for these women in rural India. This will be in addition to imparting digital literacy to millions of rural women under the ongoing Internet Saathi program.

Speaking at the launch of this new initiative, Sapna Chadha, Marketing Head, SEA & India, Google said, “In spite of the socio-economic challenges, thousands of Internet Saathis have gone on to do amazing things, once they learnt the Internet. It was this winning spirit that inspired us to create a new sustainable framework with Tata Trusts, that aims to deliver employment opportunities to Internet Saathis.”

Raman Kalyanakrishnan, Head – Strategy, Tata Trusts,  said, “For several years now, livelihood generation has been a core area for the Trusts. Given the progressive penetration of Internet Saathi program, it was only natural for us to bring income generating opportunities to these women so that they become self-dependant and further encourage women in their communities to emulate them. We are happy that several organizations have already tested the strength of this platform. We are confident that with Google we are establishing a very large entrepreneurship movement in rural India.”

Over 12,000 Internet Saathis across India have voluntarily signed up to take up projects in their villages as part of this next phase of Internet Saathi program. Along with Tata Trusts we have already conducted successful pilots with organisations such as Tata Water Mission, Haqdarshak, Kantar and Nielsen with encouraging outcomes.