Google, Tata Push Internet Boom in Rural India

As WSJ reports, "The Alphabet Inc. unit has built an army of thousands of female trainers and sent them to the far corners of the Subcontinent on two-wheelers, hoping to give rural woman their first taste of the web. Each bike has a box full of connected smartphones and tablets for women to try and train on."

Instructors are trained in how the web works, and are then given bicycles with large boxes on the back containing internet-enabled devices running Google’s Android mobile operating system. The newly equipped “saathis” — or “partners” in Hindi — then cycle from village to village providing instruction to their peers.

Google India tweets that since its launch in the past year, 9000 trainers have reached about a million women.

Delivering a brighter future for women by helping them get online. #InternetSaathi #GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/eRsqojZcmO

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) September 27, 2016

"The women in Bengal's villages are very simple. We tell them about new designs of pottery and craft and they listen with amusement, if Google manages to teach them the use of Internet they can themselves learn, adapt and grow. The work of NGOs will be much lesser then,” Payal R. Nath, a social activist working in the villages near Sunderbans, tells SheThePeople.TV.

Women are often barred from formal education, let alone web technology from their families living in rural India. Hence, it will be worth watching the results that Google and Tata get with this venture.