Internet Saathi Cycles, Tata and Google’s Joint Initiative for Women Empowerment

Google India collaborated with Tata Trusts to take a step forward for women empowerment in India. On July 3, 2015, they announced an initiative called ‘Internet Saathi’ to send 1,000 special 'Internet Cycle Carts' to remote areas of the country and were finally unveiled on 25th August. The launch was attended by Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata and Google India and southeast Asia vice president Rajan Anandan.

The carts are built on the back of regular bicycles designed to carry everything from ice-creams to industrial goods which will help empower the women in rural communities. The Internet Saathi initiative will be flagged off from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand and in the next 18 months, will move out to other parts of the country reaching 50 million women from 4,500 villages. 

The Cycle Cart would be available in a village for at least two days in a week for four to six months, providing required training to the women before moving on to the next place. Tata Trusts will be managing its roll-out while Google India will invest in providing the internet enabled carts and training content, bringing India closer to the Digital Vision. On August 24, Google India tweeted that the first set of Internet Cycles will reach Dausa, Rajasthan today. Stay tuned for more from the #InternetSaathi program.

During the launch, Mr. Anandan said, "While women are making rapid progress on adoption of internet in urban areas, women in rural India are getting left behind. Today only 12 percent of internet users in rural India are women." Addressing the audience further, he added, "We need to come together to address this challenge and empower women in rural India through training and programmes that can truly transform their lives."

Tata Trusts executive trustee R. Venkataramanan said: "Internet connectivity has become a fundamental need in any society and improves literacy and access to information that is instrumental for socio-economic development. Through this joint initiative with Google, we will reach out to the rural communities, especially women in our country and we are confident that it will contribute towards their empowerment and also self-sustenance.”