COVID-19 has overwhelmed national health systems around the world derailing health agendas that were just as important. In India, the digital access gap remains large, and many women, especially those living in rural villages, lack fundamental access to technology and thus miss out on opportunities enabled by such digital access.
Before the pandemic, some efforts to encourage digital adoption among Indian women were spearheaded by the private sector. One such programme is the Internet Saathi, which is Google’s 2015 bottom-up initiative in partnership with Intel and TATA Trusts to bridge gender divide in technology access by educating women and empowering them to take charge of their lives.
Employing a 'train-the-trainer' model, Google groomed female volunteers to become ‘Internet Saathis’. These Internet Saathis were often trusted locals and networked with other women to educate them with the objective of improving their digital literacy, particularly on the Internet’s benefits and the opportunities it enables. The second phase of the initiative empowered women to consider entrepreneurship and livelihoods enabled by technology. TED Fellow Sanjukta Basu observed the extensive benefit of introducing the Internet to more than 28 million women in nearly 289 thousand villages by over 81 thousand Internet Saathis. Internet Saathi is successful in enhancing women’s lives - they are empowered to pursue their passion and are empowered to do so with their newfound knowledge gained through the Internet. Capitalising on their learning from the Internet, some women embarked on their entrepreneurship journeys by starting microbusinesses. Some women found trendy designs online and adapted them into the wares they sell. These improved products usually fetch better prices, thereby boosting their net profits and enabling a better quality of life. The uplift in their earning capabilities increases their financial independence.
The COVID-19 pandemic presents new challenges
The global gender digital access divide has been exacerbated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic since many governments around the world in a bid to achieve virus containment.
In a report in the World Economic Forum, Ayumi Moore Aoki, Founder and CEO, Women in Technology noted, “Globally, men are 21 per cent more likely to have access to the internet than women. In the world’s least developed countries, this likelihood rises to 52 per cent.”
To compound the issue, the pandemic has impacted work opportunities available to women, as its devastating economic impact ravages industries particularly for women. According to the findings of the "COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects" report, the analysis shows that female jobs are 19 per cent more at risk than male ones simply because women are disproportionately represented in sectors negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Findings estimate that 4.5 per cent of women’s employment is at risk in the pandemic globally, compared with 3.8 per cent of men’s employment, just given the industries that men and women participate in. Lockdown measures led to a rise in the need for digitising businesses. This affected the job market and the availability of jobs that carried more focus on candidates with available digital access and experience.
On the other hand, a second issue the New COVID-19 Normal caused was a lack of social interaction that affected the administration of aid programmes. Movement restrictions presented challenges towards technologising the infrastructural changes to support networks when there were disruptions.
Building equality means understanding community
Programmes like the Internet Saathi can also provide policymakers and stakeholders valuable lessons.
The Internet Saathi has more than 81,500 Internet Saathis who helped over 28 million women learn about the Internet across 289,000 villages since April 2019. And these findings can certainly demonstrate its significance in bridging the gap for India. By reviewing the interaction between volunteers and beneficiaries, policy diffusion of the ‘train-the-trainer’ model and mechanics has allowed an exchange that far outweighs the outcomes because it also helps deepen understanding and engagement as well as broaden perspective especially vital during a crisis situation.
Moreover, the Internet Saathi programme readily demonstrates the benefits of encouraging female entrepreneurship via trusted locals which provide women better opportunities and this may promote financial independence which is an initial step towards equalityconcluded that gender-diverse work environments increase productivity, and women leaders in senior management tend to make wiser decisions that contribute to long-term company development. An important next step will be to advance corporate leadership via more investments to increase digital access for women so that they can move towards boosting their skillset in the finance and technology sectors. For this to materialise, business management and corporate leadership skills are important Through education initiatives for female students, these can also seed the necessary push towards building new opportunities for job placement and better economic outcomes in the future.
Policy action through outcomes and research evidence
The real need now lies in how to review aid programmes to ensure robustness and continuity during extraordinary times. The emphasis in implementing policy action based on real-time experience and outcomes to address societal issues can greatly boost aid programmes such as the Internet Saathi because of a deeper viewpoint on how to help mitigate issues.
Such schemes may also be more robust when implemented intra-village or intra-town in partnership with local non-governmental organisations, or as a ground-up initiative, solely operated by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working at the grassroots level. For instance, recruiting community advocates who can greatly improve the result of policy outcomes because beneficiaries already recognise their connection to the community experiences within. This can deepen engagement, efficacy and acceptance on the required policy changes in rural areas.
Piloting policy schemes that closely follow the cause and effect paradigm can better address real concerns as well. For example, with the temporary closure of schools and childcare facilities, women were more likely to shoulder the caregiving responsibilities at home. But if policy initiatives can show how more financial assistance and support for childcare and family-oriented work policies help raise household income ceilings for the better, it can also provide a more compelling argument towards regulatory reforms thereby transforming the gender-based discrimination and culture.
This entry received 3rd prize in an op-ed competition by Bridging GAP (Gender and Policy), a student group at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy which aims to enhance awareness of the importance of gender among public policy students.