Social Norms
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Social Norms
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Helping Women Get Online (HWGO) Project

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"[D]igitally literate women can bring about a lot of change in culture, thinking and social welfare."

Through collaboration between Google and the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), amongst other partners (see below),  with training through Community Information Resource Center (CIRC) of women, adolescent girls, and "dropout" girls across India, Helping Women Go Online (HWGO) aims to:

  • create awareness about the benefits of Internet for women;
  • educate women to use the internet to improve their lives and encourage women in the country to use the online medium more effectively; and
  • work with partners to enable easy internet access points for women in the country.

Communication Strategies

The HWGO website is linked to a video channel on YouTube, which also carries instructional content (see Related Summaries below, as well as the video sample). The first step after the development of the website was a mass media campaign focused on women to promote the specially designed website, hosting "content covering the very basics of Internet and special content that is relevant for women in India, available both in Hindi and English." According to Google India, "women can also call a toll free helpline number 1800 41 999 77 to get answers for any queries that they may have about the Internet."

 

The next step has involved a pilot training programme in the villages of Bhilwara in Rajasthan, which covered girl students in the age group of 13 to 18, housewives, and working women. "Basic Internet training content was created in Hindi to help the women understand how they can use the Internet in their day to day lives... Women were trained on basic Internet applications such as search, videos and email. Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras which are government run Internet centers across Bhilwara were used for the purpose."

 

Research is planned to track the impact of the initiative on women in India.

 

Here is an example of an instruction video available on the website and video channel:

Development Issues

Women, Gender, New Technologies

Key Points

The initiative aims to help 50 million women get online by the end of 2014. The initiative was piloted in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, with a training of 100,000 women across two and a half months covering over 300 educational institutes, 500 households, 50+ villages, as well as the town of Bhilwara.

Partners

Google India, DEF, Community Information Resource Center (CIRC), Intel, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Axis Bank, IMRB (formerly "Indian Market Research Bureau"), (for website content: Johnson & Johnson, Indiatimes.com, Healthkart.com, and Babyoye.com)

Sources

dna website of Diligent Media Corporation, August 29 2014, and email from DEF to The Communication Initiative on August 29 2014.