Recently, Google announced several programs, including a grant worth $25 million for social enterprises and non-profit organizations, that aim to empower women and girls.
The new Impact Challenge of Google.org started at International Women’s Day. Its main agenda is to address the inequality issues. This will give women financial independence and economic equality, stated Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai.
The President of Google, Jacquelline Fuller, stated, “We will help the teams do whatever they want to and follow their vision.” According to the company, it will accept worldwide applications, until April 9.
Around five years ago, Google announced a program, known as “Internet Saathi”. Its main agenda was to provide internet in the rural areas of India. The company stated that this program helped to improve women’s internet participation in India. Recently, Google also pulled India’s Paytm app from the Play Store for its policy violations (https://rushhourdaily.com/google-pulls-indias-paytm-app-from-play-store-for-its-policy-violations/). This shows that the tech giant has been quite active in India in the past too.
Due to the “Internet Sathi” program, 4 out of 10 internet users in rural India are now women. Moreover, the program benefited around 30 million women in India. Sanjay Gupta, the head of Google India, stated, “The program created an overall cascading effect.”
Sapna Chadha, the Marketing Director for Google in India, stated, “Just getting women and girls online isn’t that much of a progress. Moreover, we think that women in India have been held back from economic participation.”
The tech giant has partnered with Nasscom Foundation to start a program, known as “Women Will”. It supports around 1 million women entrepreneurs. In this program, Chadha introduced a repository website (https://womenwill.google/intl/en_in/india/skilling/). It also includes business ideas, tutorials, and other opportunities in the Hindi and English languages.
Smrithl Irani, the Minister of Women and Child Development, stated in an event, “I invite all of you to come together and make a future which we all are proud of. I want to see a future where no woman is trapped by the barriers of gender.”
