While India has the 2nd largest Internet user base in the world, only 30% of these users are women. With more men coming online than women, the online gender disparity will only increase. Google took it upon itself to build a gender ­neutral online space in India, which is currently very skewed towards men.

Google launched Helping Women Get Online, with the goal of bringing 50 million Indian women online.

Our campaign was spread across the Internet through digital awareness campaigns, on ground through activations and training seminars and on television for a mass awareness. We also partnered with influencers like Farhan Akhtar, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia for specific elements of the campaign.

There are no media regulations that affect women from using the Internet. However, due to the position of women in society, safety was a major concern. While men can visit cyber cafes and used shared devices, women don’t feel safe visiting these places. Furthermore, the internet is also considered inappropriate for women by a large section of the society.

It has also been seen that a number of women in India get their sense of fulfillment by making their family happier and by gaining respect and appreciation from their family members. Convincing them for a behavior change is not an easy task and one, which would require a very strong reason that directly impacts their family, or how their family feels about them.

By February 2015, we’d hosted training sessions for 1.5 million women across 5 states.

In the past year, for the first time in India’s history, more women have come online than men.

The overall campaign has communicated the benefits of getting online to over 40 million women across India. Over time, we hope to translate this knowledge to action, and ensure the number of women online in India is equal to or almost equal to the number of men online.

India as a society is one where the women are not exposed to basic information on life related issues such as health, child care, marriage, domestic life issues, etc. It is a closed society where people do not feel comfortable asking such questions either. Women not getting online is known to have the following impact ·

a) Lack of access to the Internet, or even lack of awareness about it, cuts women and girls off from increasing numbers of opportunities

b) Conservative gender roles become more entrenched due to lack of men’s and women’s exposure to other perspectives, either nationally or globally

With Helping Women Get Online, Google aimed to communicate the following -

a) Internet through the information, convenience and opportunities it provides can help empower women to lead better lives. It can also help them improve their day to day lives.

b) The impact of women getting online can be much larger than their personal benefit and can lead to better family lives, happier children as well as larger impact on the economy and society.

Statistics show that women getting online across countries - feel liberated, have a positive impact on the society and economy. A lot of women want to be online, have the need for the information which is available online but don’t have access to the same. If they get the access and knowledge to use the internet, it could greatly benefit them.

We identified three barriers preventing women from getting online - knowledge, access and awareness, and developed a 3 pronged strategy to address these challenges - inspire, engage, enable. We executed this approach across the internet, on ground and on television.

Online, we kicked off with hwgo.com, a website that acts as a gateway for first time internet users and features success stories of women who used the Internet to benefit their lives. On-ground, we conducted training workshops for women on how to use the internet. On Television, we launched the ‘Internet Moms’ campaign, focused on getting mothers online.

And to further engage our audience we collaborated with Farhan Akhtar and the MARD Foundation to create awareness through a music video. However inaccessibility to the internet remained an obstacle. So, we created an Internet Cart- which travels across villages with internet enabled devices to create an access point and to show women how to use the Internet. To incentivize use of the internet we launched India’s first ever Internet Sample Plan that gave women free internet access for a day.

The Internet can greatly empower women through the information, opportunities and the convenience the medium provides. The 'Intel Women and Web' study has shown that women using the Internet feel more liberated and equitable in the society. More women using the Internet is also known to have a positive impact on the society and economy of the country.

As the saying goes, “You teach a man you teach an individual, you teach a woman you teach a generation.” Keeping the above in mind this initiative helps bring to the forefront Google’s commitment towards tech for good.