Mumbai: The ‘ Tai ’ — literally sister in Marathi, and a respectful way of addressing an older woman — that the women of Supane refer to with much affection is Asha Kamle, 39, a Google ‘Saathi’.
The Internet giant’s Internet Saathi programme, launched in July 2015, and operational in 60,000 villages in ten States in India, targets rural women, who have been generally left out of the uptake of smartphone usage in India, and aims to deliver digital education to them. In Maharashtra, the programme covers 5,300 vilages, and Ms. Kamle is one of the 1,400 Saathis in the State. What this means, simplistically, is that she was given a smartphone and trained on how to use it and how to train others; she then passes the lessons on to other women in the area. Since November 2016, she has taught 4,000 women.
What is encouraging about the programme is that the learners then teach others who haven’t attended sessions by the Saathis. Shibani Gosain, one of the Dharma-Life Enterpreneurs who are a partner in on-ground project implementation, says, “In the village, everyone know each other, especially the women. It’s a close-knit community. So information is shared very fast.” Google India aims to monitor digital learning more closely and, in the future, increase smartphone literacy to facilitate an increased variety of application for rural women.
Roots in the village
“If you ask to take a photograph, I will say yes, because I trust you,” Ms. Kamle says. “But until recently, most of us would say, ‘why are you taking my photograph? What will you do with it? Why should we trust you?’” She says that while the women she has taught are often the only ones in their families who know how to use handheld Internet technology, there is initial reluctance to learn. She says that she herself is an example of that. When she was approached to be a trainer, she declined. Her husband had recently passed away, and she was in no state, she says, to be able to do anything. She started the Saathi training two or three times, but never for more than a day, before she was convinced that the work she would do would help other women. “It took me two months to learn how to use mobile phones with Internet. I’m just starting to understand now and even now there is so much I don’t understand. I want to learn much more.”
Her training, and training others, has, to an extent, helped her deal with loneliness after her husband’s death. Her stature in the community has helped her with her work. “I am familiar with most families in Supane and in surrounding areas, and no man has come up to me and said his wife should not be allowed to learn.” All the same, she says, the technology isn’t as easy as it looks: “Our fingers do not go from down to up easily on the phone, to unlock it. I know it sounds silly, but it takes us three or four attempts. Even now, the finger swipe is not easy.”
Finding the connect
A typical class Asha Kamle conducts will involve her opening the browser on her phone and demonstrating, for example, how to search for chicken curry recipes videos on YouTube. The women she teaches enjoy learning about new recipes, and that helps them transition into believing that new learning is always possible. Another way to break through is to demonstrate how much of a role the Internet could play for their children, she says. “Many mothers ask me to download essays and short-form compositions onto my phone so their children can learn. Children all hate writing essays so much!”
The connect with children is also something she understands from experience. Her only daughter, Akshara, is 18, and is already very comfortable with smartphones, as younger people tend to be. When Akshara is away in Satara, where she is studying computer operations, Ms. Kamle says, her phone is a reassuring connection. “I would like to know who she is with, where, when she will return. It gives me peace of mind.”
Disclosure: The Hindu visited Supane on invitation from Google India, which also bore expenses for the trip.
