Reliance Jio and GSMA announced the roll-out of their Digital Skills Program, a joint initiative under the GSMA Connected Women Commitment initiative.
The program aims to provide need-based training to rural women and individuals from marginalized / low-income groups to help them make meaningful use of digital access.
As per the GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022, women in India are 41 percent less likely than men to use mobile internet. A total of 330 million women in India still do not use mobile internet, compared to 248 million men. Lack of literacy and digital skills is one of the top reported barriers to mobile internet use.
GSMA and Jio worked together to assess prevalent digital skill gaps and develop need-based digital skills training toolkits that are India-specific. The toolkits were designed post field research and user feedback. Over 1,000 rural women and men from Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu participated and provided inputs for the refinement of the digital training toolkits during the trial phase.
The national roll-out phase is now underway, with the program being rolled out across 10 states with a focus on reaching women and marginalized groups. Reliance Foundation will be supporting the rollout through its large network and self-help groups, particularly in rural areas.
Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio, said: “Mobile technology has the power to empower women, making them feel more connected, independent, and secure, and providing them with access to important information that helps them in their daily lives.”
Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA, said” “Mobile technology has the potential to positively contribute to protecting women’s human rights and to strengthen their economic, social, and political empowerment and development.”
