Reliance Jio and GSMA have announced nation-wide roll out of Digital Skills Program. This is a joint initiative under the broader GSMA Connected Women Commitment initiative that aims to provide need-based digital skills training to rural women and individuals.
This program is geared toward rural women and people from low-income families. Indian women use mobile internet 41% less than men, according to the GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022.
It said that Mobile internet access is unavailable to 248 million Indian men and 330 million Indian women. Illiteracy and digital incompetence frequently impede mobile internet access.
The GSMA and Jio teams assessed India’s digital literacy and developed tailored training toolkits. These toolkits were developed after extensive user testing and field research. Over 1,000 rural men and women in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu provided feedback to help improve the digital training toolkits during the pilot phase.
This program’s national rollout has now reached 10 states. Both Reliance Jio and Reliance Foundation will focus on scaling up the program over the next few months.
We are proud to announce the national roll-out of our Digital Skills Program, a joint initiative with @reliancejio under the broader GSMA Connected Women Commitment initiative, aiming to provide training to women from low- income groups.
Read more here 👉 https://t.co/YczIrzM169 pic.twitter.com/olE9qHCYPs
— GSMA (@GSMA) February 7, 2023
Regarding the announcement, 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. We are proud to partner with GSMA in this program to take digital skills training to the women across India and be the wind beneath their wings.
Commenting on the program, 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. But more needs to be done to ensure women are not being left behind in an increasingly connected world. We are excited to partner with Jio and Reliance Foundation to take the
Digital Skills Program national and help accelerate digital inclusion for women.