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“My graduation degree is just a piece of paper in the old cupboard” marks the 28-year-old Gudia, wife of an auto-driver from the Rodiya village in the Sadar district of Jharkhand. “No one knows or correctly put, no one is interested to know that I am a graduate. ”Most of the women in her village, are dependents on their husbands or fathers’ income. “INR 6000 for a family of 5 has been increasingly difficult” complains Gudia on the income her husband brings in home.
Demands pertaining to strict finances, Gudia joined the digital empowerment training enabled by ANUDIP together with Reliance Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) which aims to bridge the gender digital divide by creating economic opportunities for resource-limited rural women. Anu“For
the first time in 10 years, my husband thought I am capable to grab this training since I am educated” grins the new trainee. The technology training on the use of mobile phones, internet-based applications, access to health and welfare schemes online, and government-assured e-benefits were part of the course-ware. Responding to the training, the “quick-to-pick-up” Gudia, created her health ID card for herself. Pointing to the need benefits my co-villagers could avail, “I earned 500 rupees by opening 50 health IDs in my village”. In months, Gudia was known to help her fellow-villagers in creating not just health benefit cards but became an expert to online train-booking, mobile-recharges, and adhaar ID correction.
“INR 4000 a month – is not just my income today but an acceptance from my community that I earn equal to my husband.” Gudia is one among the 80,000, that the women’s connect challenge has shaped up augmenting the capacity of such crisis-stricken and neo-literate women in digital and entrepreneurial skills to ensure financial inclusion and economic independence.
