Google announces Internet education campaign for women in UP

Google on Wednesday announced the launch of a two-month Internet education campaign to make around 500,000 women and girls across Uttar Pradesh digitally literate.

The announcement in Lucknow marked the first regional chapter of Google's initiative to bring digital literacy amongst Indian women in presence of ‘Gulabi Gang’ leader Sampat Pal.

"The two-month Helping Women Get Online campaign in Uttar Pradesh aims to create awareness about the benefits of Internet for women and assist them to get online through basic knowledge on how to use the Internet," Google marketing director Sandeep Menon told reporters in Lucknow.

"We strongly believe that Internet can benefit and transform the lives of women in Uttar Pradesh and India.

“With the launch of HWGO we aim to help over 500,000

women and girls across Uttar Pradesh get digitally literate", he said.

The campaign was launched last year in November with the objective of empowering women with the help of technology following which regional chapter of this campaign was launched in Lucknow.

In the next two months Google will cover over 20 cities across the state and help women get online through road shows in residential areas and Internet training modules for girl students in educational institutes, he said.

As the national drive, Google has already launched a specially designed website www.hwgo.com which hosts content covering the very basics of Internet usage and curated content that is relevant for women in India.

The ‘Gulabi Gang’ is a women's movement formed in 2006 by Sampat Pal Devi in Banda District of Uttar Pradesh.