On International Women’s Day, Salzburg Global Fellows taking part in the Japan-India Transformative Technology Network reveal their prototype for positive change
In 2021, smartphone shipments reached 173 million in India. However, one of the most striking aspects of this transition is the extent to which the digital divide imposes itself on women, particularly illiterate women who constitute a large section of the urban poor.
According to a 2020 report by the GSM Association, women in India are 28 percent less likely than men to own a mobile phone and 56 percent less likely than men to use mobile Internet. Women suffer the most from the lack of access to opportunities and awareness across sectors - be that in the fields of finance, healthcare, or skilling, among others.
Often monitored by the male family members, access to basic information for some women remains curtailed or made available only through informal networks. Not having access to proof of identity, technology or information adversely affects the chances of women availing government schemes or public facilities, such as housing, healthcare, finance, and livelihood opportunities. In these situations, the benefits that mobile technology can provide are not accessible beyond answering calls.
India lacks a dedicated platform that caters specifically to an audience that cannot read or write, but can access a mobile phone.
Our group of Salzburg Global Fellows, featuring Aparna Singh, Aishwarya Panicker, Aishwarya Raman, and Mohit Challa, is working toward bridging this divide. Our product, Suno Sunao, now in the prototyping stage, focuses on the opportunity of bridging this digital information and education gap to encourage the social and financial mobility for underserved women in urban areas.
An AI-enabled tool, Suno Sunao, will focus on increasing information flow through video outputs in local vernaculars. Our project is one of four to have received an award from Salzburg Global Seminar and The Nippon Foundation, worth USD $20,000.
Keep following this space to know more about how Suno Sunao aims to create an enabling environment for women.
If you are interested to know more or engage with the team, please email sunosunao.salzburgglobal@gmail.com.
