Google launches campaign to get 50 million women online by 2014 end

Google India has recently launched an initiative, “Helping women get online”, with the aim to empower women of the country and help them make their lives better.
 
The drive, launched this Tuesday, aims to help 50 million additional women get online by end of 2014 by undertaking a variety of initiatives across India.

The initiative will focus on creating awareness about the benefits of Internet for women and educate women to use the Internet to improve their lives. For this, Google will also work with a few partners to enable easy Internet access.

The Internet giant will promote its website www.hwgo.com dedicated to women and help them access special content that is relevant for women in India, available both in Hindi and English.

India is one of the few countries in the world where the online audience is very skewed towards the male population; only 30 per cent of the active Internet users are women. Studies have shown that if women were to get online, it would have a very positive impact on their lives, their status as well as the society, said the website of the Google initiative.
 
While most of the Internet fraternity has appreciated the effort by Google, a few users, however, believe it may not be an empowerment but a marketing move by Google in India.

What is abuzz on social media?

Sriram Sharma ‏@slashgod
Is it actually Helping Women Get Online? http://hwgo.com Nopes, its just a condescending guide on how to use it when you are.

Is it actually Helping Women Get Online? http://t.co/ORM4ieBKB0 Nopes, its just a condescending guide on how to use it when you are.

— Sriram Sharma (@slashgod) November 21, 2013

Super Nerd ‏@Raveoli
I honestly never thought there was such a wide gender gap in my country RT "@google: Helping Women Get Online:http://goo.gl/DlXx0D "

I honestly never thought there was such a wide gender gap in my country RT "@google: Helping Women Get Online:http://t.co/KaJzPD4A8S"

— Super Nerd (@Raveoli) November 22, 2013

Princess seth ‏@Princessseth1
Helping Women Get Online #hwgo I am very exited abt this as it will be very helpful for women who want to do somethng on their own.. :)

Helping Women Get Online #hwgo I am very exited abt this as it will be very helpful for women who want to do somethng on their own.. :)

— Princess seth (@Princessseth1) November 21, 2013

Henna Achhpal ‏@a_henna
Google has launched a "Helping Women Get Online" initiative. Condescending much? Reminds me of the special phone for senior citizens.

Google has launched a "Helping Women Get Online" initiative. Condescending much? Reminds me of the special phone for senior citizens.

— Henna Achhpal (@a_henna) November 21, 2013

Rajan Anandan ‏@RajanAnandan
Helping Women Get Online. Very excited about getting 50million more women in India online in 12 months!

Helping Women Get Online. Very excited about getting 50million more women in India online in 12 months! http://t.co/AuE5xsp7Ib

— Rajan Anandan (@RajanAnandan) November 21, 2013

Lily ‏@tetisheri 18h
Google is helping Indian women get online (on its own terms) with HUL, Axis bank and Intel.

Google is helping Indian women get online (on its own terms) with HUL, Axis bank and Intel. http://t.co/R8Sb2Bjrjv

— Lily (@tetisheri) November 20, 2013

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