Founder’s Note
Women’s contributions to building holistic communities have long gone unrecognised. Often, the silent workforce, their commitment and labour remain overlooked. However, initiatives like Smartpur, a digital village ecosystem, are helping change that narrative by providing women a platform to harness their skills, become entrepreneurs, and lead their information centres.
One such story is of Ms. Sathya, a resident of MG Doddi, who visited the Cowdalli Smartpur Spoke Centre to apply for her voter ID. Expecting the service provider to be male, she was pleasantly surprised to find Perumal, a female SoochnaPreneur, managing the centre and delivering essential digital services to the community.
The spoke coordinator, a trained woman entrepreneur, now actively facilitates services in education, finance, livelihood, and governance. Sathya, who had previously struggled for months to obtain her voter ID, completed the process in under ten minutes.
Sharing her thoughts, Sathya said, “I had assumed the centre would be run by a man, and that my request would take hours. Instead, I was thrilled to see a woman from my neighbourhood in charge. This is a milestone for women in Cowdalli. It sets a powerful example for future generations to chase their ambitions, despite the odds of distance and limited access.”
This story powerfully affirms the often-unseen role of women in community development and demonstrates how digital inclusion through Smartpur is enabling them to rise as changemakers in even the most remote corners of India.
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