InfoLady- Empowering the communities through Women Infopreneurship.
January 11, 2022
Infolady is one of the biggest programs of Dnet. The notion of “Infolady” was developed from a desire to challenge the current quo and create a voice. People in Bangladesh’s rural areas, particularly women, have limited access to information. On the other hand, for various reasons, they aren’t even permitted to move around. InfoLady is a model of info-preneurship for women in rural areas who can create a multi-layer impact on the lives of marginalized people. In Bangla, we call this “Tathyakallani“. It is an initiation to bring change to society and the woman herself. The info lady who rides a bicycle and defies the established quo in a male-dominated world where riding a bicycle is seen as a man’s job. She chooses a vocation that requires her to use cutting-edge information technology such as a laptop, the internet, and a smartphone, among other things. She defies the prejudice that women are incapable of dealing with technology once more.
Infolady is a fantastic opportunity for women to be an entrepreneur. A woman must invest around 70,000 to 80,000 BDT, including training and equipment, to become an Infolady or mobile lady. They can earn between 5,000 to 20,000 BDT per month as an infoLady. On the other side, they may boost their income by providing exceptional services to the locals.
It’s a “women-for-women” family-based info-preneurship model in which they give vital services such as livelihood information and knowledge, international and local phone calls through instant messenger, photography, Internet-based information, video and animation, and so on. However, they are the most powerful figures in those villages. The locals are very grateful for the info ladies. They can get any information they require in their everyday lives since they have access to it.
Dnet has won several honors for its strong women’s program. The ‘Pallitathya Helpline,’ for example, won the Global Gender and ICT Award in 2005 for the concept of a Mobile Lady in the community, which allows rural women to submit agriculture, health, legal, and other livelihood queries to a ‘expert helpdesk’ by mobile phone. InfoLady, on the other hand, received the Manthan South Asia Award in 2011 in the “Agriculture & Livelihood” category, as well as the Global Development Awards in 2012, The Bobs Award in 2013, and several other accolades.