SAP India partners Project Nanhi Kali to impart digital skills to 12,000 girls by Dec 2020

SAP India on Wednesday said it has partnered with Project Nanhi Kali to provide education and digital access to over 12,000 girls by December next year.

SAP India runs a programme called 'Code Unnati', which was launched in 2017 and has already provided employment-led digital literacy and software skills to one million adolescents in the country. It has set up about 500 centres to facilitate the initiative.

"Our collaboration with Nanhi Kali will help girl students to be digitally ready and empower them to bring about a positive change in the economy," SAP Labs India Senior Vice President and Managing Director Sindhu Gangadharan told reporters here.

She added that while women account for nearly half of India's population, only 25 per cent of the workforce is female.

Citing reports, Gangadharan said a 10 per cent rise in girls going to school can increase the national income (GDP) by three percentage points.

Project Nanhi Kali was founded in 1996 by Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra and has till date, supported over 3.75 lakh girls across India by providing them with academic and material support. It is jointly managed by K C Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation.

"To prepare for the wave of digital transformation that the country is currently experiencing, building digital skills is essential and Project Nanhi Kali already provides secondary school girls in the programme with access to digital tablets pre-loaded with educational content," V S Parthasarathy, Group CFO and Group CIO at Mahindra Group, said.

The partnership will cover Maharashtra (Mumbai), Gujarat (Bharuch), West Bengal (Darjeeling) as well as areas in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, reaching close to 12,000 girls in the age group of 5-15 years.