She holds the phone.
She holds the account.
She holds the decision.
Digi Sakhi trains women from Assam's tea garden communities to become their neighbours' guide into the digital world — for financial access, health entitlements, and safety online.
Digital access reached the household.
It never quite reached her.
In Assam's tea gardens, connectivity has grown — but usage hasn't followed women home. The barriers aren't about signal strength.
Someone else holds the login
Aadhaar, banking, and health IDs are almost always completed by a male household head — on her behalf, not with her.
Portals built for someone else
Financial and government platforms remain unfamiliar territory. Without guided, hands-on practice, that gap doesn't close on its own.
First online, first exposed
Cyber safety awareness is close to zero among first-time women users — just as fraud and scam risk starts to reach them.
Four levels. One journey.
Not four separate programmes.
A woman can't safely use a bank account (EL4) if she can't navigate a phone (EL1). Each level builds the ground the next one stands on.
Can she use a phone on her own?
Calling, browsing, apps, and OTP safety — the foundation every other level depends on, taught hands-on at Kendras and doorsteps in Sadri dialect.
"Can she use a phone and the internet independently?"Can she find what actually matters to her?
Health, nutrition, agriculture, and scheme information — sourced from trustworthy places, not whatever reaches her first.
"Can she find and understand information that matters to her life?"Can she go online without being exploited?
Recognising fraud and scams, protecting her privacy, and knowing exactly which Digi Sakhi to turn to if something goes wrong.
"Can she use digital tools without being exploited, defrauded, or harassed?"Can she claim what's already hers?
A bank account and UPI in her own name. Her ABHA health ID. Her welfare entitlements. Her SHG's digital market linkage — claimed directly, not through anyone else.
"Can she independently access the entitlements she is owed?"A woman fellow. A woman she trusts. That's the whole design.
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Digi Sakhi Fellows
An all-women cadre, recruited from these same tea garden communities — not outsiders, not intermediaries.
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Digital Kendras
Four women-first facilitation spaces, already equipped and operating, with defined privacy for sensitive conversations.
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Doorstep Facilitation
For women who can't travel — private, one-on-one, woman-to-woman, in the local Sadri dialect.
This isn't a proposal. It's already happening.
Across Kothalguri, Hoolunguri and Dahingeapar, Digi Sakhi fellows are already at work — sitting beside women at Digital Kendras and doorsteps, walking them through entitlements that used to mean a long trip, a translator, or a male relative filling the form for her.
From the Kendras and the doorsteps.
More photos from the field, added as Digi Sakhi grows.
She holds the phone. She holds the decision.
Digi Sakhi — a Council for Social & Digital Development initiative.