Digital Empowerment Foundation is the recipient of the 2021 Justice Sunanda Bhandare Award for its crucial role in helping to bridge India’s digital gender gap at a time when the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made online learning and access to digital information a necessity in a country where only one in four citizens has access to a digital device.
Babita Saini, from village Biwan in district Nuh, Haryana, is the recipient of the 2021 Justice Sunanda Bhandare Award for her perseverance in asserting her right to continue her education beyond the 10th standard in a district classified as one of India’s most backward areas, with a literacy rate of just 56.1%. Babita Saini is both the first woman graduate in her village and the first woman to be formally employed.
