Smita Kumari

Indian social entrepreneur empowering rural women through digital literacy

Smita Kumari is a visionary social entrepreneur from Bihar, India, best known for creating the Sahiyana Foundation in 2018. Her initiative has trained over 50,000 rural women in digital literacy and financial management, transforming their economic opportunities. Growing up in a village with limited access to education, Kumari recognized the potential of technology to bridge gender gaps in India's rural areas.

In 2020, she launched DigiLakshmi, a mobile app specifically designed for low-literacy users. The platform provides agricultural market prices, healthcare information, and financial literacy modules through simple voice commands. This innovation won the UN's SDG Innovation Award in 2021, with 120,000+ downloads within its first year.

Kumari's most impactful project is the Women Champions Network, a peer-to-peer learning platform connecting rural entrepreneurs. By 2023, this network had created 800+ women-led microenterprises in eastern India, generating $2.3M in annual revenue. Her approach emphasizes 'technology with humanity' - all programs include cultural sensitivity training for tech developers.

Her 2022 TED Talk How to Turn Tech Into a Tool for Gender Equality has over 2.1M views. Kumari's work directly contributed to Bihar's 2024 policy mandating digital literacy in all rural schools. She currently advises the Indian government's Digital India initiative and is developing AI tools to improve agricultural yields for smallholder women farmers.