Deadline: 23-Jul-2025
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has launched a multi-year program called ‘Digital Girls Hub (DGH)’ to tackle various challenges faced by young women, especially in rural areas. The program brings together appropriate solutions on a single digital platform.
DGH focuses on skilling, employment, and social upliftment of young women aged 18 to 29 in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Odisha. Over the next five years, the program aims to benefit more than a million young women from these regions.
The initiative aims to provide last-mile digital access, including hardware and internet, to rural girls through India’s network of Common Service Centre Academies (CSC) and community partners such as NGOs, colleges, ITIs, polytechnics, registration drives, and local recruitment partners. It ensures completion of digital and employability training, helps girls obtain personal Yojana (Scheme) Cards, open bank accounts, and receive social protection coverage like insurance and Health ID Cards under government flagship schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). The program builds awareness about government schemes, incentivizes NGOs to screen girls for eligibility, and offers full support for documentation, registration, banking, and health ID processes.
DGH also supports girls’ transition into jobs and employment, focusing on sectors like IT, retail, banking, and e-commerce. It provides handholding support for completing digital courses, accessing apprenticeships, jobs, and entrepreneurship opportunities.
The program integrates learnings, tools, and dashboards within state government systems to improve girls’ access to PMJDY schemes. It also plans to create a cadre of over 200 trained women field agents, known as Computer Didis, who will raise awareness, digitally screen candidates, and facilitate door-to-door access to government schemes related to education and livelihoods. Applicants can choose to work in one, two, or all three states.
The sectors and areas of specialization include livelihoods and technical and vocational education and training.
The expected results include mobilizing at least 5,000 young women aged 18 to 29 on the YuWaah digital platform for profiling and skilling. Partners may also mobilize female candidates from colleges, skill training centers, and academies, provided candidates have completed a six-month cooling-off period after any previous placement-linked programs and are not currently enrolled in other placement-linked programs.
All 5,000 participants must complete at least one self-paced, 10-hour online employability course via YuWaah-UNICEF. The program aims to place all 5,000 young women in jobs or paid apprenticeships/internships. Candidates can be graduates, pursuing graduation, or 10th/12th pass, as long as they meet the age criteria. A maximum of 25% may be placed in paid internships or apprenticeships.
All beneficiaries must be female residents of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, or Odisha between 18 and 29 years old. The program also requires that all trained candidates be linked to at least three social protection services such as Aadhar updates, bank accounts, and Health Cards (ABHA). All targets must be achieved by December 31, 2025.
Organizations applying should specify preferred districts for planning and resource allocation, especially if multiple partners are selected. Placement targets proposed by organizations can range from 2,000 to 5,000.
The geographic focus is India, specifically the states of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Odisha.
For more information, visit UN Partner Portal.
