PTA says women in rural and urban areas make 5% more voice or video calls on Skype than men

In its annual report, PTA said that due to low literacy rates, women prefer to use internet platforms that provide voice and video services to others.

He said that gender discrimination is still high in Pakistan, only 37% of women in the country have access to mobile phones. Only 22% of users in the country use social networking sites.

In addition, the most visited local sites in the country are Daraz, OLX, Urdu Point and Dawn. But gender inequality remains high in the country, with women accounting for only 22% of the 46 million social media users, compared to 78% for men.

PTA said that women in Pakistan who are aware of the effective benefits of internet are unable to use it due to lack of education, inadequate computer skills, lack of purchasing power and financial dependence on family members.

The report says that due to local socio-cultural traditions, women's families do not allow access to the Internet for a variety of reasons, including security.

Referring to the GSMA Intelligence Consumer Survey 2017-2019 that included 12 countries, PTA said that the rate of mobile internet awareness in Pakistan is increasing rapidly and that includes women.

The GSMA report states that between 2017 and 2019, gender discrimination in Internet awareness decreased from 16% to 11%.

The PTA said that the rate of mobile subscription among women has been 21% of the total in previous years.

However, the company said many women use mobile connections issued in the name of male relatives.

In the financial year 2020-2020, there were 182 million mobile connections across Pakistan. Of these, only 38 million women have ID cards. The other 144 million are active on behalf of men.

According to the report, 37% of women in the country have access to mobile phones while 130% of men are using mobile phones. This means that the majority of male mobile users in the country are using multiple SIM connections on their identity cards.

Similarly, 50% of women in Pakistan own a mobile phone while 81% of men own a mobile phone.

The difference of mobile ownership between women and men is more in rural areas than in urban areas.

In Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, women's mobile phone ownership is almost the same, with rates ranging from 23% to 29%, compared to 15% in Balochistan.

The PTA also pointed out the world's widest gender gap in South Asia, where only 18% of women use mobile internet.

Meanwhile, on International Women's Day, Jazz has decided to work to increase the proportion of female mobile broadband users to 8% by 2023.

Jazz CEO Amir Ibrahim said in a tweet that the company is working to remove the basic barriers for women to have a Smartphone. In this regard, the company will collaborate with Meta, the central organization of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. to secure cyberspace.