58 percent of women in the village do not have their own mobile phone. Urban women are slightly ahead in this regard. Their number is 43 percent. However, the men are quite ahead. The proportion of men without mobile phones is 18 percent in urban areas and 22 percent in rural areas.
Such information is found in the report of the research organization South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). The report was presented at a webinar jointly organized by Sanem and Bangladesh Mahila Parishad on Tuesday. The main theme was 'Analysis and Evaluation of Gender Sensitive Budget in Bangladesh'.
According to the report, 96 percent of women in Bangladesh have never used a computer. Although urban women are a little ahead in this regard, the situation is not so good. Only 13 percent of them use computers. These women who took part in the survey are young in age.
The report says that the rate of internet use among women is also very low. Eighty-five percent of women in the country have never used the Internet. If we talk only about rural women, the quantity is 87 percent. And for urban women it is 77 percent, although the statistics only talk about young women.
However, according to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), at the end of last July, the total number of mobile internet users in the country, including men and women, is 11 crore 36 lakh 90 thousand. Similarly, the number of broadband subscribers in the country is a little over 1 crore.
The webinar was chaired by Fauzia Moslem, President of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad and conducted by Ishrat Sharmin, Senior Research Fellow of Sanem. Sanem Executive Director Selim Raihan gave the welcome speech. Saima Haque Bidisha, Ishrat Sharmin, Omar Rad Chowdhury, Syeda Tasfia Tasnim, Shafa Tasnim, Halima Binte Islam and Naeem Rahman Khan were in the research team.