21.25% women use internet, gender gap 39.54%: Survey

At a time when Bangladesh is moving towards full-fledged digitisation, only 28.06 per cent of people use internet with a gender gap of around 39.54 per cent, a survey has found.

According to the Time Use Survey (TUS) 2021 conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UN Women Bangladesh, 21.25 per cent of the internet users are women and 35.15 per cent are men.

Women also lag behind men in using mobile phones. Around 72.74 per cent of the survey respondents had mobile phones, including 59.92 per cent women and 86.1 per cent men.

Under the Making Every Woman and Girl Count Bangladesh programme, 8,000 people aged 15 and above were surveyed, including 49.12 per cent men and 50.88 per cent women.

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar told The Business Post the gender gap was a reflection of the social and economic structures prevailing in Bangladesh.

He said social attitude towards women was the main reason why they lagged behind.

“A family wants to take care of its female members after the needs of males are met. That is why women are not given electronic devices,” he said.

Jabbar said women were not economically empowered yet but the situation was improving, adding the gender gap in technology would be gone by 2041.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) says around 12.38 crore people use internet in the country. Considering the 39.54 per cent gender gap found in TUS 2021, 4.88 crore women and 7.5 crore men use internet.

The BTRC on its website defines internet subscribers as those who have accessed the internet at least once in the preceding 90 days while the TUS defines them as those using internet at least once every six hours.

Asked about initiatives to fill the gender gap in technology, Jabbar said the government could not force families to buy mobile phones for their female members.

“But it can create opportunities for all as well as make electronic devices and internet more available. It is doing that,” he said.

The minister further said the government had spread 4G services across the country and made devices affordable to bring everyone under the IT ecosystem.

“As part of the initiatives taken for women empowerment, we are emphasising digital technology as well as prioritising female entrepreneurs and facilitating them in every possible way.”

Meanwhile, the GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022 says Bangladesh has the highest gender gap in mobile internet usage among 10 low- and middle-income countries.

The report surveyed 11,000 people in the 10 countries – four in Africa, four in Asia, and two in Latin America.

It says only 19 per cent of women in Bangladesh use internet while men’s use of internet is 36 per cent, with the gender gap standing at 48 per cent.

The report also says 84 per cent of men and 65 per cent of women use mobile phones while the gender gap is 23 per cent.

The GSMA identified the top three barriers to mobile internet use among Bangladeshi women – literacy and digital skills, affordability, and safety and security.

Its Director General Mats Granryd said, “For decades, mobile internet has been transforming the lives of women across the globe, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”

“But the worrying statistics in our Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022 show that far more needs to be done to prevent women from being left behind in the digital economy.”