Less Than Half of Women in Rural Punjab Have ID Cards: Survey

A recent survey report has revealed that 46 percent of women in rural areas of Punjab don’t have Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs).

This revelation was made when Punjab Commission on Status of Women released its survey report.

The report revealed that only 56% of women of Punjab’s rural areas had their CNICs made while many of the other young women didn’t even know about it.

The report observed that compared to rural areas, 64 percent of urban women aged 18 years and above had CNICs.

However, the overall data showed that the number of CNICs issued to women in Punjab (41%) was much lower compared to men (59%).

The survey report also maintained that the participation of young women in General Elections 2018 (69%) was more than twice as much as the General Elections in 2013 (32 percent).

The data revealed that only 39 percent of women in rural Punjab know about various political parties and a mere 1.9 percent of them are politically active.

Another section of the report noted that 62 percent of young women use cell phones in Punjab – compared to 71% in the urban population.

It said that just 34 percent of women have computer literacy, while only 21 percent have access to the internet. Out of these, only 82 percent are active social media users.