Chhattisgarh biggest laggard in mobile ownership by women: NSO data

NSO data shows 92% women in Goa, Ladakh owned a phone, followed by Mizoram, Kerala

Chhattisgarh (39 per cent), Tripura (40.4 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (42.4 per cent) have emerged as laggards in terms of mobile phones owned by women, according to the latest ‘Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom’ (CMS:T) released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Thursday.

 

Data showed that mobile phone ownership among women in the ‘15 years and above’ age group in 10 states and Union Territories (UTs) stood below the national average of 56.2 per cent.

 

Meanwhile, nearly 92 per cent women in Goa and Ladakh owned a mobile phone, followed by Mizoram (88.5 per cent), Kerala (85 per cent) and Puducherry (83 per cent). 

 

The NSO survey defines mobile phone ownership as having a device with an active SIM card for personal use, including employer-provided phones and those not registered in the user’s name. 

 

While determining ownership, joint ownership of a single mobile phone is not considered. So, ownership is determined based on majority use.

 

Data further showed that in urban areas — nearly 72 per cent women owned mobile phones, while only 48 per cent owned one in rural areas. The corresponding figure for males stood at 90 per cent and 80.7 per cent, respectively.  

 

Among women who owned a mobile phone, 78.4 per cent had a smartphone at the national level with 91.1 per cent women in Delhi having a smartphone. 

 

This was followed by Goa (89.9 per cent), Mizoram (89 per cent), Manipur and Meghalaya (88 per cent). 

 

Smartphone ownership was lowest among women in Puducherry (62.8 per cent), followed by Tamil Nadu (70.8 per cent), Telangana (71.9 per cent), West Bengal (73.2 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (74.4 per cent).

 

In rural areas, smartphone ownership among those who had a mobile phone stood at 79.2 per cent for males and 75.6 per cent for females. In urban areas, the percentage was estimated at around 89.4 per cent and 86.2 per cent for males and females, respectively. 

 

In terms of mobile phone usage, nearly four of five women (79.8 per cent) reported using mobile phones during the last three months preceding the survey.

 

Women in as many as 25 states/UTs reported mobile phone usage higher than the national average.