Only 1 in 10 RTIs are filed by Women
With almost a decade since the RTI Act came into effect, less than 10% of the RTI applicants are women. Also, the ratio is abysmal in Northern Eastern states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, which, in total contribute less than 0.2% of total applications.
Data according to RTI application filed by OnlineRTI
An RTI application filed by OnlineRTI shows the data for RTIs filed in the country. State-wise, gender-wise total applicant details across the country are mentioned in the RTI reply. There has been almost 3-4 times increase in the total number of applicants ever since it started in 2012. Data for BPL applicants overs the years is also given.
The success of any law depends on efficient implementation which in turn on the awareness levels among citizens. The skewed gender ration of RTI applicants indicate that women are still not empowered and there's still a long way to go. At the same time, the total applications filed from all the eight north-eastern states are less than 0.2%, which indicate the need for more awareness about RTI in the region.