ECP Launches Report On 'gender Gap In Electoral Rolls'

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Jun, 2021 ) :Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday launched a report on 'pilot survey on the gender gap in electoral rolls'.

Sharing details of the report in a media briefing, ECP Additional Director General, Gender Affairs, Nighat Siddique informed that the commission has been making concerted efforts since 2017 to eliminate the gender gap on electoral rolls.

She said the latest electoral rolls revision (December 2019 to October 2020) shows the difference between male and female registered voters as 12.41 million.

She said the net increase from July 2018 to October 2020 shows the addition of 97,93,344 registered voters in the electoral rolls out of which 50.41% female registration and 49.58% male registration, highlighting a net increase of 34,244 women registered more than men.

She said efforts are continued to decrease the gap further and in order to take special measures, on the direction of the chief election commissioner in 2020, the ECP has initiated a pilot project that aimed to identify the reasons of low female national identity card (NIC) or voter registration.

She said the key findings of the pilot project that the major hurdles in the way of obtaining women's NIC registration included access to National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA)'s offices, financial constraints, lack of awareness about the importance of NIC and voter registration, and socio-culture constraints.

She said building on these findings, ECP has devised a strategy to eliminate the gender gap on a permanent basis, orchestrating government and non-governmental organizations' joint efforts including NADRA, line departments, political parties, civil society organizations, and the development partners.

She said the pilot project was conducted in 20 districts across the country, covering 21 tehsils, and 230 census blocks.

She added a comprehensive training of all relevant regional election commissioners, district election commissioners, registration officers, and data entry operators from each district was conducted.

She said a set of data collection instruments and recording and reporting formats were developed to ensure standardized data collection and analysis.

She added a total of 32,970 households were covered and 133,367 individuals of age 18 years and above were visited door to door survey.

Nighat Siddique said 81% of the persons aged 18 or more (108,218) had valid NICs while 19% (25,149) did not have a NIC.

She said based on the findings, a comprehensive report was prepared, documenting the methodology and findings, recommendations, and the way forward.

She said based on the findings of the pilot project a set of recommendations was developed to refine the women's NIC and voter registration strategy.

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