Of 23 lakh RTI pleas over 33 months, less than 18% by women, 2,200 by third gender

Of the 23 lakh applications filed under the Right to Information Act between January 2021 and September this year, only four lakh were by women, and around 2,200 by the third gender.

The Department of Personnel and Training issued this data for the 33-month period in response to an RTI plea by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra, who said the figures point to the “need to create awareness among women and the third gender about their right to information”.

The department stated that men filed 19,05543 RTI requests during this period, while women filed 4,09,233 applications, 2,225 pleas were filed by the third gender, and 485 applications did not specify gender. 

Women filed over 1,19,000 applications in 2021, and over 1,37,000 in 2022. In the current year, women had filed over 1,56,000 applications till October 17. 

The online portal to file RTI applications mandates the applicant to specify their gender. 

The most number of applications were filed in January this year – a total of over 1.20 lakh requests.   

In 2021, the government received over 7,39,000 applications –  highest in September, with over 97,000 pleas. The RTI portal received over 8,14,000 applications in 2022, and the highest number of requests came in July, with over 98,000 applications. 

Meanwhile, till October 17 this year, nearly 8 lakh applications were already received by the government.