1/3rd of passport holders are now women

Chethan Kumar / TNN / Updated: Feb 10, 2024, 01:36 IST

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At least 1/3rd of India's passport holders are women, with the gap more skewed in states like Bihar (10%) and UP (19.6%) while it's more than the national average in 23 states, including Karnataka, Maharashtra and the North-East. As per MEA data, the total number of passports currently valid in India is 9.2 crore, accounting for only 6.5% of the population.

At least a third of India's passport holders are women, with the gap more skewed in states like Bihar (10%) and UP (19.6%) while it's more than the national average in 23 states, including Karnataka, Maharashtra and the North-East. With more than 1.3 crore passports issued between Jan and Dec, annual issuance in 2023 has breached the pre-Covid mark in 2019 (1.1 crore).As per MEA data, the total number of passports currently valid in India is 9.2 crore, accounting for only 6.5% of the population. While the 9.2 crore passports include those issued by Indian missions abroad, gender-wise break-up for more than 8.8 crore passport-holders spread across 37 states and UTs shows that more than 3 crore (34.9%) are women.

About the Author

Chethan Kumar

As a young democracy grows out of adolescence, its rolling out reels and reels of tales. If the first post office or a telephone connection paints one colour, the Stamp of a stock market scam or the ‘Jewel Thieves’ scandal paint yet another colour. If failure of a sounding rocket was a stepping stone, sending 104 satellites in one go was a podium. If farmer suicides are a bad climax, growing number of Unicorns are a grand entry. Chethan Kumar, Senior Assistant Editor, The Times of India, who alternates between the mundane goings-on of the hoi polloi and the wonder-filled worlds of scientists and scamsters, politicians and Jawans, feels: There’s always a story, one just has to find it.

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