The number of women Internet users in India has gone up to 12.32 million in 2005-06, a four per cent increase over the previous fiscal, while there was a trend of men users logging off the Web as their percentage declined from 72 last fiscal to 68 in FY'06, according to a survey.
"The estimate for the male to female ratio in the next two years is that it will be closer to 60:40 ratio but will still result in the absolute numbers of men being higher than women," the Internet and Mobile Association of India survey said.
The survey indicated that the online population in the country was poised to grow to 100 million from the current 38.5 million users and the percentage of women users was likely to increase to 40 per cent in the next two years.
Fifty seven per cent of the women users logged on from home and 78 per cent had been using Internet for the last three years, it said.
The survey said 96 per cent of the women used internet for e-mailing, 44 per cent for chatting, 63 per cent for surfing, and 29 per cent for research.
Though only 15 per cent women used the net for activities related to matrimony, 36 per cent used it for getting astrological predictions.
Nine per cent women used the net for online stock trading, 12 per cent for online bill payments, 24 per cent for banking,22 per cent for online shopping and four per cent for donating for charity online, the survey conducted among 6365 respondents in December 2005, said.
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