The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and Federal Minister Shaza Khawaja attended a connectivity project celebration organised by the Universal Service Fund in Jhuggiwala, a village near Muzaffargarh, marking the completion of a digital skills training initiative that provided free training to 209 women in digital literacy and online tools.
The event celebrated the continued narrowing of Pakistan’s digital divide, with particular emphasis on the internet gender gap, which officials noted has reached a record low of 25 percent. The figure reflects sustained progress on one of the more persistent structural challenges in Pakistan’s digital inclusion agenda, where women in rural and semi-urban areas have historically had significantly lower access to internet connectivity and digital skills training compared to men, limiting their participation in online commerce, remote work, education, and digital financial services.
The centrepiece of the initiative is a renovated facility at the Government Girls High School in Jhuggiwala, which has been transformed into a fully equipped Digital Community Centre for Women through a collaborative multi-stakeholder ecosystem bringing together government, telecom infrastructure, and local education resources. The centre is equipped with 10 high-specification computers and high-speed fibre broadband connectivity, paired with localised training content designed to make digital skills education accessible and relevant to the specific needs of women in the surrounding community. By leveraging existing Universal Service Fund infrastructure nodes already deployed in the area, the model has been able to reduce market connectivity costs by 30 percent, demonstrating a cost-efficient approach to extending digital access that builds on prior public investment rather than requiring entirely new infrastructure.
The Jhuggiwala centre represents a practical template for how targeted, community-level digital inclusion projects can be delivered at scale across Pakistan’s underserved rural areas, combining physical infrastructure, free training, and existing connectivity assets into a single accessible facility. With women’s digital participation increasingly recognised as a key lever for both individual economic empowerment and broader national digital economy growth, initiatives of this nature are expected to play a continued role in the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication’s efforts to close the remaining gap in internet access and digital literacy between men and women across the country.
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