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NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation
Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation

Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation

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published Published on May 26, 2016   modified Modified on May 27, 2016
There is a general perception that men are the primary breadwinners and, therefore, they are the ones responsible for fending for their families. However, recently released data from the population Census 2011 shows that around 3.3 crore households in the country are headed by women.

In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1).

The Census data shows that there are 59.4 lakh single member female-headed households, out of which almost three-quarter reside in rural areas and the rest live in urban areas.

The majority of the female-headed households comprise 3 to 6 members (almost 53 percent), followed by single members (18.1 percent) and two members (15.2 percent).

As per the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner (India), head of the household is a person who is recognized as such in the household. S/he is generally the person who bears the chief responsibility for the maintenance of household and takes decisions on behalf of the household. The head of the household need not necessarily be the eldest male member, states the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).

In a paper entitled Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy, Madhura Swaminathan (2013) says that due to existing gender norms, the social reality is that despite a woman bears the chief responsibility for managing the affairs of the household and /or takes decisions on behalf of the household, she may not be recognised as being the head of household by other members of the household or by the community.

The head of the household is identified on the basis of recognition criterion, instead of an economic criterion such as chief decision-maker or main income-earner. Therefore, during Census or large-scale surveys, there is under-counting of female-headed households, says Swaminathan.

It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated.

SECC 2011 and female-headed households

As per the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas.

The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty.

Among 93.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas, monthly income of the highest earning household member is upto Rs. 10,000/-. It means that only among the remaining 6.9 percent female-headed households, monthly income of the highest earning household member is greater than Rs. 10,000/-.

There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually.

There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with pucca walls and pucca roof.

There are only 25 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas that own 2.5 acres or more irrigated land with at least one irrigation equipment.

Similarly, there are only 20 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas that own 5 acres or more land irrigated for two or more crop seasons.

There are only 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas that own 7.5 acres or more land with at least one irrigation equipment.

The income source for 23.8 percent female-headed households in rural areas is agriculture, 52.6 percent households is manual casual labour, 3.7 percent households is part-time or full-time domestic service, 0.4 percent households is foraging/ rag picking, 1.3 percent households is non-agricultural own account enterprise, and 1.2 percent households is begging/ charity/ alms collection.

The SECC 2011 data shows that the proportion of female-headed households with salaried jobs in the government is 4.6 percent, in the public sector is 1 percent and in the private sector is 3.4 percent.

Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.

There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.

There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC.

There are 15.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that live in only one room with kuccha walls and kuccha roof.

There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years.

There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.

There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.

Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas.

There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years.

There are 328 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas that are landless, thus, deriving major part of their income from manual casual labour.

Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes?  

Given the multiple forms of poverty and deprivation that are faced by women-headed households, many experts have advocated for automatic inclusion of such households under various social welfare programmes/ schemes.  
 
In her paper entitled Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy, Madhura Swaminathan from Indian Statistical Institute cautions against using female-headed household as a policy instrument for targeting. Put simply, Swaminathan does not consider proportion of female-headed households as an important indicator of extreme deprivation for policy intervention.

Although it is a good idea to provide pensions to female-headed households since a significant proportion of such households are headed by widows, for other policy interventions such as related to child welfare or wages/ employment, it is not appropriate to target such households, says Swaminathan in her paper.

She says that in case of Census and other large-scale surveys conducted in India, it has often been found that head of the household is identified on the basis of recognition criterion, instead of an economic criterion such as chief decision-maker or main income-earner (as mentioned earlier in the present newsalert). Female-headed households, thus, identified form a small fraction of total households. Besides, there is ample diversity existing among female-headed households with respect to employment, incomes, access to land, etc.

Based on research, Madhura Swaminathan says that in most cases it has been found that a female-headed household is identified as such when the male spouse was either dead or not residing in the household. In such cases, a household is regarded as female-headed based on recognition approach. She infers that female-headed households do not signify women’s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.

Existing literature shows that migration or expiry of male spouse (against the backdrop of rising number of nuclear families) and separation or divorce from husband are leading causes behind female-headed households in India.

Female-headed households across religions

The proportion of female-headed households is highest among Christians (17.4 percent), followed by Buddhists (15.9 percent). It is lowest among Jain households (i.e. 11.5 percent). Please check Chart 1.

Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.

The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent).

In both rural and urban areas, the proportion of female-headed households is highest among Christian households as compared to households belonging to other religions.



Source: Census 2011

As could be seen from Table 1, the average size of male-headed households (which is 5) is greater than that of female headed households (i.e. 3.9). This holds true even for rural and urban areas.

At the country level, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Muslim community (i.e. 4.7), and minimum in the case of Christian and Buddhist communities (both 3.6).

Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011
 
Table 1
 
Source: Census 2011

In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).

At the national level, the gap in average size of male and female-headed households is highest among the Hindu community and least among the Sikhs. However, the same is highest among Jain households in rural areas and Christian households in urban areas.

References

Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please click here to access

Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, http://www.secc.gov.in

Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please click here to access

RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.

Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities & Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, please click here to access

Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please click here to access

Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please click here to access

Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please click here to access
 
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please click here to access
 
 
Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi


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