Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'news-alerts-57/census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/news-alerts-57/census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'news-alerts-57/census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/news-alerts-57/census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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/-.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 4,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4679428,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
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...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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/-.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot; title=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot; title=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot; title=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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/-.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 4,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4679428,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 31357
$metaTitle = &#039;NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
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...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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/-.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot; title=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot; title=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot; title=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>news-alerts-57/census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
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..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">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. <br /><br />In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp; 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 &amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).<br /><br />In a paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. <br /><br /><em>SECC 2011 and female-headed households</em><br /><br />As per the <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011</a>, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. <br /><br />The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. <br /><br />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/-.<br /><br />There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. <br /><br />There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with <em>pucca</em> walls and <em>pucca</em> roof.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.<br /><br />There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.<br /><br />There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. <br /><br />There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with <em>kuccha</em> walls and <em>kuccha</em> roof. <br /><br />There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. <br /><br />There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.<br /><br />There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.<br /><br />Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. <br /><br />There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &nbsp;<br /></em><br />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. &nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />In her paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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&rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Female-headed households across religions<br /></em><br />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. <br /><br />Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.<br /><br />The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><iframe src="https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F" width="900" height="500"></iframe><br /><br /><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011</em><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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). <br /><br /><strong>Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><img src="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg" alt="Table 1" width="319" height="195" /> <br /></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011<br /></em><br />In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><em>References<br /></em></strong><br />Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, <a href="http://www.secc.gov.in" title="http://www.secc.gov.in">http://www.secc.gov.in</a><br /><br />Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">click here</a> to access <br /><br />RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514." title="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.</a><br /><br />Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp; Census Commissioner of India, please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt">click here</a> to access <br /><br />Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295" title="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295">click here</a> to access<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html" title="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html">click here</a> to access <br />&nbsp;<br /></div><div align="justify">Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html" title="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html">click here</a> to access<br />&nbsp;</div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi </strong><br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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/-.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 4,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4679428,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
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...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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/-.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot; title=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot; title=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot; title=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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/-.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 4,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4679428,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 31357
$metaTitle = &#039;NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
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...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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/-.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot; title=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot; title=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot; title=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>news-alerts-57/census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
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..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">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. <br /><br />In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp; 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 &amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).<br /><br />In a paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. <br /><br /><em>SECC 2011 and female-headed households</em><br /><br />As per the <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011</a>, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. <br /><br />The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. <br /><br />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/-.<br /><br />There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. <br /><br />There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with <em>pucca</em> walls and <em>pucca</em> roof.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.<br /><br />There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.<br /><br />There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. <br /><br />There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with <em>kuccha</em> walls and <em>kuccha</em> roof. <br /><br />There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. <br /><br />There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.<br /><br />There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.<br /><br />Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. <br /><br />There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &nbsp;<br /></em><br />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. &nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />In her paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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&rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Female-headed households across religions<br /></em><br />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. <br /><br />Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.<br /><br />The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><iframe src="https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F" width="900" height="500"></iframe><br /><br /><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011</em><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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). <br /><br /><strong>Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><img src="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg" alt="Table 1" width="319" height="195" /> <br /></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011<br /></em><br />In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><em>References<br /></em></strong><br />Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, <a href="http://www.secc.gov.in" title="http://www.secc.gov.in">http://www.secc.gov.in</a><br /><br />Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">click here</a> to access <br /><br />RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514." title="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.</a><br /><br />Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp; Census Commissioner of India, please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt">click here</a> to access <br /><br />Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295" title="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295">click here</a> to access<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html" title="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html">click here</a> to access <br />&nbsp;<br /></div><div align="justify">Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html" title="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html">click here</a> to access<br />&nbsp;</div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi </strong><br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f826ee302cf-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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/-.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 4,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4679428,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
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...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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/-.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot; title=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot; title=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot; title=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 31357,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As per the &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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/-.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 4,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4679428,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 31357
$metaTitle = &#039;NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
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...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp;amp; 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 &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;SECC 2011 and female-headed households&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011&lt;/a&gt;, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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/-.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;pucca&lt;/em&gt; roof.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; walls and &lt;em&gt;kuccha&lt;/em&gt; roof. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In her paper entitled &lt;em&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy&lt;/em&gt;, 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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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&amp;rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Female-headed households across religions&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F&quot; width=&quot;900&quot; height=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Table 1&quot; width=&quot;319&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source: &lt;/strong&gt;Census 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;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.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot; title=&quot;http://www.secc.gov.in&quot;&gt;http://www.secc.gov.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot; title=&quot;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&quot;&gt;http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp;amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp;amp; Census Commissioner of India, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot; title=&quot;http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Madhura Swaminathan&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot; title=&quot;http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot; title=&quot;http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>news-alerts-57/census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
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..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">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. <br /><br />In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp; 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 &amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).<br /><br />In a paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. <br /><br /><em>SECC 2011 and female-headed households</em><br /><br />As per the <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011</a>, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. <br /><br />The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. <br /><br />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/-.<br /><br />There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. <br /><br />There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with <em>pucca</em> walls and <em>pucca</em> roof.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.<br /><br />There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.<br /><br />There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. <br /><br />There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with <em>kuccha</em> walls and <em>kuccha</em> roof. <br /><br />There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. <br /><br />There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.<br /><br />There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.<br /><br />Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. <br /><br />There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &nbsp;<br /></em><br />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. &nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />In her paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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&rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Female-headed households across religions<br /></em><br />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. <br /><br />Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.<br /><br />The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><iframe src="https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F" width="900" height="500"></iframe><br /><br /><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011</em><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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). <br /><br /><strong>Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><img src="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg" alt="Table 1" width="319" height="195" /> <br /></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011<br /></em><br />In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><em>References<br /></em></strong><br />Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, <a href="http://www.secc.gov.in" title="http://www.secc.gov.in">http://www.secc.gov.in</a><br /><br />Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">click here</a> to access <br /><br />RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514." title="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.</a><br /><br />Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp; Census Commissioner of India, please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt">click here</a> to access <br /><br />Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295" title="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295">click here</a> to access<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html" title="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html">click here</a> to access <br />&nbsp;<br /></div><div align="justify">Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html" title="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html">click here</a> to access<br />&nbsp;</div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi </strong><br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 31357,
		'title' => 'Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<div align="justify">
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. <br />
<br />
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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).<br />
<br />
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp; 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 &amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).<br />
<br />
In a paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. <br />
<br />
<em>SECC 2011 and female-headed households</em><br />
<br />
As per the <a href="../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011</a>, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. <br />
<br />
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. <br />
<br />
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/-.<br />
<br />
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. <br />
<br />
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with <em>pucca</em> walls and <em>pucca</em> roof.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.<br />
<br />
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.<br />
<br />
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. <br />
<br />
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with <em>kuccha</em> walls and <em>kuccha</em> roof. <br />
<br />
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. <br />
<br />
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.<br />
<br />
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.<br />
<br />
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. <br />
<br />
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<em>Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &nbsp;<br />
</em><br />
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. &nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
In her paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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&rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<em>Female-headed households across religions<br />
</em><br />
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. <br />
<br />
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.<br />
<br />
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<iframe src="https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F" width="900" height="500"></iframe><br />
<br />
<em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011</em><br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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). <br />
<br />
<strong>Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011<br />
</strong>
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
<img src="tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg" alt="Table 1" width="319" height="195" /> <br />
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
<em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011<br />
</em><br />
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<strong><em>References<br />
</em></strong><br />
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">click here</a> to access<br />
<br />
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, <a href="http://www.secc.gov.in">http://www.secc.gov.in</a><br />
<br />
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please <a href="../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">click here</a> to access <br />
<br />
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.</a><br />
<br />
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp; Census Commissioner of India, please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt">click here</a> to access <br />
<br />
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan">click here</a> to access<br />
<br />
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295">click here</a> to access<br />
<br />
</div>
<div align="justify">
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html">click here</a> to access <br />
&nbsp;
<br />
</div>
<div align="justify">
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html">click here</a> to access<br />
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
<strong>Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi </strong><br />
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => '',
		'article_img' => 'im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif',
		'article_img_thumb' => 'im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 4,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428',
		'meta_title' => null,
		'meta_keywords' => null,
		'meta_description' => null,
		'noindex' => (int) 0,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => (int) 4679428,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 31357,
	'metaTitle' => 'NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation',
	'metaKeywords' => 'Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty',
	'metaDesc' => '
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...',
	'disp' => '<div align="justify">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. <br /><br />In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp; 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 &amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).<br /><br />In a paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. <br /><br /><em>SECC 2011 and female-headed households</em><br /><br />As per the <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011</a>, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. <br /><br />The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. <br /><br />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/-.<br /><br />There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. <br /><br />There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with <em>pucca</em> walls and <em>pucca</em> roof.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.<br /><br />There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.<br /><br />There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. <br /><br />There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with <em>kuccha</em> walls and <em>kuccha</em> roof. <br /><br />There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. <br /><br />There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.<br /><br />There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.<br /><br />Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. <br /><br />There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &nbsp;<br /></em><br />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. &nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />In her paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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&rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Female-headed households across religions<br /></em><br />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. <br /><br />Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.<br /><br />The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><iframe src="https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F" width="900" height="500"></iframe><br /><br /><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011</em><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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). <br /><br /><strong>Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><img src="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg" alt="Table 1" width="319" height="195" /> <br /></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011<br /></em><br />In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><em>References<br /></em></strong><br />Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, <a href="http://www.secc.gov.in" title="http://www.secc.gov.in">http://www.secc.gov.in</a><br /><br />Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">click here</a> to access <br /><br />RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514." title="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.</a><br /><br />Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp; Census Commissioner of India, please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt">click here</a> to access <br /><br />Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295" title="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295">click here</a> to access<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html" title="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html">click here</a> to access <br />&nbsp;<br /></div><div align="justify">Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html" title="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html">click here</a> to access<br />&nbsp;</div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi </strong><br /></div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 31357,
	'title' => 'Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<div align="justify">
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. <br />
<br />
In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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).<br />
<br />
As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp; 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 &amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).<br />
<br />
In a paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. <br />
<br />
<em>SECC 2011 and female-headed households</em><br />
<br />
As per the <a href="../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011</a>, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. <br />
<br />
The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. <br />
<br />
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/-.<br />
<br />
There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. <br />
<br />
There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with <em>pucca</em> walls and <em>pucca</em> roof.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.<br />
<br />
There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.<br />
<br />
There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. <br />
<br />
There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with <em>kuccha</em> walls and <em>kuccha</em> roof. <br />
<br />
There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. <br />
<br />
There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.<br />
<br />
There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.<br />
<br />
Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. <br />
<br />
There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<em>Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &nbsp;<br />
</em><br />
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. &nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
In her paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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&rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<em>Female-headed households across religions<br />
</em><br />
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. <br />
<br />
Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.<br />
<br />
The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<iframe src="https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F" width="900" height="500"></iframe><br />
<br />
<em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011</em><br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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). <br />
<br />
<strong>Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011<br />
</strong>
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
<img src="tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg" alt="Table 1" width="319" height="195" /> <br />
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
<em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011<br />
</em><br />
In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<strong><em>References<br />
</em></strong><br />
Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">click here</a> to access<br />
<br />
Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, <a href="http://www.secc.gov.in">http://www.secc.gov.in</a><br />
<br />
Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please <a href="../hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">click here</a> to access <br />
<br />
RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.</a><br />
<br />
Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp; Census Commissioner of India, please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt">click here</a> to access <br />
<br />
Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan">click here</a> to access<br />
<br />
Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295">click here</a> to access<br />
<br />
</div>
<div align="justify">
Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html">click here</a> to access <br />
&nbsp;
<br />
</div>
<div align="justify">
Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html">click here</a> to access<br />
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
<strong>Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi </strong><br />
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => '',
	'article_img' => 'im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif',
	'article_img_thumb' => 'im4change_72Women_headed_image.gif',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 4,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'census-pegs-female-headed-households-at-13-2-but-it-may-be-underestimation-4679428',
	'meta_title' => null,
	'meta_keywords' => null,
	'meta_description' => null,
	'noindex' => (int) 0,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => (int) 4679428,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 31357
$metaTitle = 'NEWS ALERTS | Census pegs female-headed households at 13.2%, but it may be underestimation'
$metaKeywords = 'Social Welfare,empowerment,Poverty,Gender Equality,SECC 2011,Census 2011,Women-headed Households,female-headed households,socio economic and caste census,multidimensional poverty'
$metaDesc = '
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...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">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. <br /><br />In other words, overall there are 13.2 percent female-headed households (See Chart 1). <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />As per the Office of the Registrar General &amp; 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 &amp; Census Commissioner of India in a presentation (see the link below).<br /><br />In a paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />It may, thus, be said that the figure on female-headed households put forth by the Census 2011 has been underestimated. <br /><br /><em>SECC 2011 and female-headed households</em><br /><br />As per the <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011</a>, there are 12.88 percent female headed households present in rural areas. <br /><br />The SECC 2011 data indicates that female-headed households suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. <br /><br />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/-.<br /><br />There are only 4.1 percent female-headed households in rural areas that pay income tax annually. <br /><br />There are 17.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas with three or more rooms with <em>pucca</em> walls and <em>pucca</em> roof.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Only 46 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas own landline phones and 112 out of 1000 such households own refrigerator.<br /><br />There are 15.8 percent female-headed households that own motorized two/ three/ four wheelers/ fishing boats.<br /><br />There are 62.9 percent female-headed households in rural areas that are considered to be deprived under the SECC. <br /><br />There are 15.1 percent female-headed households  in rural areas that live in only one room with <em>kuccha</em> walls and <em>kuccha</em> roof. <br /><br />There are 11.2 percent female-headed households in rural areas with no adult member aged between 16 to 59 years. <br /><br />There are 30 percent female-headed households in rural areas that have no adult male member aged between 16 to 59 years.<br /><br />There are 1.3 percent female-headed households in rural areas with disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.<br /><br />Nearly, 22.1 percent female-headed households belong to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe categories in rural areas. <br /><br />There are 344 out of 1000 female-headed households in rural areas with no literate adult aged above 25 years. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Should female-headed households be targeted under social welfare schemes? &nbsp;<br /></em><br />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. &nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />In her paper entitled <em>Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy</em>, 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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&rsquo;s empowerment; instead such a household indicates that an adult male to head the household is absent.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Female-headed households across religions<br /></em><br />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. <br /><br />Among Hindu households, the overall proportion of female-headed households is 12.9 percent.<br /><br />The proportion of female-headed households is lower in rural areas (12.8 percent) as compared to that in urban areas (14 percent). <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><iframe src="https://plot.ly/~ShambhuGhatak/3.embed?share_key=hl7ZhmjU0SsKJXFjxVOA4F" width="900" height="500"></iframe><br /><br /><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011</em><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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). <br /><br /><strong>Table 1: Average household size in male and female headed households across various religions in 2011<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><img src="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Table%201_8.jpg" alt="Table 1" width="319" height="195" /> <br /></div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em><strong>Source: </strong>Census 2011<br /></em><br />In rural areas, however, the average size of a female-headed household is maximum in the case of Sikh community (i.e. 4.7).<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><em>References<br /></em></strong><br />Households by religion, sex of the head of household and household size (Census 2011), please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, <a href="http://www.secc.gov.in" title="http://www.secc.gov.in">http://www.secc.gov.in</a><br /><br />Key findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (released in July 2015), please <a href="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015" title="https://im4change.in/hunger-hdi/poverty-and-inequality-20499.html?pgno=3#socio-economic-and-caste-census-2011-released-in-july-2015">click here</a> to access <br /><br />RGI releases Census 2011 data on Households by religion, Sex of head of household and household size, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514." title="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=145514.</a><br /><br />Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on Houses, Household Amenities &amp; Assets among Female headed Households, Registrar General &amp; Census Commissioner of India, please <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt" title="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/hlo_ppt/ppt_ddw_28dec12_nw.ppt">click here</a> to access <br /><br />Gender Statistics in India: A Short Note with a focus on the Rural Economy -Madhura Swaminathan, June, 2013, please <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Gender%20Statistics%20in%20India.pdf" title="Madhura Swaminathan">click here</a> to access<br /><br />Christians have the most families with female head, The Asian Age, 21 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295" title="http://www.asianage.com/india/christians-have-most-families-female-head-295">click here</a> to access<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">Female-headed households highest among Christians, says census, IANS/ Business Standard, 20 May, 2016, please <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html" title="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/female-headed-households-highest-among-christians-says-census-116052001570_1.html">click here</a> to access <br />&nbsp;<br /></div><div align="justify">Census reveals gloomy picture of life in female-headed households -Ashwaq Masoodi, Livemint.com, 6 July, 2015, please <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html" title="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RjAdjOgWkNMqHGI1DqX8tJ/Census-reveals-gloomy-picture-of-life-in-femaleheaded-house.html">click here</a> to access<br />&nbsp;</div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi </strong><br /></div>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

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

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     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