New data for 2011 released by the census commissioner on Friday showed the percentage of women-headed households (WHH) in a total of about 246.6 million families was marginally up and those of male-headed ones (MHH) a bit down, compared to a decade earlier.
About 27 million households, constituting 11 per cent of the total, were headed by females, of which three-fourths lived in rural India in 2011. The proportion of MHH declined 0.6 per cent in 2011 compared to 2001, while the proportion of WHH rose 0.5 per cent in the same period.
Nearly half the households possessed a television and had a mobile phone. Quite a number had a computer with internet or a telephone or even a car or van. MHH were ahead of those where the main wage earners were women. For example, 16.1 per cent of WHH had a radio or transistor; it was 20.3 in MHH. Only 2.5 per cent of WHH owned a computer or a laptop with internet facilities; this was 3.2 per cent for households where the main wage earners were males. The percentage was six and 6.4, respectively, for households owning a computer or laptop without internet.
Also, 44.3 per cent of households where primary wage earners were women owned mobile phones, while it was 54.3 per cent in the case of MHH.
When it comes to households with none of these assets, 29 per cent of WHH had none of these assets — radio, TV, telephone, bicycle, scooter or car. Among MHH, only 16.5 per cent had no assets.
This is not surprising, as a WHH is defined as one where the woman was the main earner either because of widowhood, desertion or migration of male members or incapability of the male member to work.
On the other hand, a little over 60 per cent of WHH had permanent houses in 2011. In the case of scheduled castes and tribes among these households, the percentage reduces to 55.8 per cent and 33.4 per cent, respectively.
Amitabh Kundu of the Centre for the Study of Regional Development at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University said the possession of assets by WHH was impressive but added the category was a heterogenous and complicated one. It had two categories, one of women abandoned by men and left to fend for themselves, and the other was of women who were not married and on their own. While the former would be extremely poor, the latter would have all these assets, says Kundu.
On other assets, the census showed 48 per cent of WHH had a latrine within the premises, 59 per cent had bathing facilities within, 42.5 per cent used LPG/PNG as fuel for cooking but around 45 per cent lived in one-room premises.
Among states, Kerala topped the list of WHH with 23 per cent and Lakshadweep among Union Territories, with 43.7 per cent of households. The proportion of WHH in seven major states —Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Gujarat — was over 20 per cent in 2011.
All these findings were formally issued on Friday by R P N Singh, Union minister of state for home affairs. He said significant improvement had been achieved in quality of houses but access to drinking water, electricity and sanitation were areas where more needed to be done.
