Household data – An interesting Statistical Survey

11% of Total Households in the Country are Headed by Females-

Census Data on ‘Female Headed Households’ Released

About 27 million households constituting 11% of the total households of the country are headed by females. Kerala tops the list of States with 23% households having a female as head. This finding has been revealed in the Household data released today in the Capital by Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri R.P.N.Singh. The C.D. containing the data on the Households was released by the Minister.

The data was released as part of the findings/ results of the first phase of Census 2011 on “House Listing and Housing Census”.

Inaugurating the National Data Dissemination Workshop organised by Registrar and Census Commission India, Shri R.P.N.Singh said that availability of such detailed data enables Planning Commission and the Govt. to finalise their schemes. Mr Singh pointed out that significant improvement has been achieved in quality of houses but access to drinking water, electricity and sanitation are the areas where more needs to be done.

Dr. C.Chandramouli, Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India gave the main highlights from Census 2011. Summary findings of the data are as below.

a) There are about 27 million female headed households(HHs) in the country. They constitute 10.9% of the total households in the country.

b) 43.7% of households in Lakshadweep and 23% households in Kerala have a female as head.

c) About 49 lakh Single-Member Female HHs are there in the country. Three-fourth of them live in rural areas.

d) In seven major States, namely Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Gujarat, the proportion of Single Member Female Headed HH is more than 20%.

e) The proportion of Male Headed HHs has declined by 0.6% in 2011 compared to 2001 while proportion of Female Headed HHs has increased by 0.5% in the same period.

f) More than 60% of Female Headed HHs have permanent houses while in case of SC and ST categories amongst Female Headed HHs the percentage reduces to 55.8% and 33.4% respectively.

g) Around 18% of Female Headed HHs have to travel more 500m in urban areas and 1km in rural areas to access drinking water.

h) Around 48% of Female Headed HHs have a latrine within the premises.

i) Around 59% of Female Headed HHs have bathing facilities within the premises.

j) Around 45% Female Headed HHs live in one-room premises.

k) Around 42.5% of Female Headed HHs use LPG/PNG as a fuel for cooking.

l) Around 45% of Female Headed HHs have television as an asset while in case of Male Headed HHs, the percentage increased to 47.5%.

m) Only 3.2% of Female Headed HHs have Car/Jeep/Van while 4.8% of Male Headed HHs have Car/Jeep/Van as an asset.

n) Around 29% of Female Headed HHs do not possess any asset such as radio/ TV/ telephone/bicycle/scooter/Car. However, in respect of Male Headed HHs, only 16.5% have no assets.

The detailed findings on “Female Headed Households” can also be seen at the website of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India at www.censusindia.gov.in.

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