Female-Headed Household in India: Evidence-Based Situational Analysis

Nandan Kumar, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Achala Gupta, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

In India, persisting gender discrimination results into the lesser entitlement to a female and it also may cause the larger effect in perpetuation of female headed households at risk of poverty. In India, 42.3 per cent of female headed households are in low Standard of Living (SLI) stratum as compared to 27.5 per cent of male headed households (NFHS III). The reasons for this difference are associated with the lower positioning and persisting discrimination in the lives of women. While analyzing data from NFHS III for this paper, it was found that the risk of poverty in the single headed nuclear family household has multifaceted affects. The incidence of poverty is shaped by the factors such as lack of productive resource vis. land holding and lower level of education that essentially restrict them to get a better job thus perpetuating the processes of gender specific deprivation in most diversified country.