India Ranks 67th In The World On Households Headed By Women

India Fares Poorly On Households Headed By Women
According to the latest data from Census 2011 released by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Over 16 per cent of households in Tamil Nadu are headed by women. Out of 1.85 crore households in the state, 29 lakh households are headed by women. This is the highest figure in the country and it is also greater than the national average.

In rural areas, the number of households headed by women is 16.65 lakh, while in the urban areas the number is 12.99 lakh. The data that also interprets the number of households on the basis of religion and sex, reveals that in the state, more percentage of Muslim women head the households than women from other faiths.

The National figure
The figures in Tamil Nadu is higher than the national average. In the country, the percentage of households headed by women is 13.17. Out of total 24.88 crore households in the country, 3.27 crore households are headed by women. The Christian community, at 17.4 per cent, has the highest percentage of female-headed households in India, followed by the Buddhists women at 15.9 per cent.

Out of 24.88 crore households in India, 20.24 crore households (81.3 per cent) belong to Hindus, 3.12 crore (12.5 per cent) households belong to Muslims, 63 lakh (2.5 per cent) households belong to Christians.

International figure
In terms of female-headed households in the country, India occupies the 67th position worldwide. Belarus (53.9 per cent), Ukraine (49.4 per cent), Swaziland (47.9 per cent), Eritrea (46.7 per cent), Cuba (46.4 per cent) are the top five nations having the highest women-headed households.

There are a number of social indicators India has a lot of work to do and more so with respect to gender parity, equality and independence of women. Government policies has its limits when it comes to social impact and bringing about social change, it is down to us as citizens to give these issues a serious thought and implement it in real lives and bring about change the we all want to see.