AN ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE STATUS OF FEMALE HEADED HOUSEHOLDS IN INDIA

Household is usually a group of persons who normally live together and take their meals from a common kitchen unless or otherwise the exigencies of work prevent any of them from doing so. She or he is generally the person who bears the chief responsibility for the maintenance of the household and takes decisions on behalf of the household. Now days in India as elsewhere in the world, Female Headed Households are increasing rapidly for various reasons. The main intension of the study is to analyze the growth of female headed households in India and to examine the various features of female headed households in India. The study has been prepared on the basis of secondary data collected from census of India 2001 and 2011. The study has used simple percentages, growth rates, tables and graphs. The paper concluded that, an in-depth study of the growth and features of the female headed households help in preparing the government budget that is the so called gender budgeting. Gender development, gender main streaming, women empowerment have become the most popular concepts in development policy and governance. In fact, under valuation of invisible work rendered by women has resulted in the underestimation of GDP. Since 1980’s, the feminist movement has been fighting for the cause of ‘care economy’ which produces family and community oriented goods and services. Gender mainstreaming demands not only disaggregated data but also results of empirical studies across various regions in the country. This will facilitate both gender development policies and ensure gender equity.