Female Headship, Poverty and Child Welfare: A Study of Rural Orissa, India

Abstract

First, on the basis of primary data collected in a rural setting in the State of Orissa, an attempt has been made in this paper to compare the socioeconomic status of male- and female- headed households. Subsequently the differences in the use of resources (time and money) between male-headed and female-headed households have been analyzed. Finally, the paper explores the relative well-being of the children between the two groups, i.e., to what extent female headship influences children’s access to social services, and children’s actual welfare outcomes, measured in terms of health and education indicators. The results suggest that poverty and female headship are strongly linked in rural Orissa, India. For example, if we draw a poverty line that corresponds to 15 per cent of the population who are poor, 12 per cent of people living in male-headed households are poor as compared with 33 per cent of people living in female-headed households.