Females head 11 per cent Indian households : Employment survey

Mumbai, Sep 30 (UNI) As many as 11 per cent of Indian rural and urban households are headed by females, according to the seventh quinquennial survey on Employment and Unemployment by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, released Friday last.

However, the survey carried out in the 61st round National Sample Survey held between July 2004 and June 2005 also states that as compared with all other households, the female-headed ones on an average had a relatively smaller household size as well as sex-ratio.

The report is the first one in a series of seven reports to be released on the basis of the survey. It presents the estimates of households and population, labour force, work force, unemployment rate, underemployment and labour mobility.

Another interesting revelation of the report was that in as many as 26 per cent of the households in the rural areas and eight per cent in the urban areas, there was not a single member in the age-group of 15 years and above who could read and write a simple message and understand it.

In the rural areas, during 2004-05, about 64 per cent of males and 45 per cent of the females were literate with the corresponding proportions in the urban areas standing at 81 per cent and 69 per cent respectively.

Further, four per cent of the rural households and eight per cent of the urban households had no usually employed members, and 56 per cent of rural males and 33 per cent of rural females belonged to the labour force (both employed and unemployed people) as compared with 57 per cent and 18 per cent in urban areas respectively.

During the period of 1999-2000 to 2004-05, the Labour Force Participation Rates (LFPRs) defined as the number of people/ people-days in the labour force per 1,000 people/people-days according to usual status, increased by nearly two per cent for males and three per cent for females.

In the urban areas during the same period, it increased by three per cent for both males and females.

Also, 42 per cent of the population in the country was usually employed, while the proportion was 44 per cent in the rural and 37 per cent in the urban areas.

The gender differential in the Worker Population Ratio (WPR) was distinct - 55 per cent for males and 33 per cent for females in the rural areas and 55 per cent for males and 17 per cent for females in the urban areas.

Close to one per cent of male workers and less than one per cent of female workers reported change in their occupation during the two years preceding the date of survey.

UNI SN GB SP DB1824