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dc.contributor.authorPanda, Pradeep Kumar
dc.coverage.spatialIndiaen_GB
dc.date.accessioned2013-08-29T12:55:57Z
dc.date.available2013-08-29T12:55:57Z
dc.date.issued1997
dc.identifier.citationPanda, Pradeep Kumar (1997) Female headship, poverty and child welfare : a study of rural Orissa, India. CDS working papers series, 280. Trivandrum: CDS.en_GB
dc.identifier.urihttps://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/2939
dc.description.abstractFirst, 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 analysed. 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 eample, 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 househols are poor as compared with 33 per cent of people living in female-headed households. This result is based on per capita consumption as the welfare indicator. When 40 per cent poverty line is used, the differences are still large in economic terms and are statistically significant. Moreover, when we use adjusted consumption as the welfare indicator, the comparisons show a much higher incidence of poverty among female-headed households. This is true for both masures of poverty line, i.e., 15 per cent and 40 per cent. Thus, we conclude that female headship can be a better targetting indicator for poverty alleviation in rural Orissa. The results further suggest that the use of resources are significantly different between the two types of households. Labour force participation data indicate that female heads are more likely to work in the market place than women who are spouses of male heads of household. The differences are large: on average 74 per cent verus 54 per cent. The comparison of household expenditures indicates that, femaleheaded households spend relatively less on higher quality food items such as meat, vegetables, milk and other dairy products. However, there is some evidence that they spend less on personal consumption such as alcoholic beverages. Overall, the differences are pronounced between these households. Finally, the findings show that children in female-headed households are disadvantaged both in terms of access to social services and actual welfare outcomes. JEL Classification : I12, I32, J12, J13, J16 Key words: female headship, poverty, child welfare, gender, differential resource use, social services, householden_GB
dc.language.isoenen_GB
dc.publisherCentre for Development Studiesen_GB
dc.relation.ispartofseriesCDS working papers series;280
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/en_GB
dc.subjectChildren and Youthen_GB
dc.subjectEducationen_GB
dc.subjectGenderen_GB
dc.subjectHealthen_GB
dc.subjectSocial Protectionen_GB
dc.titleFemale headship, poverty and child welfare : a study of rural Orissa, Indiaen_GB
dc.typeSeries paper (non-IDS)en_GB
dc.rights.holderCDSen_GB
dc.identifier.externalurihttp://www.cds.edu/outreach/publications/working-papersen_GB
dc.identifier.koha83129


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