Abstract
The eighth part of the Social Change Indicators series presents data on vulnerable households, that is, mean household size, percentage of female-headed households, percentage of households with no literate adult, percentage of households with no adult member and percentage of landless households dependent on manual casual labour across different social classes in rural areas of different states.
The concept of vulnerable households is usually linked to characteristics which makes the risk of falling into poverty higher than the general population. Although, the definition remains concerned with the families that remain deprived of adequate livelihood support, the capacity of an individual or group to cope with situations may get diminished due to family conditions or vulnerabilities. The degrees of vulnerability across families may differ depending on several factors––gender, livelihood opportunities, specific disabilities, social groups and so on. It may be assumed then that the successful implementation of social protection policies remains critically reliant on identifying vulnerable groups. Relevant literature indicates that backward classes, ethnic minorities, the elderly, disabled, homeless, orphans, female-headed homes, transgenders, migrants and persons displaced from work could become part of a vulnerable community that could be sucked into poverty.
This Social Change Indicators focusses on the vulnerability of households across different social classes, that is, Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and other than SCs and STs in rural India. We first provide data on the mean household size, headed by different social groups, that is, SCs, STs and other than SCs and STs. Subsequently, indicators on percentage of rural household with female-headed households and no adult male member between the age group of 16 and 59, percentage of rural household with no literate adult above 25 years, percentage of rural household with no adult member in the age group of 16–59 and percentage of landless households deriving a major part of their income from manual casual labour are also presented. Our data is processed from the information provided in the Registrar General’s Census and the Socio Economic and Caste Census data. 1
Source: Author’s calculation from Census data.
Source: Author’s calculation from Census data.
Percentage of Households with Female-headed Households and No Literate Adult Member
Source: Worked out from SECC data.
Source: Author’s calculation from SECC data.
Source: Author’s calculation from SECC data.
Source: Author’s calculation from SECC data.
Source: Author’s calculation from SECC data.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.