Gender and urban poverty in India

Abstract Poverty is a product of various deprivations. Gender discrimination is linked with deprivation in terms of socio-economic and political opportunities. This study explores the link between female-headship of a household and its vulnerability towards urban poverty. Further, the most vulnerable sub-sections among the urban female-headed households are identified. The study is based on the 68th round of Household Consumer Expenditure, and Employment and Unemployment Survey, India. Female-headed households were found to have higher odds to be urban poor as compared to their male counterparts. However, this gender-based difference in odds to be urban poor disappears once educational attainment of household-head is controlled for. This highlights that the discrimination in terms of educational attainment is major cause and solution to urban poverty among female-headed households. Further, female-headed households are not a homogeneous group and exhibit significant differences in their vulnerability to urban poverty across different socio-economic and demographic sub-groups. The negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on female education in India is expected to create a long-term gender gap in terms of poverty. Thus, the public policy should stress on skill and educational attainment of females and target the poverty alleviation programmes on vulnerable sub-section of the female-headed households.