Author Description

Female-headed households proved to be bigger than male-headed ones, having significantly more demographic and effective dependents residing at their homesteads. Female heads are significantly older than their male counterparts, the majority of them widows relying on state old-age pensions as the main source of household income. Female-headed households have significantly lower average incomes and fewer assets than male-headed households. All the households in the survey sample were categorised based on whether and how they were afflicted and/or affected by HIV/AIDS and/or TB, where TB was used as a proxy indicator for HIV infection. Households were allocated to four clusters. Households in Cluster 1 did not experience any impacts attributed to AIDS and included just more that half of al the households. Afflicted households in Cluster 2 had at least one ill member diagnosed with HIV or TB and requiring some care, but did not experience any deaths and were not taking care of orphans. Affected households in Cluster 3 had no ill members, but took care of orphans and/or experienced deaths, while households in Cluster 4 were both afflicted and affected by HIV and AIDS..