Joint family system in Tamil Nadu slowly vanishing

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu is seeing a rise in nuclear families as only married couple are above the national average , according to S Gopalakrishnan, director of Census Operations,
Tamil Nadu.

According to the details of Census 2011 Data on Houses, Household and Amenities and Assets, the households in the state has 74.4 per cent single  married couple, which is way above the national average of 70.1 per cent highlighting the slow extinction of joint family in the state, said Gopalakrishnan.

The census also pointed out that there has been an increase in number of households with one to four members and decline in five and above members besides decerase in proportion of households with four or more married couples.

Interestingly, households in the state having more two married couple is also way below the national average. While the national average is 14.1 per cent, the state average is only 10.1 per cent.

Interestingly, the single married couple living in a household is averages more than 70 per cent across all the districts with Chennai 77.6 per cent. The census also pointed out that 74.5 per cent of the households live in own house. Interestingly Chennai ranks at the bottom with 47.2 per cent ownership, followed by Coimbatore 59.4 per cent and Madurai 61.6 per cent.

Similarly, Tamil Nadu has 47.9 per cent using Liquefied petroleum gas for cooking when compared to the national average of 28.6 houses. Interestingly, in the rural areas 28.6 per cent people use LPG gas while in urban areas 66.7 per cent use LPG.

The census also revealed that 93 per cent households in the state rely on electricity which is way above the national average of 67.3 per cent. Ineterestingly, six per cent of households in the state still rely on kerosene.

However, state is way below the national average when it comes to households availing banking services.  It has a total of 52.2 per cent when compared to the national average of 58.7 per cent and is ranked 26^th in the nation. The stumbling block is in rural areas which has only 45.19 per cent access to banks.

The census also revealed that five per cent of the households in Tamil Nadu do not have any basic assets. Interestingly, Dharamapuri, Dindigul and Salem are the districts where there is prevalence of people having no basic assets.