A letter writer in this column (“Letters to the Editor”, Oct.29), alleged that while citing data from the 2011 Census on married women I may have overlooked the fact “that even widows call themselves married when posed the question whether they are married or not”. There was no mix-up of information. Chart ‘C-3’ of the 2011 Census, which has details on “marital status by religious community and sex” inter alia lists five distinct categories — ‘Never married’, ‘Married’, ‘Widowed’, ‘Separated’ and ‘Divorced’. The data I have used in my article were from the ‘Married’ category. The ‘Widowed’ category lists the number of widowed Hindu males and females as 1,03,74,794 and 3,56,77,567 respectively.
A. Faizur Rahman,
Chennai
