COMMENT | Among the vulnerable groups impacted by the imposition of movement control order (MCO) due to the unprecedented health crisis, households headed by women in the low-income group (B40) in Malaysia have appeared to be at a social and economic disadvantage relative to households in general.

By definition, women-headed households refer to a household in which an adult female is the main or the only income earner and decision-maker.

Unfortunately, there are no official statistics to display the overall percentage of women-headed households in the country. So, why does such an issue need to be raised?

It caught my attention after the release of Unicef-UNFPA study report conducted in May-June 2020 on 500 families living in low-cost flats (Program Perumahan Rakyat) located in the capital, focusing on the impact of Covid-19 crisis on the wellbeing of women and children in urban poor families titled "Families on the Edge".

Let’s go through some of the revealed statistics which can prove my point.

In this study whereby 40 percent are single mothers, the majority of the women-headed households (50 percent) were expecting ...