Sikkim has but one transgender, and rural Assam has 1,734 out of 2,198 TGs in the Northeast. India has 74,286 TGs, according to the 2011 Socio-economic and caste Census.

Meghalaya has the highest percentage of women-headed households at 24.41 per cent, which is much higher than the regional and national average.

Rural areas in the Northeast have recorded a high percentage of single people (never married) while the percentage of women-headed households is a little above the national average. Nagaland has the highest number of “never- married” people at 55.88 per cent. Meghalaya with 53.33 per cent closely follows. Mizoram has recorded 50.12 per cent of “never married”.

In terms of percentage, unmarried people are the highest in the Northeast compared to other regions.

According to the provisional data of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census, 2011, the percentage of people in rural Northeast who have “never married” is 47.42 per cent against the national average of 41.64 per cent.

The “never married” in the northern region is 42.18 per cent while the corresponding figure for the eastern region is 41.35 per cent; the western region 40.31, southern region 38.46; central region 43.84, and Union Territories 43.37 per cent.

The rural Northeast has recorded 36.61 per cent “currently married” individuals, the national average being 40.05 per cent.

Tripura has recorded the highest percentage of “currently married” persons with 41.93 per cent. Arunachal Pradesh, with 29.68 per cent, has the least.

At the same time, Tripura has the highest percentage of “widowed” persons (4.13 per cent), which is much higher than the Northeast average of 3.27 per cent and the all-India average of 3.46 per cent.

“Separated” persons in the Northeast are the highest in Meghalaya (1.03 per cent) against the regional and national average of 0.34 per cent and 0.38 per cent, respectively.

Mizoram has recorded the highest percentage of divorced persons (1.08 per cent). The Northeast region and the all-India average in this category is 0.21 per cent and 0.12 per cent respectively.

Rural Northeast has recorded 2,198 transgenders while the all-India figure is 74,286.

Rural Assam leads with the highest number of transgenders (1,734 persons), followed by Meghalaya (113 persons). Sikkim has recorded only one transgender in a total population of 4,12,574.

While the average household size in the Northeast and across rural India is 4.94 and 4.93 respectively, the corresponding figure for Meghalaya is 5.28.

Like the all-India trend, men head a majority of rural households in the Northeast. The percentage of 86.03 per cent is close to the all-India average of 87.15 per cent.

However, the Northeast average of women-headed households is slightly higher than the national average.

The provisional data of the socio-economic and caste census was released in New Delhi on Friday.

The Union rural development ministry had kick started the census on June 29, 2011, through a door-to-door enumeration across the country.

  Northeast, Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011, transgender