Synopsis The development of our country is intrinsically linked to the social, economic and political empowerment of our people especially women. Ensuring gender equality by removing gender discrimination mainly among the marginalised, unprotected FHHs are the key to real empowerment. Developing countries primarily through empowerment of women have achieved remarkable progress in terms of literacy, health and economic well being of families. Therefore, there is need to actively promote women's access to quality education, credit, health care, employment and social security. Moreover, protecting the right of women and girl child, enhancing their status by ending practices and customs which perpetuates gender discrimination and finally, formulating policy for safeguarding the interests of Female and Headed Households (FHHs) is the need of the hour. The widows, divorces, separated, abandoned wives and single mother--all such households (FHHs) are subject to exploitation and acute distressed condition due to gender based tyranny, social isolation or exclusion from the male counterparts. The problem of such a marginalised section of our society is rarely considered in the development planning by the policy makers. Hence, the present work makes an attempt; in fact first of it's kind in Orissa, based on primary and secondary sources of data to portray the socio-economic condition of FHHs in the broad national perspectives. Undoubtedly, the study has immense significance to the researchers, policy makers, administrators, sociologists, anthropologists and social scientists in understanding as well as formulating policy paradigms.