Nearly 30% of Indian Women Get Married Before 21; West Bengal, Jharkhand at Top
Nearly 30 per cent of Indian women get married by the time they turn 21, and about one-third of rural women tie the knot between 18 to 20 years, government data shows.
West Bengal has topped the charts, along with Jharkhand where a majority of women were married before 21, according to The Times of India.
On the other hand, in Jammu and Kashmir, less than 10 per cent of women got married before 21 in 2020. In Delhi this figure was around 17 per cent.
In urban India 18.6 per cent of women got married between the ages of 18 and 20, according to TOI.
Jammu and Kashmir also had the highest mean age of marriage at 26. This essentially shows the average age of the given population when they first got married. This was followed by Punjab and Delhi.
Again, West Bengal and Jharkhand had the lowest average age of marriage at 21, followed by Odisha at 22. The average age for the country was 22.7.
Child Marriages in India
In terms of child marriages, Kerala had not a single one in 2020. Another data showed the number of child marriages in Karnataka reached alarming levels. The state saw at least 418 child marriages in 2021-2022, witnessing an increase of 300 per cent as compared to 2017-2018.
Some experts said the rise in child marriages came as a result of the coronavirus pandemic due to families facing uncertainty on the economic front, according to The Indian Express. This was especially true for rural areas.
The Government has enacted the ‘Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006’ for prohibition of solemnisation of child marriages. In a press release, the Centre said that it has started “awareness drives, media campaigns and outreach programmes and issued advisories to the States/ UTs from time to time to highlight the various issues about this evil practice.”
A CHILDLINE with short code 1098 has also been introduced. This is a 24X7 telephone emergency outreach service for children in crisis and provides assistance required in coordination with police, CMPOs, District Child Protection Units etc.
Rural India Data
Child marriages are much more prevalent in the rural areas of the country, as compared to urban cities. Marriage of women below the age of 18 years was highest in Jharkhand, at about 5.8 per cent, followed by West Bengal, at 4.7 per cent
In Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, over 3 per cent of women got married before 18 years. The average age of child brides was lowest in Telangana, at 15 years, and Rajasthan at 15.4 years.
On the other side, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were states where over 80 per cent of women getting married were above the age of 21.
In urban areas, the proportion of women who got married above the legal age of 21 was higher. Some states had no incidents of child marriage. West Bengal had the highest proportion of child marriages in urban areas, at 4.4 per cent, followed by UP at 3.6 per cent.
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