According to statistics from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS), wealth is not the only factor that can postpone a woman’s marriage in modern Indian society; higher education levels may also have a more significant role to play. This is an important topic for the IAS exam .

Are Educated Women Likely To Marry Later?

• A woman who has more than 11 years of education has a typical marriage age of 23, whereas a woman with fewer than five years of education has an average marriage age of 6.
• The findings also show significant differences in the married ages of Dalit and upper-caste women as well as rural and urban women.
• The social ills of the dowry system, poverty, and caste prejudices continued to be significant factors as to why girls’ marriage ages varied.

Indian girls get married too young for the following reasons:

• The main cause of early marriage is poverty.
• Social barriers as it is widely held that a woman’s primary source of financial stability is marriage.
• Norms connected with fertility 
• Illiteracy
• The incorrect belief is that protecting daughters from social offenses is more important than protecting an unmarried woman.

Implications of early marriages:

• Many diseases: Late adolescence (15–19 years) has high nutritional demands, and many teenage girls have several forms of undernutrition, including chronic energy shortage, iron deficiency, and micronutrient deficiency.
• Marriage and childbirth during adolescence deplete their already low nutritional reserves and also cause stunting in children and subsequent mortality from a variety of diseases.
• Effects on mental health: From a psychological standpoint, women who were married as youngsters are more prone to (post-traumatic stress disorder) PTSD and related symptoms.
• Limited access to education: A girl’s access to education is severely restricted by marriage.
• Domestic abuse: Women with low levels of education and married teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 are more likely to experience domestic violence than older, more educated women, according to the International Council of Research on Women (ICRW).

Marriage trends are shifting due to the following factors:

• To decrease maternal deaths: Raising the age at which girls can get married will, in the short term, increase the number of girls who enroll in college and, in the long run, give them more opportunities to become financially independent.
• Better health: As children born to mothers who frequently marry young may experience health issues, this would be beneficial for both women’s general development and the health of children.
• The health of Women: Raising the marriage age can lower Mortality Rates and disorders like anemia among women. (Anaemia can be particularly dangerous for young mothers)
• Huge opportunities: Raising the legal marriage age for women will provide all women more power and legal protection so they can choose to study and empower themselves before being forced into marriage and parenthood.
• Improved labor force participation: By raising the marriageable age, India will have a larger labor force. In India, the proportion of women in the labor force is excessively low when compared to the global average.

Conclusion

In India, the problem of child marriage is complicated and has roots in caste hierarchies, poverty, and societal conventions. There are still issues despite the advancements in education and women’s empowerment. A comprehensive strategy that addresses the underlying societal and economic conditions that support the practice is needed to solve the problem of child marriage.

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