Factors affecting early marriage and early conception of women: A case of slum areas in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh

Early marriage and early conception is a nascent matter across the world and remains widespread problem particularly in developing countries including Bangladesh. In this study, an attempt was made to analyze comprehensively early marriage and conception of women based on findings of interviews conducted with 609 ever-married women from five slum areas under Rajshahi city, Bangladesh. The present study has tried to delineate these issues across different socio-economic conditions of the respondents. The study also revealed that education, family’s monthly income, religion are the most influential factors in determining the likelihood of early age at marriage and conception as well. Our intention has tried to raise awareness of the situation and, where necessary, to stimulate action. Findings need to be scientifically utilized in developing suitable programs addressing the case of early marriage and early conception particularly in slum areas and country as a whole.   Key words: Early marriage, early conception, slum areas, cross tabulation and logistic regression analysis.