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Determinants of the Age at Marriage of Rural Women in India
Author(s) -
Subramanian Pushpa K.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
family and consumer sciences research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.372
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1552-3934
pISSN - 1077-727X
DOI - 10.1177/1077727x08327257
Subject(s) - age at first marriage , fertility , life expectancy , child marriage , demography , affect (linguistics) , total fertility rate , birth rate , developed country , psychology , family planning , population , sociology , research methodology , communication
The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1978 raised the minimum age at marriage of girls to 18 years from 15 years and for boys to 21 years. This was intended to prevent early marriage of girls and consequent early pregnancies and thereby curtail fertility at young ages and birth to premature babies. Demographic experts are on the view that raises in the age at marriage plays a vital role in controlling fertility rate. The very low age at marriage for females has probably also resulted in low life expectancy. Pregnancy and child birth are major causes of death for women and children in the world's poorer countries. The early age at marriage disrupts education and lack of proper employment altogether restricts women's participation in the developmental activities of nation. Age at marriage will be higher for literate as compared to illiterates. The study was an attempt to find out the family and individual characteristics which influence the female age at marriage in rural areas. Family and the individual characteristics will affect the marriage age directly and also indirectly, through the cultural factors related to marriage. The variables and its influence on age at marriage are focused in this paper.