Number of underage brides fell from 44 pc to 30 pc in 10 years: Census

There has been a dramatic decline in child marriage in India, across various religious communities and even among less educated sections, Census 2011 data released on Friday reveals. The share of girls getting married before reaching the legal marriage age of 18 years fell steeply from 44 per cent in 2001 to 30 per cent in 2011, a proportion still unconscionably high.

Hindus and Muslims have almost the same proportion of below-legal age marriages of girls at about 31 per cent, down from 43-45 per cent a decade ago. Sikhs and Christians have the lowest share of underage girls getting married, at 11-12 per cent, with the Jain community only slightly more at 16 per cent.

While Buddhists continue to be more in line with Hindus and Muslims, with 28 per cent underage girls getting married, among communities of other religious persuasions - including Parsis and all ancient tribal faiths -the proportion is about 24 per cent, down from 36 per cent.

This latest round of Census data yet again shows that in all important matters of marriage, children and such, there are similar trends across religious communities. As other data has shown, declining fertility rates, increasing age of marriage, gaps and order of children etc are following similar trends.In fact, in a somewhat muted form, some of the social evils such as preferring a son and dowry too are spreading evenly.

All this is probably a result of the culturally intertwined lives of all peoples across faiths. Data from Census 2011 re leased on Friday reaffir med that the more educated the girl, the later she gets married. Thus, among illiterate girls, 38 per cent were married off before 18 years but among graduates or above, just 5 per cent got married below the legal age. There is a sharp decline in the share of girls getting married before 18 even among the illiterate or those with below-secondary level education. Among illiterates, in 2001, a whopping 51 per cent of married women had tied the knot before reaching 18. That share had plunged to 38 per cent in 2011, still high but considerably lower than a decade ago.
Similarly , among girls who could study till middle school but dropped out before class 10, the share of those getting married before 18 years fell from 34 per cent to 25 per cent.

However, 91 per cent of all married women were married by the time they reached 25 years of age in 2011, indicating that too much delay is not yet acceptable socially. In 2001, this proportion was 94 per cent.

Times View

The data underlines once again just how crucial it is to educate women. An educated woman is likely to become a mother at a later age, an educated mother is of immense help to children in their getting educated and in a whole host of other things ­ like maintaining hygiene and healthy practices at home. It must therefore be a priority of all governments to foster the education of girls of all sections of society. Several socially desirable ends will be more easily achieved if this is done.