In India, Early Marriage Linked to Poor Reproductive Health

Guttmacher Institute: EARLY MARRIAGE AMONG INDIAN WOMEN LINKED TO POOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND SPOUSAL VIOLENCE:

A new study by researchers from the Population Council, New Delhi, and the International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai, which looked at the effect of early marriage among young Indian women found a range of negative associations that compromised their overall lives and reproductive health. K.G. Santhya and colleagues used data on Indian women aged 20–24 from a large-scale survey conducted in urban and rural areas of five states where early marriage is widespread: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. They found that nearly 63% of these women had married when they were younger than 18, the minimum legal age for marriage in India.

Compared with young women who had married at age 18 or older, those who had married earlier were less likely to have been involved in planning their marriage: For example, only about one-third of those who had married early reported that their parents had sought their approval of the spouse chosen for them, while nearly two-thirds of the women who married later had been consulted. . . .