Guest guest Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Survey: 46 per cent girls below legal age forced to marry [in India] 19 Dec 2007 The Times of India Mumbai About 46 per cent of girls are forced to marry even before they attain legal marriageable age, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Most of them are married by the time they turn 17, National Family Health Survey-III report said. As a result of early marriage, 16 per cent of women are forced to bear a child in the age group 15-19 years, the report added. Also, if all women were to have only the number of children they wanted, the total fertility rate would be 1.9 instead of 2.7, it said. The survey is based on interviews of 1,24,285 women in the age group 15-19 years and 74,369 men in 29 districts nationwide. While most women get married at 17 years of age, men entered wedlock at 23, which is better as compared to women, the survey found, adding only 27 per cent men got married before attaining legal age. Early marriages also lead to teenage pregnancies. Chances of young women in rural areas to become mothers are more than twice as compared to young women in urban areas, it stated. In states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar, at least one out of four teenaged women has begun child bearing, the report said. As mentioned in the survey, the fertility level for women in India is 2.7 per cent. In states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, fertility rate is much higher where a woman would have four children in her life. The survey also showed that fertility rate in rural areas is three per cent which is much higher than urban areas where the rate is 2.1 children per woman. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/46_per_cent_girls_ below_legal_age_forced_to_marry_Survey/articleshow/263 5077.cms or http://tinyurl.com/3bu6o3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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