Times of India - 11/3/09
22.6% girls married before 16, while 2.6% wedded before 13
48.4% of married girls have a child before they turn 18
37% of them did not use contraception before first baby
They are seven times likelier to have more than three children
Three times likelier to have a child again in less than 24 months
They are also nearly 50% likelier to have an abortion
48.4% of married girls have a child before they turn 18
37% of them did not use contraception before first baby
They are seven times likelier to have more than three children
Three times likelier to have a child again in less than 24 months
They are also nearly 50% likelier to have an abortion
Laws banning child marriages were introduced in the country in 1929 but 80 years down the line, the social ill continues to be as grave as ever. Nearly half the women in India are married off before they reach the legal age of 18, a joint Indo-American study announced in the medical journal ‘Lancet’ on Tuesday. After looking at data of 22,807 women aged 20-24 years, around 44.5% of these women were found to have got married before the age of 18.
“These results suggest that neither recent progress in economic and women’s development, nor programmatic efforts to prevent child marriage and promote maternal and child health, have been sufficient to reduce the prevalence of child marriage in India,” Dr Raj said.
Unicef recently said that child marriage was increasing India’s maternal and infant deaths. Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. If a mother is under the age of 18, her infant’s risk of dying in its first year of life is 60% greater than that of an infant born to a mother older than 19. “More than 40% of the world’s child marriages take place in India.” Unicef ’s Karin Hulshof said.
“These results suggest that neither recent progress in economic and women’s development, nor programmatic efforts to prevent child marriage and promote maternal and child health, have been sufficient to reduce the prevalence of child marriage in India,” Dr Raj said.
Unicef recently said that child marriage was increasing India’s maternal and infant deaths. Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. If a mother is under the age of 18, her infant’s risk of dying in its first year of life is 60% greater than that of an infant born to a mother older than 19. “More than 40% of the world’s child marriages take place in India.” Unicef ’s Karin Hulshof said.
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