NEW DELHI – Yet again confirming the prevalence of child marriages in India, a new health survey has revealed that more boys than girls are getting married before the legal age of 21 years.
The survey has also revealed that every fourth girl marrying in rural Rajasthan and every fifth in Bihar and Jharkhand are below the legal age of 18 years. The Mean age at marriage of females varies from 19.7 in Rajasthan to 22 years in Uttarakhand. For males, the mean marriage age is 22.2 in Rajasthan and a maximum of 27.6 in Assam.
The survey also reveals for the first time that a woman on an average gives birth to more than three children in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan, with the highest of 5.9 children reported in Shrawasti district of Uttar Pradesh.
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR), the average number of children born to a woman during her entire reproductive span, is 3.6 for Uttar Pradesh and 3.7 for Bihar, where women in rural areas in both these states have a TFR of 3.9.
