Early marriage among rural and urban females of South India

Abstract

Data on 2972 marriages in rural areas and 1180 marriages in urban areas of North Arcot Ambedkar district of South India, during 1982-88, were analysed. The mean age at marriage of females was 18.6 in the rural and 19.6 in the urban area. The proportion of females married before attaining the legal age of 18 years was higher among the rural community (36.8%) than in the urban community (28.9%). Univariate analysis revealed an association between early age at marriage and the socioeconomic variables religion, caste, consanguinity, marital distance, spousal age difference, education and occupation of both bride and bridegroom, and socioeconomic status of the family. Multivariate analysis showed an independent relationship of marital distance and bridegroom's occupation with early age at marriage of females in the rural area alone and the bridegroom's education in the urban area alone. Consanguinity, spousal age difference and bride's education were found to be independently related with early age at marriage of females in both rural and urban areas.