English

Abstract

ABSTRUCT: CONTEXT BACKGROUND: Age at which a female marries has a great impact on her reproductive life. Women who marry before the age of 18 years suffer from higher maternal morbidity and mortality than women who marry after 18 years of age. Still the girls who marry before 15 years of age have highest risk of maternal morbidity and mortality. This group (˂18 years of age) of women suffer more from pregnancy hypertension, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, postpartum hemorrhage and more. The babies born by these mothers also suffer from increased morbidity and mortality. Marriage before the age of 18 years is called child marriage. Previously child marriage was in vogue all over the world including India. Due to occurrence of several adverse outcomes, marriageable age is gradually increasing, forbidding child marriage. Still there is high prevalence of child marriage in many states of our country (India), including West Bengal. In our study we want to find out the age of marriage in different age group with special emphasis to child marriage, in a mixed population of Bankura district, West Bengal, India. Lastly we also calculate the average age of marriage irrespective of different age group. SETTING: Sub-divisional hospitals in Bishnupur, Bankura, West Bengal. DESIGN: Simple random sampling method. DURATION OF STUDY: One year. METHOD: 1150 married women attending the antenatal outpatient department, meeting the deserved criteria are selected. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The selected women are grouped as stated later. Percentage of married women in different age group calculated. Lastly average age of marriage is calculated RESULT: We found highest percentage (36.8%) of marriage occurs in 18 to 21 years of age group. But marriage between 15 to 18 years is also very high (36.5%). We got 3.7% marriage occurs in less than 15 years of age. So the child marriage is still very high (40.2%). Average age of marriage is 18.76 years. CONCLUSION: Child marriage is still highly prevalent in a region of Bankura district. It may reflect that in other regions of West Bengal, the child marriage may also be high.