Peer-reviewed article

Determinants of Girl-Child Marriage in High Prevalence States in India

Purnendu Modak · 1 Jan 2019

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the determinants of girl-child marriage in the high prevalence states of India. The purpose of the study was to analyze various socio-economic, demographic, cultural, and village-level characteristics that are important in determining factors for girl-child marriage in high prevalence states of India. Binary logistic regression was applied to analyze secondary data (DLHS-4 data of 2012 -13) of 1,25,549 girls who were married off early. The results of this study indicated that the individual and household socio-economic and demographic characteristics, such as place of residence, education, religion, and caste were important factors determining girl-child marriage among high prevalence states in India. Moreover, it can be observed that there is a greater tendency towards child marriage among rural women, irrespective of educational and wealth differences in high prevalence states in India. Furthermore, it was also found that the largest drop in the prevalence of girl-child marriage is in the under-15 marriages, while marriages in the age group of 15-17 years is common in a number of high prevalence states like West Bengal, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh. The results show that the wealth quintile, village infrastructure quintile, and households that have a BPL card do not play any significant role as variables in reducing girl-child marriages in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. In this study, I have observed that girls with secondary and higher education have much lower chances of early marriage as compared to illiterate girls. Thus, education and early marriage are found to be closely linked.