Peer-reviewed article
Profile Centric Community Awareness and Engagement for Adolescent Girls : An Empirical Study on Early Marriage in India
Charru Hasti, Sonal Arora, Amit Mehndiratta, Mahim Sagar, Harish Chaudhry ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study evaluated a community awareness intervention in Rajasthan, India, designed to discourage early marriage of girls by emphasizing education's importance. Seven hundred and eighty-six community residents participated in a volunteer-driven, technology-enabled communication campaign in 2019. The intervention generated strong positive responses, with participants showing high cognitive engagement and sympathy toward the messages. These positive reactions influenced participants' intention to share positive word-of-mouth and their behavioral intentions regarding the issue.
Key points
- A volunteer-driven technology-enabled communication intervention was designed to discourage girl child marriage by emphasizing education
- Study involved 786 residents in Todaraisingh sub-district, Tonk, Rajasthan
- Strong positive recognition of the personalized communication was empirically confirmed
- High influence of cognitive response and sympathy on participants' evaluative judgment
- Positive responses strongly influenced intention to spread word of mouth and behavioral intention
Limitations
The document does not report actual behavioral outcomes or long-term impact on marriage rates, only immediate cognitive and emotional responses to the communication. It is unclear whether the study included a comparison group or measured changes in actual early marriage practices.
Abstract
Early marriage is a pernicious practice traditionally observed even today in several countries, with a fifth of the global female population getting married by 18 years of age. The custom has far-reaching adverse effects on the girls’ physical, mental, and socioeconomic welfare and their future progeny. Therefore, it is critical to disseminate the right messages to the communities of girl children to deter them from letting their daughters marry early. A study was carried out in 2019 that involved the design, execution, and evaluation of a volunteer-driven technology-enabled communication intervention to emphasize the importance of education in securing a girl’s future and to discourage girl child marriage. Seven hundred and eight-six residents of the sub-district of Todaraisingh in Tonk, Rajasthan, participated in the study. A strong positive cognizance of the personalized communication was empirically confirmed. Furthermore, a high influence of cognitive response and sympathy towards the communication was found on the evaluative judgment of the participants that strongly influenced the intention to spread positive word of mouth and behavioral intention.