Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Deepak Maggu
The survey claims that 23 percent of young people are not interested in marriage. Earlier, this figure was 17.2 percent. According to the report, early marriage in India has declined over the years. Among the adolescent women, 1.7 percent have got first married by the age of 15 years during 2019-21 as compared to 11.9 percent in 2005-06, as per the report.
The National Statistics Office's ‘Youth in India Report 2022’ has brought out a lot of interesting facts on the marriage and married life of youth in India who are in the age bracket of 15–29 years. The survey claims that 23 percent of young people are not interested in marriage. Earlier, this figure was 17.2 percent. According to the report, early marriage in India has declined over the years. Among the adolescent women, 1.7 percent have got first married by the age of 15 years during 2019-21 as compared to 11.9 percent in 2005-06, as per the report.
The age at marriage also seems to have increased. The report shows a significant reduction in the age at first marriage for women aged 25-29 years. Only 52.8 percent of women surveyed by the NSO got married by the age of 20 years during 2019-2021, as compared to 72.4 percent in 2005-06.
NSO is the statistics wing of the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Government of India, which publishes important reports and surveys from time to time.
The latest report also shows that Indian youth prefer late marriage, especially men. Men in the 25-29 years age cohort tend to marry considerably late with just 42.9 percent males getting married by the age of 25 years in 2019-21 against 83 percent females.
The percentage of the unmarried male and female population in all age-groups has also increased over the years. Interestingly, even in the 25-29 years age group, this percentage has almost doubled among females and increased by 12 percent points among males between National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 3, which was conducted in 2005-06 and NFHS 5 in 2019-20.
An interesting fact is that the median age at first marriage goes up with the educational qualification of a woman, with the median age of marriage among women aged 25-29 years who have completed 12 or more years of education, exceeding the median age among women having no schooling by 5.5 years during 2019-21.
On the one hand, the condition of the youth in India is showing signs of improvement. On the other hand, the decreasing attraction of youth towards marriage is also a matter of concern. But the decline in the number of child and teenage marriages and the increase in the age of marriage of women indicates the success of the government's efforts towards women's empowerment.
The halving of marriages under the age of 18 and the drop of teenage pregnancies from 16 percent to 7 percent are both positive indicators.
