Indians married before the age of 18
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 28, 2016
The Census office released the census 2011 data on age at marriage by category of economic activity. More than 10 crore Indians were married before the age of 18, which is 18.5% of the total persons (workers & non –workers).
The Census office released the Census 2011 data on Age at Marriage by Category of Economic Activities. The data includes age at marriage for various categories of workers from Urban & Rural India including various States/UTs. As per the data, more than 10 crore persons were married before the age of 18, which is 18.5% of the total workers and non-workers. Close to 30% of female (workers & non-workers) and 6.3% of the male (workers & non-workers) were married before the age of 18.
12.5% of all the workers married before the age of 18
Out of the 30.52 crore workers as counted by the 2011 Census, 22.55 crore are male and 7.97 crore are female.  About 3.82 crore of all the workers were married before the age of 18 (12.5%). Majority of the workers (71.5%) were married between the ages of 18 and 27. Close to 2% of all the workers were married after the age of 34 while 4.3% of all the workers did not state their age at marriage.
Among female workers, more than 31% of them were married before the age of 18 while only 5.8% of the male workers were married before the age of 18. Close to 3/4 of the female workers were married between the ages of 14 and 21 while only 38% of the male workers were married between those ages. Only 5% of the female workers were married after 25 years, while 22.7% of the male workers were married after this age.
29% of the female non-workers were married before the age of 18
The census 2011 counted a total of 24.28 crore non-workers out of which 20.81 crore are female and the remaining 3.47 crore are male. More than 26% of all the non-workers were married before the age of 18, which is more than twice the percentage of total workers who were married before the age of 18. Close to 63% of all the non-workers were married between 18 and 27 years while 6.8% of the non-workers were married after 34 years.
Among the female non-workers, close to 29% of them were married before the age of 18 while the corresponding percentage for male is 9.1%. Surprisingly, the percentage of female workers married before the age of 18 is more than the percentage of female non-workers married before the age of 18.
More than 20% of the rural persons married before the age of 18
Of the total 35.43 crore rural persons (workers and non-workers), about 7.29 crore (20.5%) were married before the age of 18. About 69% of them were married between 18 and 27 years while the rest of them after 27 years. Most of them were married between the ages of 20 and 21.
About 15% of the urban persons were married before the age of 18
Of the total 19.37 crore urban persons (workers and non-workers), about 2.87 crore (14.9%) were married before the age of 18. About 66% of them were married between 18 and 27 years while the rest of them after 27 years. Most of them were married between the ages of 20 and 21.
Featured Image: Child Marriages