Early Marriage and Women’s Health

Early Marriage and Women’s Health
Early marriage affects women’s health status adversely. A vast number of girls are married at the teenage. According to the 1991 census among the currently married women 53.3 percent married below 18 years of age. And as per the National Family Health Survey (1993-94) almost 33 percent women were married by the age of 15. It leads to teenage pregnancy and various physiological problems. In 1981, 7 percent of the girls in the age group of 10-14 and 43 percent in the age group of 15-19 were married (Government of India 1988).
Thus, 50 percent of the girls is introduced to the sexual life and to the reproduction processes at the teenage. Because of malnutrition, overburden of work, illiteracy, ignorance of the sex-behaviour these pregnant girls take high risk of life. Around 10 to 15 percent of the annual births are from these adolescent mothers. However, most of their babies suffer from malnutrition, underweight and risk of mortality.