Female age at marriage in Northern Karnataka

"The aim of this paper is to (i) furnish the recent trends in female age at marriage in rural Northern Karnataka [India] and (ii) examine the socio-cultural factors influencing very early marriages. The main data set used is from a cohort analysis pertaining to girls born in rural Dharwad during 1962-1972. The median age at marriage is 16 years. Further, two-thirds of the girls are married before 18 years and nearly one-fourth of the marriages are even pre-puberty cases. Various factors--socio-cultural, social psychological, economic etc.--responsible for the perpetuation of very early marriages in the study area, in spite of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, are discussed."