Mean Age at  Marriage

The average age at which women are married assumes importance because early marriage carries with it the enhanced  possibility of early pregnancy  and attendant complications, which in turn affect the health of both mother and child. Census data show that during 1971-91, the mean age of marriage for women in West Bengal went up from 18 to 19.7 years while that for men increased from 24.6 to 25.9 years : all these estimates being higher than corresponding all-India estimates ( 17.2 and 19 years for women and 22.6 and 24 years for men). Table D 8 shows that in 1998-99 the mean age for marriage for women in the state and in India as a whole were almost identical at 19.6 and 19.7 years while that for men were found to be 26.2 and 24.9 years respectively; it also shows the rural-urban disparities, the mean age at marriage for rural girls in the state being just  above the legal age of 18 years while that  for urban girls being slightly more than 22 years.

An NGO Meet on Empowerment of Women was held in Kolkata on 3 June 2004, under the joint auspices of the National Commission of Women (NCW) and the West Bengal Commission for Women (WBCW), its distinctive feature being a day-long Interactive Meeting with 40 assembled NGOs (hereafter referred to as Kolkata NGO Meeting). Several NGOs voiced the need for compulsory registration of marriages in West Bengal as a deterrent to marriage below the legal age of 18 years. They also wanted compulsory production of birth certificates as proof of age at the time of marriage registration.

Table D 8 :  Mean Age at Marriage in West Bengal and India : 1991 and 1998-99

Source : NFHS 2 - India , Table 2.4

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