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Practice of child marriage thrives in MP

Child marriage may be a legal offence, but the practice continues in Madhya Pradesh, where 15.4 per cent of the girls, most of them from rural areas, get married between the age of ten and 14.

According to the human development report 1998, released at New Delhi yesterday, 16.6 per cent of the rural girls and 11 per cent of the urban girls in the 10-14 age group in the country's biggest state married last year.

The Malwa region of the state, particularly the belt bordering Rajasthan, registered the highest incidence of child marriage. Shajapur district in this region has 31.6 per cent married girls between 10 and 14.

Rajgarh district (29.1 per cent) belonging to the same region, is second in the state in respect of child marriage. This was followed by Ujjain (22.9 per cent), Ratlam (22.3 per cent) and Dewas (19.4 per cent).

After Malwa, the institution of child marriage is prevalent in the comparatively backward Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions.

In Tikamgarh and Chhatarpur districts of the Bundelkhand region, the figure was 24 and 21.3 per cent respectively, while it was 18.3 per cent in Damoh and 17.9 per cent in Pannah.

While in Rewa district of the Vindhya region, 24.7 per cent of the girls have been married in the 10-14 age group, in Sidhi, Shahdol and Satna districts, over 20 per cent were married.

In the rural areas, Shajapur district lead the other districts, with 34.4 per cent girls marrying below 14; Tikamgarh has the most number of child marriages in the urban areas, with 20.2 per cent of its girls of the same age being married.

Even the areas surrounding the state's capital are not free of the phenomenon, with the figure standing at 9.2 per cent in the urban areas 18.4 in the rural areas.

Curiously, the tribal-dominated regions of the state, generally considered backward, had fewer cases of child marriage. About 3.7 per cent of the girls in Jhabua and Raigarh districts and 4.6 per cent of them in Bastar district were married between 10 and 14. In tribal-dominated Balaghat and Dhar districts, the figure stood at 8.7 and ten respectively.

However, the tribal areas led in the marriage of girls in the age group of 15-19. Raigarh district has the most girls married in this age group, 75.3 per cent. In Balaghat, this figure is 70.5 per cent, while more than 65 per cent of the girls of this age group in Bastar and Jhabua districts got married.

Except in three or four districts, 50 per cent girls of the state had tied the nuptial knot between 15 and 19.

The average age for girls to get married was 15.1 years in Shajapur district, followed by 15.4 in Tikamgarh and Rajgarh, 15.6 in Chhatarpur, 15.7 in Rewa and Mandsaur and 15.8 in Sidhi and Shivpuri districts. It is 15.9 years in Morena, Bhind, Sagar, Satna and Shahdol districts.

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