Child marriage more prevalent among Gujarat's rural rich compared to middle and poorer groups: UNICEF study

A new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study, which seeks to give policy directions to India on how to reduce child marriage, has said that in Gujarat's rural areas, the despicable practice is “strongly associated with caste membership”, and underlines, “Child marriage rates are highest among richer, high caste girls.”

The study -- titled “Reducing Child Marriage in India A model to scale up results”, by Jyotsna Jha and scholars from the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, Bangalore -- quotes a Gujarat government document, to point towards howpoor education of teenage girls has led to the high prevalence of child marriage in the state.

The 2015 document, Joint Review Mission for the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, says, “For every 100 boys enrolled, only 69 girls are enrolled at secondary level in Gujarat”, adding, “The gaps exist for all social groups but are higher for OBCs [Other Backward Classes] and Muslims.”

“The gap further widens if one takes the number of boys and girls appearing for the class 10 board examinations”, the document further says, adding, “Several reasons were cited during our interactions: distance, lack of transport, parental lack of interest and child marriage being more important than others.”
Giving the example of Patan and Jamnagar districts from Gujarat, the study says, "The richer groups in these districts hold on to the practice of child marriage much more in situations where it is no longer a widespread phenomenon.”

Thus, in Patan, situated in North Gujarat, the prevalence of child marriage in the age group 10 to 18 is as low as 15.5 per cent in the poor wealth quintile, rising to 27.8 per cent in the middle wealth quintile, and to 56.7 in the rich wealth quantile.

Similarly, in Jamnagar, situated in Saurashtra region, the prevalence of child marriage in the poor wealth quintile is just 4.6, is 13.7 per cent in middle wealth quintile, but a whopping 81.7 per cent in the rich wealth quantile.
Providing examples from two districts each from four other states – Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Telangana – the report, interestingly, finds a similar trend prevailing all other states but Bihar. It finds that in in Bihar's two districts -- Jamui and Siwan -- there is higher incidence of child marriage among poorer groups compared to middle and rich groups.
The report regrets, “The existing literature does not suggest any clear explanation for this variation, and for the fact that child marriage is not necessarily linked solely to poverty”, but adds, “One possible explanation lies in child marriage being strongly linked to social and community norms in these states.”
Giving example of the custom of atta satta in Gujarat, which refers to the practice of one set of brother and sister being married to another set of brother and sister, the study says, “Sibling marriage and a form of atta satta, known as saata, are common in Gujarat. In the event of irreconcilable differences of one couple, the other couple has to perforce break their marriage as well.”

---

*Download report HERE

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Search This Blog