Abstract

Shraddha Bhatt*, Astu Rohra, Vijay Anand Singh, Harsh Randhawa, Nandita Christy, Shewta Patel,
Aruna Pandya and Kirtan Parmar

ABSTRACT

Marriage brings with itself several adult responsibilities and understanding of its consequences, therefore setting a minimum age gives a legal guarantee that these responsibilities are not forced upon somebody who is not prepared for it. Social scientists have contended that early marriage restrains women from attaining their rightful education, accessing employment, and training opportunities, developing social relationships with peers, and participating in civic life. Since, 18 years of age is still a transition towards adulthood and not a state of complete adulthood, it becomes necessary to set an appropriate minimum age of marriage. Through our study we aimed to investigate the relation between increasing the marriage age of women from 18 to 21 years and variousfactors which include health, nutrition status, education, childbearing, and maternal mortality. It is observed that younger mothers are at higher risk of maternal mortality. Also, younger maternal age is associated with giving birth to low birth-weight child. Poor nutrition in young mothers can lead to nutrition deprived children and its health consequences can extend up to adulthood. Therefore, increasing the marriage age will prevent women from becoming mother at a younger age and will allow them to reach a better state of health in order to give birth to a healthy child. Possible effects of raising the marriage age includes decrease in MMR, increase in literacy rate and labour force which needs to be ascertained through research.