Age at Marriage

Kerala has one of the highest mean ages at marriage in the country, indicating a high level of social development. It is a crucial demographic indicator having direct social and health implications. An increase in age at marriage can lead to lowering fertility, increase in family planning acceptance, reduction in child mortality and up to some extend controlling the gynecological and other reproductive health problems. The age at marriage for both men and women has been consistently higher in Kerala right from the turn of the century than for the country as a whole. The mean age at marriage of women in Kerala was 17.1 years in 1901 when the corresponding figure for India as a whole was 13.2 years. In 1981, the age at marriage for women in Kerala was 21.9 years and that for women in India as a whole was 18.3 years.

According to the final estimates of the Rapid Household Survey sponsored by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Kerala (1998-99) men on average marry at age 28.7 while the women marry at age 22.7. These impressive figures are obviously the result of high level of literacy, awareness and social development in the State.

Conversely, the mean age at marriage does not seem to vary among the districts in Kerala. The highest chunk of under-age marriages took place in Malappuram district. Nevertheless, in Malappuram, where fertility was the highest, the mean age at marriage for both males and females was the lowest. The high concentration of the educationally, socially and economically backward Muslim populations in Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod districts could be the major reason for the low age at marriage in these districts. Teenage marriage of Muslim women has been a major social problem in these districts for a long time. Despite the Muslim community having made dramatic spurts in education, particularly female education, the practice of teenage marriage is going strong in Malappuram and other districts of Malabar. The considerable size of Adivasis--among whom early marriage is prevalent--could be the reason for the low marriage age in Palakkad and Wayanad districts.

In Kerala, woman’s education is the single most significant factor which may avert her age at marriage up to a large extent. Enhancement in women’s age at marriage will certainly result in low fertility and infant mortality rates and contributes in promoting good reproductive health in marital life of communities and help in demographic transitions.