Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, May 18: At least 5 percent women and nine percent men in Jammu and Kashmir are getting married before attaining the minimum legal age required for getting married.
The National Health and Family Survey (NHFS) data says that one percent of women in the 15-19 years of age group have started bearing child which rises from one percent at 18 years of age to 4 percent among women 19 years of age.
“In Jammu & Kashmir, the median age at first marriage is 23.6 years among women aged 25-49 years and twenty-seven percent of women aged 20-49 years have never married, compared with 35 percent of men aged 20-49,” it adds.
“Five percent of women aged 20-24 years got married before attaining the legal minimum age of 18 years, down from 9 percent in NFHS-4 and nine percent of men aged 25-29 years were married before the legal minimum age of 21 years,” it said.
The survey divulging details about teenage pregnancy among women in age group 15-19 said that one percent of women in the 15-19 year age group have already begun bearing children. That is, they have already had a live birth or are pregnant with their first child, down from 3 percent in NFHS-4.
“The proportion of women who have started childbearing rises sharply from 1 percent at age 18 years to 4 percent among women age 19 years and the proportion who have begun childbearing is much higher among young women who had no schooling (6%) than those with 1 or more years of schooling (0.6%),” it added.
