Women in Haryana tend to marry at an early age. Twenty-three percent of women age 15.19 are already married, including 1 percent who are married but gauna has yet to be performed. The proportion married at age 15.19 is much higher for women in rural areas (27 percent) than in urban areas (14 percent). Older women are more likely than younger women to have married at an early age: 27 percent of women who are now age 45.49 married before they were 15, compared with only 4 percent of women age 15.19. Although this indicates that the proportion of women who marry young is declining rapidly, a considerable proportion of women in Haryana still marry before reaching the legal minimum age of 18 years. On average, women are 4.8 years younger than the men they marry.

Download PDF

Back