Data | Education, more than wealth, determines women’s marital age

For decades now, better-educated women have had more control over when they should get married

The Assam government is cracking down on child marriage and has registered over 4,000 cases just this year alone. While some people have supported this approach, social activists point out that the root of the problem — limited access to education among women — is still not being addressed.

Data from NFHS-5 show that the more educated a woman is, the higher her negotiating power about when she wants to get married. Interestingly, this is not a recent phenomenon. Data suggest that for decades now, better-educated women have had more of a say on when they should get married.

Table 1 shows the median age of women when they first got married by current age, across various wealth quintiles, and years of school education completed, in 2019-21. In the survey, women who completed over 11 years of schooling (row K) and were currently aged 25-29 (column I) and 45-49 (column V) were asked their age when they were first married. The median marriage age in the 25-29 age-group was 23 and in the 45-49 age-group was 22.5. The negligible difference (columns I-V) shows that education has long been a controlling factor in deciding a woman’s marital age.

Table 1

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However, the same is not true when it comes to the wealth of a household. Women who belonged to the richest 20% of households (row E) and were currently aged 25-29 (column I) and 45-49 (column V), were asked their age when they were first married. The median age at first marriage in the 25-29 age group was 22.8 and in the 45-49 age-group was 19.7. The difference (columns I-V) shows that wealth has only recently gained relevance as a controlling factor in deciding a woman’s marital age. Among older generations, even wealthier families married women at a younger age.

Though wealth has recently gained relevance, education continues to be the dominant controlling factor of the two. The median marriage age of women from the wealthiest households was still lower than that of women who completed over 11 years of schooling (E-K). Also, the median marriage age of women from the poorest households was still higher than that of women who have had no schooling (A-F).