Child marriages, especially of girls rise in urban India, decline in rural

In Rajasthan, more girls aged 10-17 and boys aged 10-20 were married before legal ages of 18 and 21

Underage marriages, especially of girls, are rising in urban India and declining in rural India, according to a new analysis of census data, but while the immediate reasons are not clear, patriarcy and the continuing hold of tradition are implicated.

In Maharashtra, India’s third-richest state (by per capita income), 16 districts figure in a national ranking of top 20 districts reporting a rise in underage marriages over a decade to 2011, according to the study by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), India’s highest child rights