Child Marriage in Boys More than Girls: Study

An earlier report by UNICEF had also revealed that more than 40 percent of the world's child marriages still occur in India, with more than 60 million women worldwide between 20 and 24 years were married before they turned 18. Further, even as per records in the State of the World's by UNICEF revealed that almost 22 percent women in India, who are now aged between 20 and 24 years gave birth to a child before they turned 18.

The Annual Health Survey was conducted by the Office of Registrar General, India in all the 284 districts (as per 2001 Census) in eight Empowered Action Group States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Rajasthan, besides Assam for a three year period 2007 to 2009, carried out in 2010 and 2011.

These nine states account for about 48 percent of the total population, 59 percent of total births, 70 percent of Infant Deaths, 75 percent of Under-5 Deaths and 62 percent of Maternal Deaths in the country.

They are the high focus states in view of their relatively higher fertility and mortality, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, C Chandramouli said.

(With PTI inputs)