EARLY MARRIAGE AMONG RURAL AND URBAN FEMALES OF SOUTH-INDIA

Data on 2972 marriages in rural areas and 1180 marriages in urban area s of North Arcot Ambedkar district of South India, during 1982-88, wer e analysed. The mean age at marriage of females was 18.6 in the rural and 19.6 in the urban area. The proportion of females married before a ttaining the legal age of 18 years was higher among the rural communit y (36.8%) than in the urban community (28.9%). Univariate analysis rev ealed an association between early age at marriage and the socioeconom ic variables religion, caste, consanguinity, marital distance, spousal age difference, education and occupation of both bride and bridegroom , and socioeconomic status of the family. Multivariate analysis showed an independent relationship of marital distance and bridegroom's occu pation with early age at marriage of females in the rural area alone a nd the bridegroom's education in the urban area alone. Consanguinity, spousal age difference and bride's education were found to be independ ently related with early age at marriage of females in both rural and urban areas.