HOW TO REACT?

Saksar Sawasth Aur secular Haryana

HOW TO REACT?
It’s a social ill that continues to shame India. Nearly 45% of women in the country, aged between 20 and 24, are married off before they reach 18, the legal age to marry. What’s worse, the number is over 50% in eight states.
While 61% of women in Jharkhand were married off before 18, the number stood at 60% in Bihar, 57% in Rajasthan, 55% in Andhra Pradesh, 53% each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and 52% in Chhattisgarh.
Lack of education was found to be a major factor fuelling this trend. Over 71% of women who got married below the age of 18 had received no education.
These are part of the findings of the latest National Family Health Survey-III, carried out in 29 states during 2005-2006. The survey, conducted by 18 research organizations, including five population research centers, and designed to collect and provide vital information on population, family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, nutrition of children and status of women, also unmasks another worrying trend. Six states — Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal — which reported a lower percentage of under-18 marriages among women during the NFHS-II survey conducted in 1998-99, show an upward trend in NFHS-III. Officials say more and more women in these six states are being married off at the age of 15. The survey, which interviewed 1,24,395 women and reported a response rate of 94.5%, shows that this social malady exists mostly in rural India. While 52.5% of the cases of under-18 marriages were found to be in rural areas, the number Stood at 28.19% in urban India Some states, however, have shown a low prevalence of this practice. States like Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Punjab, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya reported 12%-25% prevalence.
In 2008, for the first time, more than half of the world’s population will live in urban areas. By 2030, towns and cities will be home to almost 5 billion people. The urban population of Africa and Asia will double in less than a generation. This will greately increase the number and proportion of young people in the urban population. Most will be born into poor families, where fertility tends to be higher. The wave of urban population growth calls for the policy makers to consult young people and reflect on their needs, both to realize individual potential and to stimulate urban economies. More quality schools, new investments to create jobs and economic vitality, quality health services are the need of the hour for this young population to live fulfilling lives and make their own decisions on marriage and family formation. If the opportunity is missed it will deepen poverty and accelerate environmental degradation. Only sustainable development for all can stabilize the population of India and the World as a whole..

R.S.Dahiya