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female ch~ldren showed that between 1971 and 1981, there was an Increase In the
case of g~rls compared to boys (UNICEF,1990)
(d) Influence of menarche on the air1 child
The g~rls In rural areas are not helped by the educat~on they recelve to comprehend the
phys~cal and hormonal changes that occur w~th puberty The self perception of a
menstruating glrl IS one of ~mpunty She IS often restricted from entenng the kltchen
The parents are equally Ignorant and are more concerned about the secunty of the~r
daughters Thls att~tude leads to a severe restnctlon of her movements outs~de the
house and often results In school dropout (UNICEF,1990)
le) Marnaae
In the early part of thls century, g~ds got mamed In thew early teens Thls was perhaps
due to the fact that parents wanted to reduce the~r burden of hawng to pronde soclal
securlty to a glrl The other reason for thls could be that early marnage prowded a
longer chlld beanng penod The mean age at marnage at the turn of the century was
13 0 years It had moved to 18 3 years by 1981 (UNICEF,1990) However, there was a
w~de Inter and ~ntra state vanatlon
In states l~ke B~har, Rajasthan and Madhya
Pradesh, the mean age of rnamage was much below the nat~onal average of 16 7
years (Vlr.1990, Gopalan1993). W~th a deslre and also the need to have a small
farn~ly, the mean age at marnage IS also lncreaslng In 1981. 7 0% of girls In the age
group 10-14 years and 43 0% In the age group 15-19 years were mamed In 1987-88.
these f~gures were around 4 0% and 37 0% respect~vely (UNICEF.1990) It was
observed that gender b~as was greater In areas where the economlc potentla1 of
females was low
The h~gher cost lncuned In marrytng off g~rls ~n the North and