indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

The following are some of the statements made in this regard:-
I. "If a girl gets married at a younger age, she will be playful and will not look
after her family" (A 36 year old woman in an in-depth interview).
2. "The sooner a girl gets married, the better. Having an unmarried girl in the
house is a big burden. It is like having fire in the stomach. We have to reduce
our burden. (A 39 year old woman in a group discussion).
3. "Not having money is the main reason for the marriage of girls getting delayed.
Money is everything. Even if the girl is not good looking, if they give more
sovereigns, the girl will get married" (A 35 year old woman in an in-depth
intew~ew) Many peopie expressed a similar view.
4. If the girl is nice to look at, she will get married quickly. If she is not, people
will say, she is dark, her teeth are prominent and things like that. If she has
some problem like abdominal pain she will not get married. If the boys people
come to know of it they will not marry her because she will not work.'' (A 30
year old man ~n an in-depth inte~ew)
5. "If there is an unmarried girl in the house, people will say whatever they feel
like. Neighbon will talk more than relatives. We may feel hurt by their remarks
sometimes. But why should we not take part in other functions? It will look
bad if we don't attend" (A 45 year old man in a group discussion).
(ii) Other epidemiological methods
Dur~ng census it was observed that out of a total of 136 girls between 15-18 years of
age ~n the village, only 14 (10.3%) were married.
(i) Ethnographic methods
All the 160 respondents to the quest~onnalre felt that a boy should get marned only
after 25 years of age when he becomes responsible enough to look after a famlly