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found to be qulte hlgh, the economlc straln was al$o shared by the boy, thus reduclng
the burden on the parents Moreover, the boys recelved dowry whlch part~ally
:ompensated the expenses As far as g~ris were concerned, In addlt~on to shouldenng
the economlc burden of gettlng them marned, the parents had to provlde her soc~al
secunty before marnage For these two Important reasons, parents would llke to reduce
the~r burden by gettlng her marned as early as poss~ble
The age of marnage IS l~nked to the soc~al status of the g~rl chlld In Ind~a, the mlnlrnum
age for marnage of a girl IS offic~ally 18 years However, a large proport~on of girls
(44 0%) get rnarrled between 15-19 years of age In lnd~a It 1s as h~gh as 60 0% ~n
some states l~ke Rajasthan. B~har. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (UNICEF.1990)
In Tamll Nadu, ~t 1s 27 2% (Anonymous.1994a) In the current study, ~t was observed
that only 10 3% of girls between 15-19 years of age were marned Thls clearly reflects
a better soc~al status for girls In thls locality than many other parts of lnd~a