Indian youth are now marrying later in life

The Indian youth too are being influenced by recent trends. Compared to a decade ago, youth are now marrying later in life. Lokniti-CSDS Youth Studies in 2016 and 2007 show the proportion of married youth decreased by eight percentage points from 55% in 2007 to 47% in 2016.

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As one would expect, the data highlight that a much higher share of young men were unmarried (61%) compared to women (41%).

Educational attainment too is an important factor associated with marriage. One observes a decline in the proportion of married youth with successive levels of education.

In an age of online dating, growth of social networking and matrimonial sites, arranged marriages are still a preferred choice: 84% of the married youth in 2016 said their marriage was decided by families and only 6% reported self-choice.

Unmarried youth too showed an inclination towards arranged marriages with 50% saying they would opt for this kind of marriage. Only 12% said they would opt for self-choice marriage. Surprisingly, the 2016 study indicates that a mere 3% of youth had placed a matrimonial advertisement.

The study also showed that 31% of the youth said their parents will have or had a lot of influence on their marriage decision. This influence was greater for women (35%) than men (28%).

Moreover, data from a recent study, ‘Politics and Society between Election’, show there is some change in attitudes — if not in practice — when it comes to decision-making for women in marriage: 72 % support women’s say in when to get married and 74 % in whom to marry.