Thinking Beyond 18 — Why delaying marriage is key to gender equality

On March 6, 14-year-old Mansi (name changed) was married to a 25-year-old man in Maharashtra. A day later, a video circulated on social media showing another 14-year-old being carried away by her brother-in-law after a forced marriage.

We need to reflect on gender equality, which often highlights violence against women and disparities in education and employment. However, a critical but often overlooked factor is the need to increase the age of marriage for girls.

Early marriage, poverty, violence

Early marriage is closely tied to poverty, limiting girls’ access to education and employment while exposing them to greater risks of violence. Although progress has been made in delaying marriage, the problem persists. Laws alone are insufficient — without societal change, early marriages continue.

Despite India’s commitment to gender equality under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, significant challenges remain. The NITI Aayog ranks India’s progress on SDG 5 as the lowest among all SDGs. The United Nations estimates that globally, at the current rate, it will take  300 years to end child marriage.

Persistent challenges

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) reports that the median age of first marriage has risen from 17.2 years in 2005-2006 to 19.2 years in 2019-2021. However, in eight states, including West Bengal and Bihar, 40 per cent of girls still marry early. The numbers are even higher among marginalised groups — 48 per cent of girls with little or no education, and 40 per cent from the poorest families marry before 18.

The NFHS-5 data also reveals that  one in three women in India experience intimate partner violence, with those having lower education levels suffering the most. Educating girls is not just about delaying marriage; it is crucial to reducing violence against them.

Beyond enrolment

Access to education is not enough. Overcrowded schools, insensitive teachers, and outdated curricula disconnected from students’ lives and aspirations fail to create real change.

The 2023-2024 Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) highlights a significant shortage of secondary and higher secondary schools in several states, leading to high dropout rates. Retention drops from 85 per cent at the primary level to 63.8 per cent in secondary school and plummets to 45.6 per cent at the higher secondary level. Schools also reflect and reinforce social inequalities based on caste, class, community, and gender. Without addressing these systemic barriers, simply enrolling girls in school is not enough. Negative schooling experiences only push them further away from education.

Education, work, marriage trap

Every additional year of education increases earning potential. Women with basic education in Bangladesh, for example, found employment in the textile manufacturing boom. However, in India, work opportunities remain scarce, and these benefits are often not realised. Moreover, since most women’s unpaid domestic labour is not seen as incompatible with schooling, marriage is not perceived as a disruption — even though in reality, it is.

Gender-based violence and early marriage

Early marriage both results from and contributes to gender-based violence. The NFHS-5 data shows that early marriage is strongly linked to intimate partner violence. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported 86 rapes per day in 2022. Widespread sexual assaults instil fear, and a perceived risk of violence prompt families to marry off their daughters early.

The way forward

Policies promoting gender equality must go beyond legal restrictions and address societal norms.

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes incentivise families to delay marriage by offering payments for keeping daughters in school until 18. However, these schemes are often criticised for being perceived as dowry contributions or mere financial ‘bribes’ rather than fostering real attitudinal change.

A more sustainable approach involves meaningful investments in education and employment. In the 1990s, the Government of India partnered with the women’s movement to introduce Mahila Samakhya, an initiative to form sanghas (groups) that advocated for girls' education, established residential institutions, and ensured parental involvement in school committees. By fostering widespread support, these groups helped create a social consensus that naturally delayed marriage.

More recently, Tamil Nadu introduced policies supporting women’s workforce participation, including training subsidies, hostels for working women, and free bus travel. These initiatives not only help young women realise their potential, but also shift societal norms, making education, employment, and then marriage the new normal.

Reimagining a gender-equal future

We need to create a world where women and girls have equal access to education and employment, live free from violence, and can pursue their aspirations. Delaying marriage, alongside policies that expand educational and economic opportunities, is a vital step toward achieving gender equality.

(Ipsita Sapra is associate professor, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.