Performing Marriage

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Performing Marriage? Gender Scripts and the

Marital Timing in India

Lester Andrist

Manjistha Banerji

Sonalde Desai

India Human Development SurveyWorking Paper No. 9


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Performing Marriage? Gender Scripts and the

Marital Timing in India

Lester Andrist

University of Maryland College [email protected] BanerjiUniversity of Maryland College Park

[email protected] Desai

University of Maryland College [email protected]

Version:

August 2008

India Human Development Survey

Working Paper No. 9

Views presented in this paper are authors personal views and do not reflect institutional

opinions.

The results reported in this paper are based primarily on India Human Development Survey,2005. This survey was jointly organized by researchers at University of Maryland and the

National Council of Applied Economic Research. The data collection was funded by grants

R01HD041455 and R01HD046166 from the National Institutes of Health to University ofMaryland. Part of the sample represents a resurvey of households initially surveyed by NCAER

in 1993-94.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Introduction:

While it is well recognized that marriage in India is more or less universal for both males

and females and tends to occur at an early age (Oberoi 1998), it is often overlooked that women

in India (and neighboring Bangladesh) typically enter into marriage at an earlier age when

compared to most other regions of the world (See Tables 1 and 2). However, while age at

marriage in India has been increasing for both men and women, increases have been fairly slow

with much of the change coming through elimination of marriage for girls under 14 years of age

rather than actual delays in marriage for older teenagers or women in their twenties.

Interestingly, in a 30 year period spanning from 1961 to 1991, women on average delayed their

marriages only by about 3 years, from a mean age of 16 to about 19 years of age (International

Institute for Population and Macro 2000). In contrast, average age at marriage in Bangladesh was

delayed by a full year more during the same three decades (Islam and Ahmed 1998).

It is important to think about this slow change in marriage in the context of rapid changes

observed in other aspects of Indian society and economy. The economy has grown annually at a

rate of 7-9 percent over the past 15 years and education has expanded rapidly for all segments of

the society (Desai and Kulkarni 2008). Not even families have remained immune to these

changes, evidenced by rapid declines in the Total Fertility Rate from 4.8 in the 1960s to 2.7 in

recent years (International Institute for Population Sciences and Macro International 2007). Thus

this relatively slow change in age at marriage remains a puzzle, and one worth examination,


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particularly since marriage forms the cornerstone of other aspects of Indian life such as caste and

gender relations.

We argue that a structural or modernization perspective may not be enough to

understand the marriage process in India. In other contexts, when structural models are deemed

less than satisfactory, focus often tends to turn to culture to emphasize changing roles and norms

as the driving source of observed changes in behavior (Retherford, Ogawa, and Matsukura

2001). However, this residual focus on culture as a structure which is seemingly indifferent to

the inputs of actors runs the danger of seeing culture as a stagnant or fossilized backdrop

(Hammel 1990).

Research on marriage patterns in modern India is faced with a similar dilemma. Much of

the classical research on marriage in India begins with kinship norms and patterns with emphasis

on suitable marriage partners, dowry and other forms of exchange. In this work, marriage often

forms the key through which social hierarchies are built and articulated (Dyson and Moore 1983;

Dube 2001; Oberoi 1998; Karve 1965; Dube 1996; Srinivas 1977). While these classical studies

of kinship originating out of a long tradition of village studies, have contributed enormously to

our understanding of intricate web of social relationships and hierarchies, they fail to illuminate

marriage patterns in a changing India.

Developing nuanced theoretical models for studying social change particularly in such

intimate domains as marriage behaviour remain challenging. While structural forces inform

individual behaviour, the behaviours of similarly located individuals aggregate as patterns

capable of continually modifying that structure. In a sense, then, agency collapses into structure

and nowhere is this more apparent than when looking at the corporate family in Indian society

and the role it plays marriage patterns. Typically, the family is treated along side social


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structures, such as labour markets, educational systems, kinship, and caste structures. For our

purposes, it is important to also recognize the corporate family as an embodied agent, which is

able to negotiate competing demands placed on it.

In deciding on an appropriate time to arrange marriage for their sons and daughters

particularly daughters parents are faced with many difficult decisions. Some of these forces

push toward an early age at marriage, others toward a later age. Finding a good match depends

on the availability of eligible mates and this pool rapidly dwindles once a girl reaches an age

threshold where most of her peers are married. Social pressure to arrange a match begins to

mount as a girl gets older, affecting parents of the bride, the bride herself and the way in which

the potential groom and his family view the bride. In some ways this is not very different from

the kind of pressures American women face as they approach age markers such as 35 or 40

without having a child. At the same time, the pressures against marriage at very young ages are

also strong. With strong media propaganda and laws against child marriage defined as under

age 18 for women and 21 for men the Indian state has set out clear expectations which are

reinforced by a changing social discourse regarding how one lays claim to modernity. Moreover,

most parents wish their daughters to be happy and are concerned about thrusting the

responsibilities of married life onto them at too early an age.

Thus, the central problematic facing research on marriage timing in India relates to two

issues: (1) How is optimal timing for marriage established? (2) How do families negotiate

competing demands regarding appropriate age at marriage?


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Gender Performance and Marriage Timing:

This paper argues that recent literature on the performative aspect of gender offers an

interesting avenue for studying marriage patterns in the Indian context. Goffman (1976) first

argued that men and women engage in a visible display of gender where a stylized mode of

interaction may indicate deference or dominance. This concept was further elaborated in a

provocative paper by West and Zimmerman (1987), titled Doing Gender, where the authors

argue that gender is a powerful ideological device which shapes choices and limits actions based

on the actors sex and leads individuals to consistently act in a way that produces gendered

behaviors in day-to-day interactions between individuals. In anthropology these ideas have been

carried forward in the form of performance theory where gender is constituted through symbolic

enactment in a highly visible manner (Morris 1995). Steve Dern (1994) in his qualitative work

in Banaras (Varanasi) in north India, similarly finds that in every interaction in which a

husband gives his wife permission to go outside the home, he reconstitutes the normal state of

affairs in which restrictions on women are necessary (p. 210).

The synergy between this performative approach and classical social anthropology of

M.N. Srinivas and colleagues is striking. Srinivas first identified the role of women as custodians

of family status and caste purity (Srinivas 1977). But while focusing on the notion of

sanskritization, the process through which castes manipulated their ritual status by embracing

gendered practices such as prohibition of widow remarriage, he also acknowledged that this

might conflict with other forces such as modernization and Westernization. Srinivass work has

been highly influential for several generations of scholars working within this framework.


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However, it seems that the original insight on the performative aspect of culture has been

obfuscated by village studies of caste structure.

The concept of gender performance has many potential uses in social science research

that have not been fully exploited given the roots of performance theory in day-to-day

interactions and enactments in an interpersonal setting away from a study of structural

relationships. Some exceptions are interesting, however. In a highly controversial essay titled

Doing Difference, West and Fenstermaker (1995) expand this notion to incorporate

performance of other forms of difference, particularly race, in this framework. In a paper titled

Performing Modernity, Schein (1999) approaches the issue of constitution of modernity

through its enactment in China. For our purposes, seeing performance theory as a subset of the

new semiotic school of sociology of culture is fruitful because it allows us to focus on the way in

which social actors use culture to fabricate meaning in and of their own lives (Kaufman 2004).

We argue that a notion of scripts that frame actors day-to-day behavior and yet are

constantly modified as actors face competing demands provides an interesting framework for a

study of marriage in India. Travels across India document wide diversity in the way gender is

performed. Purdah or ghunghatis probably the most visible marker or public performance of

gender and it varies from a sari pulled over the face to make women virtually invisible to prying

eyes in north-central India to a polite nod at segregation when an older relative is present in

Gujarat to a total absence ofpurdah in southern India. While ghunghatorpurdah is the most

visible marker to an outsider, there are many other more subtle markers of gender segregation. In

some parts of India, it is common for men and women to eat together, in others segregation

within the family would make it unthinkable for a young daughter-in-law to eat with her father-

in-law. Restrictions on womens physical mobility is yet another marker of gender segregation


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where women must seek permission from family elders before venturing outside the home to

visit health centers, friends or bazaar.

This gender segregation is not necessarily a marker of gender inequality in the household.

Secluded women may retain substantial power in the household and women with considerable

freedom of movement may not find this freedom translating into control over economic

resources. This observation is consistent with a host of demographic studies of gender which

have remarked upon the multidimensionality of gender inequality (Kishor 2000; Mason 1986).

For our work, the focus on value placed on performance as measured through gender

segregation is particularly important.

Linking of gender scripts to age at marriage must also be viewed in the historical context

of the late 19th

and early 20th

Century conflicts between the colonial state which set itself up as

the protector of Indian women and the nationalist movement which needed to find an alternative

construction of Indian women in order to deflect the colonial discourse. Opposition to the Age of

Consent Act of 1891 proved to be one such turning point (Heimsath 1962). This act set a

minimum age for a consenting bride to be 12. Nationalist Indians saw this as an attack on

Indian religious autonomy and a vigorous protest emerged, led by a charismatic Indian politician,

Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak. A subsequent increase of minimum age at marriage to 14 in

1929 in an act that came to be known as the Sarda Act also led to significant protests. Partha

Chatterjee has written persuasively about the process through which the nationalist movement of

early 20th Century created a vision of modern Indian womanhood that was at once modest,

decorous, spiritual and refined (Chatterjee 1989, 1993). This positioning of Indian women of

refinement against their Western counterparts emerged as a response to the colonial state and

Western discourse which continually saw Indian women as dispossessed and subjugated.


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While the resistance to colonial construction of early marriage is probably less relevant

after sixty years of independence, other practical concerns persist. One of the greatest concerns

for most parents is to arrange a marriage for their daughter in a good family where she would

thrive. While the definition of good marriage may vary across families, there is a universal

concern that nothing should damage the value of a daughter in the marriage market. Popular

literature, films and social science literature all emphasize a fear of womens sexuality,

particularly among upper class, upper caste families, and argue that even a possibility that the

bride may not be a virgin reduces her desirability to her prospective parents-in-law. In practice, a

girl does not even have to be sexual active to be labeled promiscuous. Simple contact and

platonic friendship with the opposite sex can be enough to damage her reputation (Caldwell et al.

1998; Caldwell, P. H. Reddy, and Caldwell 1983; Lindenbaum 1981). Thus a long gap between

puberty and marriage is seen as a risky period by parents who seek to minimize this risk by

arranging an early marriage. Based on fieldwork in Hyderabad, Leonard argues that while all

castes of Kayastha in her study had preferences regarding normative age at marriage, deviation

from this normative age was permitted for men far more readily than for women (Leonard 1976).

However, this concern with womens sexual purity is neither universal nor predominant

across class and geographic boundaries (Mendelbaum 1988; Papanek 1973). Reification of

womens modesty is the privilege of upper social classes, and higher caste status is often

demonstrated through such reification (Sharma 1980; Dube 2001). Lower class and lower caste

women rarely have the privilege of secluding themselves. Similarly, casual contact with men is

viewed with much greater fear in certain areas of the country than others. We seek to better

understand the role this fear of womens sexuality and immodesty plays in shaping marriage

patterns via an examination of these differences across different cultural contexts. Fortunately for


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our purposes, India provides a fascinating laboratory of different gender scripts, allowing us to

test our hypothesis that early marriage is a part and parcel of gender scripts in which public

performance of womens modesty is valued.

Our focus on gender scripts emphasizes a concern with public performance of modesty

and implied control over womens sexuality but is quite distinct from other measures of womens

empowerment such as their control over resources or general power in household decision

making (Mason 1986; Mukhopadhyay and Higgins 1988). Thus, we argue that age at marriage

will be lower in areas and in communities where there is a greater concern with womens

sexuality indicated by greater segregation of men and women in separate spheres but other

dimensions of gender relations will not have an impact on age at marriage.

It is important to also note that a deference to gender scripts embodied in early marriage

often collides head on with parental desire to let their daughters mature before facing the

pressures of the married life and increasing public consensus about the undesirability of child

marriages. Most importantly, early marriage is often associated with curtailment of education.

Since education is one of the most important claims to modernity in India, early marriage is not

something parents enter into lightly. One of the interesting ways these two conflicting demands

may be combined is by arranging marriage early but then delaying consummation.

The Indian marriage system is characterized by a disjunction between formal marriage

and cohabitation and initiation of sexual activity. Historically, marriage was quite different from

gauna or effective marriage where the bride was sent to her husbands home to begin a

married life. A gap between marriage and gauna was common for child marriages. But we

suggest that above and beyond, ensuring a mature age at sexual initiation, this tradition may also

be used by parents with claims to modernity to ensure their daughters do not curtail their


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education. The grooms family must also acquiesce in this for the process to work, but frequently

a desire for this obvious marker of modernity higher education is shared by both parties.

Data:

Results presented in this paper come from India Human Development Survey 2005,

spanning 41,554 households over all 25 states and union territories of India (with the exception

of Andaman/Nicobar and Lakshadweep). The survey was conducted by researchers from

University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic research and was funded

by the U.S. National Institute of Health. It was specifically designed to study various dimensions

of gender relations and since the data are collected in structured interviews, considerable

attention was directed to framing questions which would provide information that would

meaningfully tap into womens experiences within the Indian context.

For this analysis, we restricted our sample to 27,932 ever married women age 25-49 for

whom complete data was available. Results from 2001 Indian census indicate that nearly 95

percent women are married by age 25 and restricting our sample ever married women aged 25

and above allows us to minimize the selection bias due to the omission of women who marry

late. These women were interviewed in their homes by female interviewers in local language.

Marriage Patterns in Modern India:

Given a lack of national information on marriage patterns in India we start with

descriptive statistics from IHDS. Table 3 shows that average age at marriage varies considerably

across demographic characteristics among ever married women aged 25 years and above in our

sample. Regional differences in age at marriage are striking, with average age being 15-17 years


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in central states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and higher age at marriage in Punjab and

Himachal Pradesh as well as in the southern states. Women in poor and less educated households

often marry around 16 years of age while women from better off and more educated households

get married around age 19-20 years. Average age at marriage is 19.2 years in metro cities and is

considerably lower in less developed villages.

Not surprisingly many of the young brides were physically immature and had not attained

puberty at the time of marriage. For instance, in Bihar and Rajasthan, states with earliest age at

marriage, around 25 percent of girls had not attained puberty at the time of their marriage. At the

same time, a focus on formal age at marriage may well be mistaken in a context where early

marriage is not synonymous with early age at entry into a sexual union. As documented by many

anthropologists, early marriage is often associated with a delay in consummation and the bride

remains with her parents until a formal gauna or bidai ceremony occurs. States with very

early age at formal marriage also follow the custom of a gap of a year or more between gauna

and marriage. Table 3 indicates proportions waiting at least six months following the wedding

before cohabitation. In Bihar about 65percent of women waited for six months or more to beginliving with their husbands as did about 43 percent of women in Rajasthan. As Figure 1 shows,

this waiting period is often associated with the relative youth and immaturity of the bride and

tends to decline as the age at marriage increases. But it is important to note that regardless of the

age at which formal marriage occurs, average age at which cohabitation or effective marriage

begins is barely about 18-19 years in many states and even younger in others.


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Most marriages are arranged. In spite of the Valentines Day articles in English

newspapers emphasizing the importance of love in marriage among urban elites, in our sample

less than 5 percent of the women said they chose their husbands independent of their parents (see

Table 4). The rest reported a variety of arrangements through which their families made marriage

decisions. Most reported a very limited contact with their husbands before marriage; 68 percent

met their husbands on the day of the wedding or shortly before; an additional 9 percent knew

their husbands for a month before the wedding. Only 23 percent knew their husbands for more

than a month when they got married. While educated women are more likely to have a longer

acquaintance with their husbands, as Figure 2 indicates, even among women with college

education, a long period of acquaintance is not normative. It is important to note that since our

data were collected from women only, much of this discussion has focused on womens choices

and lack thereof. However, much of this discussion also applies to males who have little

opportunity to get to know their wives.

Yet, in spite of the popular stereotype of women getting coerced into arranged marriages,

about 65 percent felt that their wishes were considered in selection of their partners. Perhaps the

most striking change in Indian marriage patterns is the extent to which womens consent is

sought in marriage arrangements. A glance at Table 4 indicates that women between the ages of


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25 and 29 reported that more of their marriages were self-arranged than any earlier birth cohorts.

Indeed about 6.3 percent arranged their own marriages, as opposed to 4.5 percent of women

between the ages of 45 and 49. Similarly, when compared with older cohorts, fewer 25 to 29 year

olds reported that their marriages were arranged without their consent.

While women appear to be more inclined than older cohorts to emphasize for themselves

their choice and efficacy in determining their marriage partner, one can still argue that

entrenched marriage patterns make some choices more probable than others. In parts of India,

especially in the north, the practice of exogamy prevails. As demonstrated in Table 5, in the

northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, women who married in the same village or

town numbered barely 5 percent. An even smaller percentage of women from these states

reported marrying cousins or close relatives. In contrast to the north, women in the south may not

only be encouraged to marry within the natal village, custom may prescribe that marriage to a

close cousin or uncle is preferred. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, nearly 27 percent of women

married within the same village or town, and about 26 percent of women reported marrying a

close relative.


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Gender Performance and Marriage:

If age at marriage is a component of a gender script that views early marriage as a marker

of decorum and propriety, we would expect it coincide with other markers of gender

performance. Specifically, we highlight the relationship between age at first marriage and the

practice ofpurdah, an eating order during meal times, and restricted mobility.

Purdah or ghunghatis probably the most visible marker or public performance of

gender. In the IHDS, women responded yes or no to the question, Do you practice

ghungat/purdah/pallu? Only about half of women between the ages of 25 and 49 reported they

practicedpurdah; however, Table 6 demonstrates marked regional variation. Dividing India into

northern and southern halves by the Satpura hill range, purdah practice is nearly ubiquitous in

the northern states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Indeed 93 percent of women

claimed to practicepurdah in Rajasthan and in the northeastern state of Bihar nearly 87 percent

of women claimed to practice. In contrast, women in south India practicedpurdah far less. In

Tamil Nadu only 10 percent of women claimed to practicepurdah.

Slightly less visible to public scrutiny are the behaviors of households associated with

meal time; and in some parts of India, a gendered eating order is followed. The IHDS asked

women, When your family takes the main meal, do women usually eat with the men? Do

women eat first by themselves? Or do men eat first? The options eating together and varies

were coded together, while the options women first and men first were coded together. In

the northern state of Gujarat only about 4 percent of women reported that their household


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practiced an eating order. Thus while there is a less discernable north-south pattern in eating

order, the percentage of families who ate separately during meal time was highest at 91 percent

in the northern state of Bihar. Neighboring Uttar Pradesh followed with nearly 70 percent of

women reporting they practiced an eating order with their families.

Finally, restrictions on womens physical mobility is yet another marker of gender

segregation where women must seek permission from family elders before leaving the home

alone to visit health centers, friends or the local bazaar. For each of these three destinations

interviewers asked women, Can you go alone? (yes or no)1. 71 percent of respondents could

travel unescorted to the local health center, while 73 percent of respondents could go to a

friends home alone. At 78 percent, most women reported being able to travel alone to the local

market or kirana shop. Table 6 shows a dichotomous mobility variable, where women were

counted as mobile if they could travel alone to all three destinations. 63 percent of all women fit

these criteria. The majority of women, 64 percent, reported being able to travel alone to all three

destinations, and 14 percent reported they could not travel alone to any of the three destinations.

In Bihar, about 30 percent of women reported being able to travel unescorted to all three

destinations, and in contrast, 88 percent of women in Northeast reported being similarly mobile.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 graph state specific markers of gender performance by age at marriage.

As the trend line indicates, the states with greater emphasis on gender performance are also states

with lower age at marriage. In results not reported here, we have undertaken multivariate

analysis using hierarchical linear models which control for womens age, education, household

economic status and place of residence (Desai and Andrist 2008). Even after controlling for these

1A preceding question asked the respondent whether she needed to acquire permission to travel outside the home. In

cases where women reported they did not need to acquire permission, interviewers often failed to ask whether she

could go alone to a particular destination. Because it is impossible to know whether women who did not need

permission to go out were allowed to travel alone, we have opted to drop these records from the analysis. In total,

there were 2,256 such cases.


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factors, the district level gender performance indicators seem to be significantly associated with

age at marriage.

These results suggest that in regions where gender segregation is more prevalent, early

marriage is also preferred. This bolsters our argument that for women, early marriage is part of a

pattern in which seclusion, segregation and modesty mark claims to refinement and status.

Competing Claims of Gender Performance and Modernity:In our theoretical discussion we noted that families are faced by competing demands of

gender performance and modernity. Whereas status claims based on sanskritization emphasizes

behaviors in which modesty and decorum on womens part mark the status of the family; status

claims based on modernity dictate emphasis on education and increased protection of childhood.

How families resolve this contradiction remains an interesting empirical question. We suggest

that a lengthy gap between marriage and cohabitation may be one avenue through which these

competing claims may be resolved. Thus one might expect variation in the gap between marriage

and gauna to be associated with the level of education a woman reports to have. That is, we are

arguing that women who have spent a substantial amount of time in and around educational

institutions are likely to extend the gap between marriage and gauna as a means of reconciling

the demands of these competing scripts.

In what follows we use ordinary least squares regression to analyze the gap between

marriage and cohabitation, and how it might vary by the degree to which women pursue an


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education2. Thus our principle explanatory variable is the eligible womens education level,

broken down into five discreet categories: "Illiterate, 1-6 years, 7-9 years, 10-11 years,

and 12 or more years. The category Illiterate is dropped from the model and used as the

reference category.

We include controls for caste, tribe and religion to mitigate against the conflating effects

of differential marriage and gauna patterns associated with these groups. As women living in an

urban setting may be more inclined to seize upon and enact the prescriptions of scripts associated

with modernity, we include a dichotomous variable indicating whether the eligible woman lived

in an urban setting. As we have demonstrated throughout this paper, regional diversity in India is

substantial, and we attempt to control for the conflating effects of that diversity by adding state

dummies to the model. Finally, because we know age at first marriage is associated with the gap

between marriage and gauna, we add age at first marriage as a control variable to the model.

After adding controls, the results indicate that higher education is associated with longer

gaps between marriage and cohabitation. Note that this is not simply a wealth effect. Other

variables measuring socioeconomic status and urban residence do not appear to be correlated

with the gap between marriage and gauna once controls are added. It is only higher education

that lengthens this gap.

Discussion:

The age in which a daughter or son marries is a pivotal moment of a process and is

undoubtedly the result of careful thought and planning. Perhaps the timing of a daughters first

marriage is conceived to hinge largely on what is perceived to be the depth of the pool of eligible

2The IHDS obtained information about first and second marriages. This analysis is restricted to age atfirst

marriage.


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bachelors. Perhaps too, as some have argued, the size of the dowry a daughter is able to provide

at age 18 as opposed to, say, age 25 is a salient consideration. However, at base, these

explanations regard women and their persuasive families as calculative agents, but they are

agents seemingly devoid of culture. In this paper, we argue for a different understanding of

agency, one which can not be reduced to actors primarily incited by opportunities to maximize

profit or hedge against risk. Instead, they are embodied actors, and while they are capable of

taking account of the consequences of choosing particular courses of action, they are also subject

to the demands of dominant scripts.

What happens when the demands associated with one script seem to preclude ones

ability to meet the demands of another? If an early marriage reduces a womans ability to

complete ever higher levels of education, what then happens when an actor is encouraged to

retain respectability through an early marriage, while at the same time, achieve a greater measure

of respect through additional investments in education? We have argued that families in India are

utilizing and even expanding the space between marriage and gauna as a means of negotiating

these competing demands.

However, underlying the principle finding that the gap between marriage and gauna is

lengthened as a strategy to address the competing claims of scripts, is the notion that families

need to be taken seriously as embodied actors but they are also sites where discourse on

modernity, gender and even sexuality coalesce and manifest. Such a conception allows one to

move away from positing marital timing as strictly the product of simply structural conditions

which exert influence over household and daughter, social actors and the family in particular are

seen here as both subjects and authors of the social process in which they find themselves

immured.


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Data presented in this paper pose an interesting paradox. On one hand, they emphasize

the continuing relevance of traditional scripts in which gender performance continues to be a

significant marker of claims to status and culture. On the other hand they demonstrate that

competing claims of modernity lead to unexpected behaviors through which families seek to deal

with the onslaught of globalization. We have focused on one aspect of this novel behavior, long

gap between marriage and cohabitation as a way of increasing educational attainment.3

Other

studies focus on changing marriage arrangements in which arranged marriages coexist with

increasing input and participation of brides (and presumably grooms) (Banerji, Martin, and Desai

2008) and increasing cross-region marriages in context of bride-shortages associated with

declining sex-ratios (Ravinder Kaur 2004). These observations suggest that marriage patterns in

India may well be changing, however, this change may not necessarily involve a movement

towards a Western pattern of delayed marriage with dissolution of arranged marriage system.

Instead, new forms of marital arrangements may evolve and may deserve attention in future

research.

3We do not argue that the gap between marriage and cohabitation is novel in itself, just the use of this gap to

increase educational attainment. Interestingly, this has also been noted by some activist groups and delayed

cohabitation is seen as one of objectives of programs such as Doosra Dashak in Rajasthan.


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Table 1.

Singulate Mean Age at Marriage of Females

in India and Bangladesh, 1961-1991

age atmarriage 1961 1971 1981 1991

India* 16.1 17.2 18.4 19.3

Bangladesh** 13.9 -- 16.6 18.0

sources *International Institute for Population and Macro 2000;

**Islam and Ahmed 1998


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Table 2.Percent of Married Women Aged 20-24 in Various DevelopingRegions

Eastern/Southern Africa 66Western/Middle Africa 79

Eastern Asia 46

Former Soivet Asia 54

Caribbean/Central America 56

South America 51

Middle East/North Africa 55

All India 77

Rural India 83

Urban India 63

Source: Mensch, Barbara S., Susheela Singh, and John B. Casterline. 2005.

"Trends in the Timing of First Marriage among Men and Women in the Developing World"

The Population Council Working Paper No. 202. for other developing countries.

Census of India, 2001, Table C-2 for India


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Table 3.

Marriage and Cohabitation Patterns by Selected Characteristics

percent not

mean age at cohabitating mean age at

marriage immediately cohabitation

All India 17.2 16.41 17.7

Woman's Age

25-30 17.4 14.71 17.8

31-35 17.1 15.64 17.6

36-40 17.2 18.09 17.7

41-45 17.1 17.48 17.6

46-49 17.3 18.39 17.9

Woman's Education

Illiterate 15.9 23.70 16.6

1-6 standards 17.1 11.69 17.4

7-9 standards 18.2 7.41 18.4

10-11 standards 19.4 7.40 19.6

12 and some college 21.6 3.84 21.7

Place of Residence

Metro Cities 19.2 2.94 19.3

Other Urban area 18.4 7.94 18.6

More dev village 17.0 16.67 17.5

Less dev village 16.3 24.38 17.0

Income

Lowest quintile 16.3 22.02 17.0

2nd quintile 16.6 19.02 17.1

3rd quintile 16.8 17.95 17.3

4th quintile 17.4 13.64 17.9

Highest quintile 18.8 9.20 19.1

Social Groups

High Caste Hindu 18.3 10.37 18.6

OBC 16.9 22.35 17.6

Dalit 16.3 19.13 16.9

Adivasi 16.9 13.44 17.3

Muslim 17.1 9.13 17.3

Other Religion 20.8 2.46 20.8


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Table 3 (contd).

Marriage and Cohabitation Patterns by Selected Characteristics

States

Jammu & Kashmir 18.8 1.41 18.8

Himachal Pradesh 18.5 6.11 18.7Uttarakhand 17.4 5.19 17.5

Punjab 19.6 2.08 19.7

Haryana 17.3 16.40 17.9

Delhi 19.1 4.11 19.2

Uttar Pradesh 15.7 38.91 17.0

Bihar 15.0 64.83 16.4

Jharkhand 17.2 8.54 17.5

Rajasthan 15.2 43.02 16.9

Chhattisgarh 15.7 31.45 16.5

Madhya Pradesh 15.8 33.33 16.7

Northeast 20.4 2.14 20.5

Assam 19.2 1.10 19.3West Bengal 17.5 3.31 17.5

Orissa 18.0 1.23 18.1

Gujarat 18.0 9.64 18.4

Maharashtra, Goa 18.0 2.79 18.1

Andhra Pradesh 15.9 8.76 16.2

Karnataka 17.4 5.61 17.7

Kerala 20.7 1.29 20.7

Tamil Nadu 18.6 1.18 18.7


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Table 4.

Distribution of Marriage Types for Women (25-49) Entering First Marriage at Ages 15-24, bySelected Characteristics

Type of Marriage

Nself-

arrangedjointly-

arranged

parent- arrangedwith

consent from therespondent

parent-arrangedwith no consent

from therespondent

full sample 21,614 4.94 36.52 23.18 35.36

women's age

25-30 5,008 6.25 35.53 25.00 33.23

31-35 5,047 4.67 36.08 25.01 34.25

36-40 5,148 4.40 37.27 22.23 36.09

41-45 3,790 4.64 36.57 22.24 36.55

46-49 2,621 4.48 37.74 19.39 38.39

level ofeducation

Illiterate 9,648 4.10 33.31 15.68 46.91

Primary 3,704 4.79 36.54 24.33 34.34Upper primary 3,002 4.45 38.24 28.24 29.07Secondary 2,988 6.57 39.68 34.05 19.69Senior secondary 1,053 7.24 43.31 31.74 17.71

College 996 7.45 44.32 37.41 10.83

age at (current)marriage

15-16 years 7207 4.36 29.60 19.64 46.40

17-18 years 7063 4.04 38.61 21.81 35.54

19-20 years 4261 5.70 41.40 25.56 27.34

21-22 years 1955 6.60 39.35 30.46 23.5923-24 years 1127 8.59 44.36 32.71 14.34

current residence

Rural 14,815 5.07 34.50 20.34 40.09

Urban 6,799 4.66 40.93 29.36 25.05


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Table 4 (contd).Distribution of Marriage Types for Women (25-49) Entering First Marriage at Ages 15-24, bySelected Characteristics

statesJammu and

Kashmir 245 3.41 16.41 22.83 57.34Himachal Pradesh 159 6.43 8.90 49.55 35.12Uttarakhand 416 1.28 6.47 35.80 56.45Punjab 632 0.60 36.63 24.52 38.26Haryana 419 2.19 56.60 6.89 34.32Delhi 381 1.46 30.12 31.58 36.85Uttar Pradesh 2402 2.71 21.72 8.44 67.13Bihar 1117 2.86 15.24 3.64 78.26Jharkhand 818 6.56 17.91 12.60 62.93Rajasthan 825 0.21 15.89 7.09 76.82Chattisgarh 471 1.01 59.71 7.77 31.51Madhya Pradesh 919 0.69 43.53 8.17 47.61North-East 243 44.01 19.66 14.09 22.25Assam 582 7.87 52.25 35.72 4.16West Bengal 1675 8.21 28.55 41.11 22.12Orissa 929 5.56 19.18 14.40 60.86Gujarat 1283 9.83 79.86 5.13 5.17Maharashtra 2496 3.11 33.75 34.45 28.70Andhra Pradesh 1736 4.74 30.20 45.19 19.88Karnataka 1156 4.62 63.75 23.88 7.75Kerala 825 7.16 54.38 37.23 1.23Tamil Nadu

1886 6.46 52.70 29.04 11.80source: Banerji, Martin and Desai, 2008


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Table 5.

Percentage of Marriage to a Relation and Village Endogamy

Percent of womenmarried within the

same village

Percent of

women marriedto a close

relative or uncle

All India 13.74 9.85

StatesJammu and Kashmir 23.13 17.91Himachal Pradesh 10.53 0.33Uttarakhand 7.69 0.63Punjab 4.75 0.77

Haryana 2.86 1.25Delhi 18.92 1.41Uttar Pradesh 5.26 4.09Bihar 6.13 5.01Jharkhand 8.38 4.99Rajasthan 10.52 1.49Chattisgarh 6.88 0.91Madhya Pradesh 10.37 3.20North-East 41.80 1.95Assam 27.37 0.92West Bengal 20.38 2.96

Orissa 17.01 7.56Gujarat 8.30 2.35Maharashtra 12.17 25.59Andhra Pradesh 16.67 27.49Karnataka 11.65 22.02Kerala 27.61 2.07Tamil Nadu 27.19 25.95

coefficient of variation 67.93 138.95


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Table 6.

Mean of Gender Performativity Variables by SelectedCharacteristics

purdaheatingorder

lessmobility

All India 0.532 0.344 0.359

Current residence

Rural 0.586 0.404 0.400

Urban 0.404 0.204 0.266

StatesJammu and Kashmir 0.766 0.201 0.373Himachal Pradesh

0.447 0.106 0.207Uttarakhand 0.423 0.404 0.238Punjab 0.310 0.231 0.277Haryana 0.799 0.099 0.314Delhi 0.429 0.142 0.248Uttar Pradesh 0.855 0.701 0.435Bihar 0.874 0.906 0.696Jharkhand 0.565 0.541 0.577Rajasthan 0.931 0.426 0.578Chattisgarh 0.554 0.467 0.571Madhya Pradesh 0.917 0.488 0.513

North-East 0.269 0.048 0.123Assam 0.668 0.336 0.490West Bengal 0.666 0.250 0.276Orissa 0.651 0.601 0.374Gujarat 0.743 0.045 0.236Maharashtra 0.364 0.175 0.171Andhra Pradesh 0.118 0.074 0.295Karnataka 0.116 0.264 0.312Kerala 0.138 0.088 0.141Tamil Nadu 0.102 0.147 0.249


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Table 7.

Coefficients from Ordinary Least Squared Model Predictingthe Gap between Marriage and Cohabitation

coefficients std. error

Women's Education

1-6 years -0.076 0.020 **

7-9 years 0.040 0.024

10-11 years 0.222 0.030 **

12 or more years 0.570 0.033 **

age at marriage -0.199 0.002 **

income 0.008 0.006

High Caste Hindu -0.037 0.037

OBC 0.176 0.035 **

Dalit 0.022 0.037

Adivasi -0.055 0.045

Muslim -0.273 0.040 **

Sikh, Jain -0.015 0.078

Christain 0.366 0.070 **

urban -0.035 0.019

States

Himachal Pradesh -0.134 0.116

Uttarakhand -0.394 0.091 **

Punjab -0.075 0.087

Haryana -0.020 0.090

Delhi -0.088 0.094Uttar Pradesh 0.349 0.075 **

Bihar 0.354 0.078 **

Jharkhand -0.277 0.082 **

Rajasthan 0.810 0.080 **

Chhattisgarh -0.016 0.085

Madhya Pradesh 0.062 0.080

Northeast 0.066 0.100

Assam -0.011 0.084

West Bengal -0.375 0.076 **

Orissa -0.380 0.082 **

Gujarat -0.062 0.079

Maharashtra, Goa -0.342 0.076 **

Andhra Pradesh -0.565 0.076 **

Karnataka -0.311 0.079 **

Kerala -0.062 0.083

Tamil Nadu -0.337 0.077 **

constant 3.892 0.092

p


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Figure 1.

Average gap between marriage and cohabitaiton by age

at marriage

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

10 12 14 16 18 20 25 26

Age at Marriage

Years


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- 31 -

Figure 2.

Women's Length of Acquaintance with Husband before Marriage by

years of woman's education

0

20

40

60

80100

0 years 1-4 std 5-9 std 10-11 std H. Sec College

graduate

Years of education

Percent

Since

childhood

1+ years

1-12 month

< 1 month

Around Wedding


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- 32 -

Figure 3.

Age at First Marriage and Purdah by State

0

20

40

60

80

100

12 14 16 18 20 22

age

percentpracticingp

urdah


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- 33 -

Figure 4.

Age at First Marriage and Eating Separate by State

0

20

40

60

80

100

12 14 16 18 20 22

age

percenteating

sep

arate


36/36

Figure 5.

Age at First Marriage and Mobility by State

0

20

40

60

80

100

12 14 16 18 20 22

age

percentunable

to

go

alone

to

three

destinations

Documents

Performing Marriage