“Even as India recorded a continued decline in child marriage, data from the National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6) for 2023-24 revealed that 20.1% of women aged 20-24 were married before turning 18, the legal age of marriage for women. The figure has fallen by just over three percentage points from 23.3% reported in NFHS-5 (2019-21), according to Times of India report.

Among men aged 25-29, 15.9% had married before the legal age of 21 years, reflecting a 17.7% decline compared with the previous survey period.

The survey also pointed to a reduction in gender-based violence. The share of married women aged 18-49 who reported experiencing spousal violence dropped from 29.2% in 2019-21 to 22.3% in 2023-24. However, the burden remained disproportionately higher in rural areas, where 24.4% of women reported such experiences, compared with 17.5% in urban India. In the previous survey, the corresponding figures were 31.6% for rural women and 24.2% for urban women.

Child marriage among women has steadily declined across successive NFHS rounds. The prevalence stood at 47.4% in 2005-06 (NFHS-3), fell to 26.8% in 2015-16 (NFHS-4), and has now reduced to 20.1% in 2023-24.”

From Economic Times.