Last month, the Assam government began an intense crackdown on child marriage. This got the debate going with social activists, who pointed out that the root of the problem — limited access to education among women — is still not being addressed. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data shows that higher education levels appear to play a greater role than wealth, in delaying a woman’s marriage. It also showed wide variations in marital age between rural and urban women, Dalit and upper-caste women. In this episode, Mary E John and Rajni Palriwala discuss the role that wealth, education and caste play in determining women’s marital age.
