Determinants of Girls Child Marriage among High Prevalence Districts in West Bengal, India

The present study aims to investigate the determinants of girl child marriage among high prevalence districts in West Bengal. The purpose of the study is to analyze various demographic, socio-economic, cultural, and village level characteristics that are important in determining factors for girls child marriage among high prevalence districts in West Bengal. Binary logistic regression has been applied to analyze secondary data (DLHS-4) of 8509 child married women in West Bengal. The results of this study indicate that the individual and household socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, such as place of residence, education, religion, and caste are important in determining factors for girls child marriage among high prevalence districts in West Bengal. Furthermore, it is also found that the largest drop in the prevalence of child marriage has been in under-15 marriages, while marriages in the age group 15-17 years continue to occur quite commonly in a number of high prevalence districts in West Bengal. Moreover, there is a greater tendency towards child marriage among rural women, irrespective of educational, and wealth differences between rural and urban women among all high prevalence districts and rest of West Bengal. The result shows that the wealth quintile and households with BPL card are insignificant factor to be associated with child marriage among high prevalence districts in West Bengal. In this study, we can find that girls with secondary and higher education have much lower chances of early marriage compared to illiterate ones. Thus, education and early marriage are closely linked. In this context, the Kanyashree Prakalpa scheme (girls with secondary education) by the Government of West Bengal could be a good instrument to reduce child marriage in West Bengal.