Mahila samakhya: A pathway to delay women's marriage in India?
Description
Women’s age at marriage has been a central focus of development strategies across the developing world and is considered crucial for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (Nour, 2006). Early marriage is widely recognized as a violation of human rights, as it restricts girls’ access to education and economic opportunities, thereby perpetuating the gendered nature of poverty (UNICEF, 2005; Raj, 2010; Otoo-Oyortey and Pobi, 2003). Evidence also suggests that adolescent marriage and pregnancy negatively affect both women’s reproductive health and child health outcomes (Finlay et al., 2011; Raj et al., 2010; Santhya et al., 2010). Several studies emphasize the importance of gender relations and the socio-cultural context in which women live in shaping marital outcomes (Dyson and Moore, 1983; Yabiku, 2006; Desai and Andrist, 2010). Women’s empowerment is widely recognized as an important pathway for transforming gender norms within both households and the broader community (Doss, 2013). In this paper, we examine the impact of Mahila Samakhya (MS), a community-driven women’s empowerment program, on the age at first marriage among women in rural India. The MS program aims to empower marginalized women in rural India through a range of activities centered around self-help groups (Sanghas), focusing on education, livelihood development, awareness, and self-reliance (Mahila Samakhya: A National Review, 2014). Launched in 1989 under the National Policy on Education in four districts, the program expanded to 80 districts across nine states by the end of 2006 and has continued to grow since its rollout. In our analytical sample, we include an additional 33 districts where the program was introduced after 2006. Although the primary focus of the MS program has been on empowering women through education and collectivization—rather than explicitly delaying marriage—we argue that age at marriage serves as an important indicator of women’s empowerment.
Copyright Date
January 2016
Publication Date
1-1-2016
Pagination
9p.
Keywords
Marriage, Women's marriage
Conference
Population Association of America Annual meeting, 31st March, 2016, Washington, D.C.
