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 may negatively impact 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 for understanding marital outcomes (Dyson and Moore, 1983; Yabiku, 2006; Desai and Andrist, 2010). Women’s empowerment is considered a crucial 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 rural women through a range of activities centered on self-help groups (Sanghas), focusing on education, livelihood development, awareness, and self-reliance (Mahila Samakhya 2014: A National Review, 2014). Launched in 1989 as part of the National Policy on Education in four districts, the program had 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. While the primary focus of MS has been on empowering women through education and collective action—rather than explicitly delaying marriage—we argue that age at marriage is an important indicator of women’s empowerment. Using MS rollout data and the third wave of the District Level Household Survey (DLHS-3, 2007–08), our preliminary results suggest that the MS program has a significant impact on age at marriage. Furthermore, we examine whether the duration of exposure to the program has differential effects across age cohorts.

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Keywords

Women education, Women empowerment, Marriage, Women's marriage

Conference

22nd Novemebr, 2018, Department of Economics, University of Calcutta

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