Human Development in India - NCAER

10Gender and Family DynamicsMany chapters in this volume have highlighted gender disparitiesin various markers of well-being. These disparitiesare receding in some areas, such as education (Chapter 6),but remain large in others, such as employment and wages(Chapter 4), and are even widening in others such as sex ratioat birth (Chapter 8). As discussed in other chapters, many ofthese inequalities are rooted in institutional structures—suchas labour markets—which provide unequal access to menand women. In this chapter, we focus on cultural normsand their operation within households. Anyone who hasseen burqa-clad girls zooming around on two wheelers inAhmedabad, or women in ghunghat working on constructionsites knows that tradition is not destiny. However, itis also important to note that gender inequality emergeswithin a context of cultural norms. Marriage and kinshippatterns provide a background against which parents arefaced with heart wrenching choices between sons anddaughters, resulting in the preferential treatment of boys.This chapter provides empirical information regarding thebehaviours and norms that shape the narrative of women’slives.TRADITION AND CONTOURS OFWOMEN’S LIVESMarriage and kinship patterns affect both men’s and women’slives. As a vast number of sociological and anthropologicalstudies attest, marriage and kinship practices in India varytremendously between regions, social classes, and communities.But these myriad variations notwithstanding, somebroad patterns shape women’s lives. These patterns are identifiedbelow.Early and Arranged MarriageIn spite of rising levels of education and images of growingwesternization in India, love marriages remain a rarity, evenamong urban educated elite. India is unusual, even amongdeveloping countries, in that marriage in India is almostuniversal and most men and women marry at a relativelyyoung age. 1 As Table A.10.1a indicates, even though the legalminimum age at marriage for women is 18, 60 per cent aremarried before that age. The average age at marriage rangesbetween 16 and 23 years among ever-married women 25years and older in the IHDS sample. 2 Women in poor and lesseducated households often marry around the age of 16, buteven women from better off and more educated householdsmarry around age 19–20. The average age at marriage is 19.3years in metropolitan cities and is considerably lower in lessdeveloped villages. Regional differences in age at marriageare striking, with an average age at marriage of 15–17 yearsin central states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, and a higheraverage age at marriage in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, aswell as in the southern states (see Table A.10.1b).1For data on age at marriage in other developing countries, see Mensch, Singh, and Casterline (2005).2We exclude ever-married women under age 25 from this calculation. If we were to include younger cohorts, then women who marry at young ageswould be included and those who delay marriage would not. Thus, including younger cohorts would bias the sample towards women who marry at youngages, such as those in rural areas and those with low levels of education.