Factors Affecting Female Age At Marriage In A Rural Area of Charghat Thana of Rajshahi District, Bangladesh

1. Md. Mosharaf Hossain
Research Fellow
Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development
University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh.
E-mail: m_population@yahoo.com

2. Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam
Associate Professor
Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development
University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh.
E-mail: rafique_pops@yahoo.com

Corresponding Address:
Md. Mosharaf Hossain
Research Fellow
Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development
University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh.
E-mail: m_population@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Bangladesh is a small country of 147,570 square kilometers in area with a population of around 147 million people (934 people per square kilometers) (U.N, 2006) with a 150 million population in 2007 (CIA, 2007). The populations of Bangladesh are mostly poor and most of them live in rural areas. Marriage is almost universal in Bangladesh. Age at marriage, particularly among females is very low. The universality of marriage and low age at marriage is related to the religious affiliation and lower status of females in the society. Since, Muslims are a major part of the population and premarital sex is strictly prohibited in Islam, such an act is considered immoral and socially unacceptable.

According to Islamic law, marriage is an obligation for a person who has the financial ability to support his future wife or a family. Being Muslim in Bangladesh, is a major reason for ensuring early arranged marriage. Marriage squeeze appears to have been a factor in delaying marriage, especially arranged marriages, in Sri Lanka at least temporarily (Caldwell et al., 1988). In Bangladesh it seems to have led to increased instability of marriage, and more polygamy (Amin and Cain, 1997).

South Asia's marriage patterns reflect its cultural context and lesser socio-economic change but their precise effect is not simple or always predictable. In Bangladesh, age at marriage is very early and in Sri Lanka, it is much later (Caldwell and Bruce, 2005a). In contrast, early marriage and births soon after marriage are desired and common in rural Asia and North Africa. More than half the women in such areas are married by the age of 18 and births to teenage women as a percentage of all births are 11% (Alam, 2000).

Among the slum population in Dhaka generally, there are considerable advantages in early marriage, particularly in protecting young girls in a society where unmarried young women are not socially accepted, and few advantages in later marriage since there are few job opportunities in the formal sector and minimal demand for experience (Bruce and Caldwell, 2005).

The point is that with mean age at marriage rising to some adequately high level, the existing minimum age at marriage in the area will have little or no significance for fertility. In conclusion, it is necessary to integrate efforts that seek higher ages at marriage with those seeking increased spacing between births through family planning services (Chowdhury et al., 1996). Age at marriage was positively and significantly related to the number of years of schooling the women had and to the size of the cultivated landholdings of the women's households.

The mean number of children was also positively and significantly related to the duration of marriage. The study demonstrated that age at marriage does have an effect on fertility in Bangladesh. The reduction in fertility in the village was achieved not by altering the legal minimum age for marriage but by providing and promoting increased schooling for both males and females (Khuda, 1985).

Thus, the purpose of the present work is to identify the factors affecting female age at marriage in rural areas of Charghat Thana of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh.

This paper is constructed as follow. Sources of data are included in Section 2. Section 3 contains methodology of this study. Results and discussion are narrated in Section 4. Lastly, Section 5 provides a conclusion and recommendations.

SOURCES OF DATA

In this study, a total number of 800 female respondents were questioned during the survey period in 2007. The respondents were randomly interviewed by some selected questions from several villages in the rural area of Charghat Thana of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh by purposive sampling technique. Various socio-economic and demographic variables were considered at the time of data collection.

METHODOLOGY

To test the association between the categorical variables bivariate analysis is used in the present study. Logistic regression analysis is carried out using the software SPSS10.0. Logistic regression is a form of regression, which is used when the dependent is a dichotomy and the independents are of any type. In logistic analysis female age at marriage is treated as a dependent variable and respondent's education, husband's education, respondent's father's occupation, respondent's occupation, husband's occupation, religion, watches TV and listening to radio are considered as independent variables. Let Y be female age at marriage, that is a dichotomous dependent variable, which takes values 1 and 0, that is Y is classified in the following way:

It is noted that the Bangladesh Government has imposed a condition for female age at marriage of 18 years and above.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In the present study, total 800 from 611 (76.4%) has respondent's age at marriage below 18 years or early age at marriage and mean age at marriage 16.13 years. Age at marriage varies by region, education and urban/rural residence. This is also despite the fact that Hindus now, in general, marry later than Muslims, in part because of higher education rates (Bruce and Caldwell, 2005). The illiterate and literate respondents are 60.3% and 39.7% and husband's education were 57.0% and 43.0% respectively. The respondents' highest percentage (96.5%) are engaged as housewife and (3.5%) are 'other' occupations such as services, business, job etc, and the highest percentage (76.8%) belongs to the woman whose husbands are farmers and the rest of them are engaged in other occupations such as services, business, job etc. The majority of respondents are farmer's family. In this study, most of the respondents are from the Muslim community. About 83.0% and 72.7% of rural respondents are connected to television and radio respectively.

Table 1. Percent distribution of woman by age at marriage according to selected characteristics

Educational attainment has a direct effect on female age at marriage. The relation between educational attainment and age at marriage is reciprocal. Table 2 reveals that respondent's education has a very significant influence on respondent's age at marriage. It is evident that respondents who are illiterate marry earlier and those who are literate marry later. Among the respondents who are illiterate, 83.4% have married at ages below 18 years and only 16.6% have married above 18 years. It indicates that husband's education has a very significant positive effect on female age at marriage.

The respondents with husband's education as illiterate and literate who have married at higher ages (more than 18 years) are 19.1% and 29.7% respectively. Table 2 indicates that respondent's occupation, husband's occupation and respondent's father's occupation has a significant affect on female age at marriage. Among the respondent's, husbands and respondent's father's occupation - being housewife and farmers, 77.2% are housewife, 78.5% and 80.6% are farmers.

The majority of Muslim respondents (79.4%) have married at lower ages (less than 18 years) and only 20.6% are non-Muslim respondents. Respondents who are connected with television and radio have married at lower ages (less than 18 years) 75.5% and 73.2% respectively.

Table 2. Chi-square ( ) test of Age at marriage among the various socio-demographic characteristics

Notes: *p<0.01 **p<0.05 ***p<0.10

Islam and Mahmud (1996) found that the most important factor for early female marriage were in order, female education, husband's occupation, region of residence (urban or rural), women's work status, and husband's education. In this study area, the odds ratio has age at marriage increased with an increase in educational level, with a substantial difference in the odds ratios of age at marriage between respondents who are illiterate and literate. The odds ratio regarding age at marriage of respondent,s were 2.145 times more than illiterate levels compared to literate. Education has positive significant effects on female age at marriage. Husband's education is observed to have a significant positive affect on female age at marriage in the study rural areas of Bangladesh.

The odds ratio for the respondents whose husbands have literacy 1.521, which implies that they married at higher ages compared to the respondents whose husbands were illiterate. Respondent's father's occupation is found to have a strong and positive influence on female age at marriage. The odds ratio 1.749 for the respondents whose fathers are 'other' occupations such as services, business, job etc, that there are 1.749 more likely to be married compared to farmers. Religion and media connection have a significant influence on female age at marriage. The respondents who are connected with radio have an odds ratio 2.622 times higher to marry at later ages compared to the respondents who have no media connection.

Muslim respondents are 3.508 times less likely to have higher age at marriage than non-Muslim respondents. The other variable such as respondent's occupation, husband's occupation and watches T.V are not statistically significant effects on female age at marriage.

Table 3. Results of logistic regression analysis of Age at marriage as the dependent variable

-2Log likelihood: 784.021
Model chi-square=90.729
Degree of freedom=8
R2=0.107
Notes: *p<0.01 **p<0.05 r.c: reference category

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

In this study, education is significantly affects female age at marriage. Mother's education was illiterate and literate are 60.3% and 39.7% respectively. And corresponding husband education were 57.0% and 43.0% respectively. The multivariate analysis shows that the risks of low age at marriage were respondent's education, husband's education, respondent's father's occupation religion and listening to radio. It is observed that the respondent's level of education is the strongest and intensive predictor of female age at marriage.

The literate respondents possess the highest female age at marriage. Hence, all out efforts should be taken to weed out female illiteracy. Initiatives must be taken to ensure their attendance in higher levels of education, and the possibility of free education for females up to university level can be justified in this context, which will accelerate the females towards higher ages at marriage in a most efficient way.

The finding of this study may have some policy implications that would help the planners and policy makers of the Government to take necessary steps in achieving female age at marriage as high as possible. The following recommendations should be suggested for policy implications:

1. Age at marriage would be increased if both mothers and husbands education are to be enhanced. As a result, rural woman could be empowered and hence, fertility and mortality would be tremendously reduced: that is our expectation. It can be suggested that male's educational facilities and attainments must be improved which will help females to be married at matured ages.
2. As a media connection has been observed to be significant on female age at marriage. Attractive and effective program/features should be telecast/broadcast/published on television/radio/newspaper, which will help in uplifting age at marriage. Attempts as well should be taken so that these arrangements may reach out to them.

The Government should consider strategies to reduce poverty, increase educational opportunity, expand schooling (particularly for girls) and help to strengthen women's ability to care for their families.

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