alt Hacker NewsOne interesting factor about India is the minimum age of marriage. For males, it’s 21. For females, it’s 18. There have been attempts since at least 2021 to increase the age for females to 21, and I’ve talked with some that thought it was 21.
Marriages below the legal ages definitely do sometimes occur.
Personally, I think setting it to 21 for males is unwise, and setting it to 21 for females would be sheer madness. There are definitely some men and women that are quite ready for marriage before 21, and not many will marry at that age even if legal. It feels to me (a white Australian who moved to India a couple of years ago to marry an Indian) like they’re reacting too strongly to some of the problems that have historically existed with child marriages. But I definitely don’t grasp the full complexity of the situation.
It's not only reaction against child marriages. Thr prevailing culture is to marry off girls as early as possible, affecting their higher education. It also causes lower workforce participation among women as at the point of marriage they typically neither have higher education nor they are employed. Then immediately after marriage there is demand for bearing child, after which they no longer have time to look for employment.
Early marriage basically kills job opportunities and subsequently female workforce participation is lower.