Changing Trends of Consanguineous Marriages in South India. (March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sahoo, Harihar; Debnath, Paramita; Mandal, Chaitali; Nagarajan, R.; Appunni, Sathiyasusuman
• Is Part Of: Journal of Asian and African studies. Volume 57:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 209
• Page End: 225
• Publication Date: 2022-03
• Subjects: Consanguineous marriage -- marriage cohort -- mean age at marriage -- South India; Social change -- Africa -- Periodicals; Social change -- Asia -- Periodicals; Economic development -- Africa -- Periodicals; Economic development -- Asia -- Periodicals; Africa -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Asia -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Africa -- Periodicals; Asia -- Periodicals; 950
• DOI: 10.1177/00219096211012017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9096

Abstract

Consanguineous marriage is still a preferred option in many societies of southern India. Therefore, this study addresses the state and district wise variation in consanguineous marriages and also attempts to find out the underlying factors of this practice in different marriage cohorts of South India. Drawing data from National Family Health Survey-4, the result revealed that there is a reduction in consanguineous marriages from 32.6% who married before 1985 to 23% during 2010–2014. About 13 districts in Tamil Nadu had the highest prevalence of consanguineous marriages, indicating that recent socio-demographic changes such as delays in age at marriages, lesser age gaps between partners, increase in the level of education, etc., did not explicitly affect the consanguineous marriages.