Page 36 - IJPS-11-3

International Journal of
Population Studies Marital dissolution in India

variation in marital dissolution across states and districts, Table 1. (Continued)
examining its prevalence among ever-married women
Divorced/
aged 15 – 49 based on their background characteristics. Characteristics Sampled separated women
women
The research further delved into region-specific analysis by distribution (%) distribution (%)
considering socio-economic and demographic parameters. Consanguineous marriage
3.1. Profile of women considered in the study No 87.09 87.82
Yes 12.91 12.18
Table 1 illustrates the demographic and socioeconomic
characteristics of the ever-married women of the Declared infecundity
reproductive age group (15 – 49 years) in India. A total No 97.81 91.97
of 511,604 ever-married women aged 15 – 49 years Yes 2.19 8.03
were included in the study, of which 50,3947 (98.5%) were Social groups
currently married or within a union, 2,332 (0.5%) were SC 22.74 26.5
divorced, and 5,324 (1.0%) were separated as per their ST 9.61 11.61
marital status. To present a long-term trend, we further OBC 45.35 42.6
analyzed the data by comparing birth cohorts. Among the None of them 22.3 19.29
respondents, about 27% were born during the 1969 – 1979 Religion
cohort, while about 35%, 34%, and 3% of respondents Hindu 81.89 76.63
Muslim 13.18 15.45
Table 1. Demographic and socioeconomic profile of the Christian 2.2 4.28
sampled women and profile of divorced/separated women in
India (NFHS 2019 – 2021) Others 2.73 3.64
Educational attainment
Characteristics Sampled Divorced/ No education 27.22 29.28
women separated women
distribution (%) distribution (%) Primary 58.34 58.45
Secondary 1.52 1.42
Marital status
Higher 12.92 10.85
Currently married 98.5
Exposure to mass media
Divorced 0.46 30.46
Not at all 24.23 23.47
Separated 1.04 69.54
Partially exposed 74.12 74.66
Birth cohort Fully exposed 1.65 1.87
1969 – 1979 26.91 31.63 Wealth status
1980 – 1989 35.2 37.87 Poorest 18.65 20.93
1990 – 1999 34.42 28.25 Poorer 19.98 21.9
2000 – 2006 3.48 2.25 Middle 20.48 22.56
Current age Richer 20.83 20.19
15 – 24 16.7 11.62 Richest 20.06 14.42
25 – 34 37.62 35.75 Residence
35+ 45.69 52.62 Urban 31.55 39.07
Age at first cohabitation (years) Rural 68.45 60.93
<18 41.15 40.01 Region
North 13.65 8.71
18 – 21 38.64 33.04
Central 23.47 16.01
22 – 29 19.06 23.37
East 23.73 19.08
>30 1.15 3.58
Northeast 3.69 4.93
Number of sons
West 14.40 18.84
None 26.21 52.22
South 21.06 32.43
1 43.02 34.25
Total 100 100
2 24.6 11.3 Total sample size 511,604 7900
3 or more 6.17 2.23 Source: Computed from data of NFHS-5.
(Cont’d...) Abbreviation: NFHS-5: National Family Health Surveys.

Volume 11 Issue 3 (2025) 30 https://doi:10.36922/ijps.1681