Raising the age of marriage and women’s empowerment (Kvartha.com)

Kvartha.com published an online article suggesting that if raising the age of marriage could benefit women’s empowerment. In India, the Prime Minister announced that a committee had been appointed to study the issue of malnutrition in girls and determining the correct age for marriage, and that a decision would be taken immediately, including raising the marriage age of girls. An IFPRI study, How has early marriage, a critical social determinant of child stunting and wasting, changed over a decade in South Asia? Trends, inequities, and drivers, 2005 to 2018 found that children under the age of 19 are 5 to 11 percent more likely to have stunted growth than children of adult mothers. Similarly, the study found that children born to teenage mothers were 10 percent more likely to be born to adult mothers. Poor maternal education and lack of financial security can greatly affect children’s growth and increasing the age of marriage and the age of conception of the first child and ensuring higher education for girls are among the best ways to increase maternal and child nutrition and reduce maternal and child mortality.