Why in news:

The National Family Health Survey  2020-21 (NFHS-5), has revealed a decline in instances of child marriages in Rajasthan.

Key Highlights:

• The survey data indicates that in Rajasthan as compared to 2015-16 the percentage of women between 20 to 24 years, who were married before turning 18, came down to 25.4% which is a decrease of 10% from NFHS-4.
• This decrease was also visible in men between 25 to 29 years, who were married before turning 21 and in 2020-21, 28.2% of men fell in this category as compared to 35.7% in 2015-16, a decrease of about 7%.
• Child marriage continues to be higher in rural areas with 28.3% of girls married before the age of 18 years as compared with 15.1% in the case of their urban counterparts.
• According to NFHS-5, 28.2% of boys were married before the legal age as against 25.4% of girls who got married before the legal age.
• Rajasthan has witnessed a significant reduction in early marriage for boys in the rural areas from 44.7% in 2015-16 to 33.2% in 2020-21.
• For NFHS 4 and 5, early marriage among boys in the urban areas remains unchanged at 16%.
• The gains are significant for rural Rajasthan wherein child marriage has declined about 12% from 40.5% in 2015-16 to 28.3% in 2019-20.
• Urban Rajasthan witnessed a reduction in child marriage by 5.2 percentage points between 2015-16 and 2019-20 from 20.3% to 15.1% in the respective years.
• National Family Health Survey provides information on population, health, and nutrition for India and each state/union territory (UT).
• Like NFHS-4, NFHS-5 also provides district-level estimates for many important indicators.
• Due to the Covid-19 situation and the imposition of lockdown, NFHS-5 fieldwork in phase 2 States/UTs was conducted in two parts.
• NFHS 5 fieldwork for Rajasthan was conducted from January 2, 2020 to March 21, 2020 prior to the lockdown and from December 10 2020 to March 1 2021 post lockdown by Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR). Information was gathered from 31,817 households, 42,990 women, and 6,353 men.