Keralites not in a hurry to get married

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 11 (UNI) Both men and women in Kerala are a bit lazy when it comes to marriage.

Among the major states in India, the average marriage age for males and females in Kerala is at least three to five years high than the national average.

According to the Reproductive and Child Health Survey, the mean age for marriage in Kerala was 29.7 years for males and 22.7 for females while it was 24.9 and 19.7 years for males and females respectively in rest of India.

Though there was not much difference among the districts in Kerala, the mean age for marriage was lowest in Malappuram district with 24.7 years for men and 18.7 for women.

Men in Thrissur district, known as cultural capital of Kerala, get married late as the average was 29.1 years. However, the highest for women was reported from Kottayam district with 24.4 per cent.

The overall sex ratio in Kerala had been favourable to females for the past four decades. There were 106 females to 100 males as per the 2001 census, as against the national average of 93 females.

The highest ratio was observed in Pathanamthitta where there were 109.4 females.

Juvenile sex ration was a matter of concern for Kerala compared to many other states. But that too showed a sign of improvement as it went up to 96.2 females in 2001 as against 95.2 females in 1991.

Kerala, with a population of 31.84 million, has been growing at a much slower rate compared to India, as a whole. The birth rate of Kerala during 2004 was 16.70 per 1,000 population and it came down to 15 during 2005. The corresponding all India rates were 24.80 and 23.80 respectively during the same period, according to the Economic Review 2006, which was placed in the State Assembly recently.

The total fertility rate (the number of children born to a woman) declined from 1.99 in 2004 to 1.90 in 2005 as against 3.30 and 2.7 respectively at the national level. The percentage of newly married women in the age group of 15-49 using family planing methods was also high in Kerala with 72.10 as against the national average of 52.

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