Women agency and Marriage process among young girls in India

Using data from “Youth in India Situation and Needs 2006-07” this paper examines the how women agency differs among married and unmarried women. Agency is measured in the domain of freedom of movement, decision making and self efficacy. Marriage process analysis examines the mean age when do you want marry, preference of marriage opinion about marriage, and approval of spouse selection. Bi-variate analysis, Principal Component Analysis and multinomial logistic regression are used to understand the differential in women agency and marriage process young involvement in India. Findings indicate that women’s agency varies largely by socio-economic attributes irrespective of marital status. Agency is high those who are in the better position regarding educational attainment, economic status and exposure to mass media. Women who are belonging in rural areas they have less women’s agency compared to urban areas. Preference of mean age at marriage in urban areas is 22 years among unmarried women where as 20 years among in the areas. 13% women wish to preference for love marriage in urban areas where as one tenth of rural areas.