Age pattern and Marriage dissolution rates in India

Present paper is an attempt to understand age pattern of divorced/separated population. Paper also calculated marriage dissolution rates for divorced/separated population, over the past three decades (1971-2001) in India by using census data.
Since last three decades’ continuous increase in numbers of divorced and separated persons have been observed. The increase is faster among the female population. It shows that there is high prevalence of remarriages among the males population as compared to the females. Age specific annual dissolution rates per thousand populations have been calculated. Results reveal that among both the sexes the persons who have experienced marriage dissolution are mostly concentrated in the middle ages, i.e. 15-44 ages. For both the sexes peak of dissolution curve is found in between 20-24 ages, except 1971-81. Among the male and females the highest proportion of marriage dissolution persons found during the 20-24 ages. After attaining the surge in dissolution curve by both the sexes, it shows a declines trend. Dissolution curve of females sharply decline as compared to males. Further analysis will be carried out on the basis of these preliminary findings.