Marriages may be made in heaven, but they may breakdown in homes, offices and of course courts. Data collected from the 2011 census made some interesting revelations about Indian marriages. Details about how long marriages last in different parts of the country were revealed by the census data which had telling implications.
Marriages in North India and Maharashtra last longer than the North East
In most north Indian states from Bihar to Punjab, the proportion of couples who had been married for more than 40% years was the highest. While 11-12% of North Indian couples may be able to celebrate their golden wedding anniversaries in some years, the North Eastern states had only 7% such couples. Only 4.1% couples in Meghalaya have been married longer than 40 years; which is roughly one third the proportion of Haryanvi and Maharashtrian couples.
Numbers Tell All
Reasons for the differences
Apparently it isn’t true love that keeps more couples married for longer. There are far more prosaic reasons: in northern India men and women still typically get married at a lower age. So while 21% Haryanvi men marry before they turn 21 and 31% Haryanvi women are married off before they’re even 18, only about 11% men in Meghalaya marry before 21 and about 15% girls marry before they turn 18. This is the custom and so it follows that couples remain together for longer.
Also overall better life expectancy means that couples simply live longer, so they live longer together as well. If people live longer in the north than they do in the north east, it follows that they have longer marriages as well.
Other possible reasons for North Indian marriages lasting longer
Women in north India also tend to be less empowered than women in other parts of India. Women who are not economically independent find it difficult if not impossible to get out of an undesirable marriage, even an abusive one. Deeply patriarchal social structures don’t permit women to break free of the shackles of an unhappy marriage, forcing a woman to stay in a miserable relationship because of social taboo and familial censure.
Also when a girl is married off before 18 years of age, what sort of education could she possibly have obtained by that time? Certainly not the sort that would help her become self sufficient enough to walk out of bad marriage. So long marriages do not necessarily paint a rosy picture of marital bliss; sometimes they could indicate quite the reverse.
