Factors and Consequences of Early Marriage among Women of Tharu Community, Chitwan

Early marriage is common all over the global and has inflicted dangerous and devastating effects on young children who are completed to tie the knot in most cases. The study aimed at finding out the factors and consequences of early marriage among women. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was carried out among 172 women at Tharu Community Bharatpur Metropolitan-22, Chitwan. Probability, simple random sampling technique was used. Data was collected by using semi-structured interview schedule. Analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Study findings revealed that 79.7 % of the respondents got early marriage. Early marriage was statistically association with involvement in farming at the time of marriage (p=0.011), awareness about legal age of marriage (p=0.017), awareness about consequences of early marriage (p=0.009), educational status of father (p=0.045) and insufficient parental income at the time of marriage (p=0.002), husband�s occupation (p=0.027). Multivariate analysis showed that insufficient parental income at time of marriage was 5.1 times more likely to marry early. Consequences of early marriage were early pregnancy (64.0 %), unplanned pregnancy (73.1 %), increase responsibility (85.5 %) and economic dependent (85.5 %). Therefore, it is concluded that more than three fourth of the respondents were married early which lead to many consequences that might result in life threatening condition of the respondents which suggests awareness programme regarding early marriage and its consequences should be conducted.