In a disconcerting revelation on the eve of the International Women Day on March 8, the Census data released on March 4 show that the medieval hangover is still rooted in Odisha as out of every 100 currently married girls of below 15 years five live as widows in the State. This happens despite the fact that child marriage is a punishable offence. It is observed that around one per cent of widows in the State belong to the 10-29 years age group. The new findings further blow over the lid on the emerging blues for teenage women evident in the society in the State.
According to the data released by the Census office, the divorce rate in marriages below 15 years age among females is high at 49 per 1,000 marriages against the average of 29 per 1,000 among the entire age-groups. Similarly, the rate of living separately after marriage among females in the age-group of below 15 years is high at 30 per 1,000 compared to the average of 10 per 1,000 among all the age-groups in the State.
An analysis shows that the divorces and instances of living separately among females record a peak in the age-group of 35-39 years. But the rate recorded is lower at 34 per 1,000 and 11 per 1,000, respectively, compared to the rates recorded in the below 15 years age-group. A glance at the districts reveals that Bargarh records the most teenage widows in the State followed by Ganjam and Keonjhar. However, Ganjam records the highest number of divorce cases followed by Mayurbhanj. But Mayubhanj tops the table with around 8,508 women living separately from their husbands followed by Baleswar.
It is not that the trend is only an urban phenomenon as the analysis finds the shift manifesting conspicuously in the rural milieu too. Proportionately, the rural population is five times that of the urban and the incidences of divorce too are five times more than urban centres. This shows the rate of teenage blues among currently married in rural centres is at par with that of the urban areas.
Another conspicuous trend observed is the skewed dynamics across the men-women divide. When across the age-groups for every ten currently married women there are nine men but proportionately there is only one divorced man compared to five divorced women. Similarly, compared to only two men living separately, five women live separately from their spouses. The lower men count indicates to the fact of fewer remarriages among the women folk compared to men in Odisha.
Social experts read these changing shifts as ominous signals to the State’s social structure. They attribute compatibility factor emerging as prime reason behind teenage breakups in rural Odisha. However, former SWC chairperson Jyoti Panigrahi reasoned that most divorces in rural Odisha are on account of harassment over dowry demands. She added that increased incidences of teenage widows, divorces and separately living spouses in rural milieu having poor economic index could have the grave side-effect of boosting crimes against women, especially crimes like trafficking, in backward districts. Police records show that woman trafficking is very high in districts like Mayurbhanj.
State Women Commission member Snehanjali Mohanty advocated the need to ensure land rights to poor women in rural areas in the State to empower and make them self-dependent thereby insulating them from crimes like induced trafficking.