Residents of Maharashtra may soon be required to include their dates of birth on wedding invitation cards, as the state government is considering a regulation mandating that the DOB of both the bride and groom be printed to help curb child marriages.
The Maharashtra government is contemplating making it compulsory to print the dates of birth of both the bride and groom on wedding invitation cards as part of its efforts to prevent child marriages, Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare said on Wednesday.
The state aims to bring the incidence of the illegal practice below 10 per cent within the next five years, Tatkare said, replying to a question raised by BJP member Atul Bhatkhalkar in the legislative assembly.
The Maharashtra government has sent a letter to the Rajasthan government seeking details about its practice of printing the birth dates of both the bride and groom on wedding invitation cards.
She stated that Maharashtra will assess the practicality of implementing a similar system in coordination with the rural development department as well as the law and judiciary departments.
According to the recently published sixth round of the National Family Health Survey, conducted in 679,238 households during 2023-24 and released in May, 20.1%—or one in five—women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18.
This marks a decrease from the 23.3% reported in NFHS-5, which was carried out between 2019 and 2021.
Tatkare said Beed and five other districts remain particularly vulnerable because of migration among sugarcane-cutting workers. The government is exploring special care and shelter facilities for children from migrant families to reduce the risk of child marriages in such regions.
While the trend is improving, the minister said the state’s focus remains on bringing the prevalence rate down to single digits over the coming year
As per the NFHS-6 survey, 15.9% of women aged 20–24 years were married before turning 18, compared to 18.8% in NFHS-5 (2019–21) in Mahrashtra.
This reflects a reduction of about 2.9 percentage points in the prevalence of child marriage among young women in Maharashtra between NFHS-5 and NFHS-6.