HYDERABAD: Early marriage and motherhood continue to pose serious challenges in Telangana, with 16% of women from the Younger Cohort (YC) (born in 2001-02) married before the legal age of 18 and 22% becoming mothers by age 19.
These findings are part of the preliminary results from the ‘Young Lives Round 7 Survey (2023-24)’, unveiled on Friday by Women and Child Welfare Minister Dansari Anasuya, alias Seethakka, at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) in Hyderabad.
The survey, which began in 2002, tracks 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam to examine long-term trends in child poverty. In India, it focuses on the undivided Andhra Pradesh, covering 20 mandals — 13 in Andhra Pradesh and 7 in Telangana. The Telangana districts included in the latest round are Karimnagar, Bhupalpally, Nagarkurnool, Mahbubnagar, Jogulamba Gadwal and Hyderabad, with 948 participants across 33 villages.
As of the 2023-24 round, the Younger Cohort participants are now 22-years-old, while members of the Older Cohort — who were eight years old at the start of the study — are now 29.