Mate selection and its impact on female marriage age, pregnancy wastages, and first child survival in Tamil Nadu, India.

Marriage in Indian society is a religious duty. Consanguineous marriage is common, where individuals prefer to marry within their clan (a unilateral kin group based on either matrilineal or patrilineal descent). Keeping in mind that this form of marriage has certain disadvantages for social and biological as well as demographic aspects of individuals and families, the present study examines the influence of mate selection (i.e., close relatives, distant relatives, not related) on female age at marriage, pregnancy wastages, and survival status of the first child. The study was designed based on the information collected on a sample size of 3,948 married women aged 13-49 in Tamil Nadu, India, by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 1992. Results suggest that 48 per cent of women in Tamil Nadu marry their relatives. This practice of marrying relatives is high in rural areas, among Hindus, Scheduled Castes/tribes, and illiterate women as compared to urban areas, among non-Hindus, non-SC/ST, and educated women, respectively. The bivariate analysis reveals that women marrying their close relatives had low age at marriage and experienced a higher per cent of pregnancy wastage and child loss (first child) as compared to those women marrying their distant relatives or nonrelatives. The result is found to be consistent even after controlling for selected background variables through multivariate techniques (applied separately for age at marriage, pregnancy wastages, and the survival status of first child). Hence, this study suggests that steps should be taken to inform people about the problems of marrying close relatives through appropriate IEC programs in Tamil Nadu.