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Socio-economic determinants of age at first marriage of the

ethnic tribal women in Bangladesh

Article  in  Asian Population Studies · March 2011

DOI: 10.1080/17441730.2011.544906

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SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS
OF AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE OF THE
ETHNIC TRIBAL WOMEN IN BANGLADESH
S. M. Mostafa Kamal

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To cite this article: S. M. Mostafa Kamal (2011): SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF AGE AT FIRST
MARRIAGE OF THE ETHNIC TRIBAL WOMEN IN BANGLADESH, Asian Population Studies, 7:1, 69-84

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 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF
AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE OF THE ETHNIC
TRIBAL WOMEN IN BANGLADESH

S. M. Mostafa Kamal

This paper examines the socio-economic determinants of age at first marriage of the ethnic tribal
women of Bangladesh. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was applied to the data set
containing 792 observations from four different tribal communities compiled on the basis of a
Downloaded by [Dr. S. M. Mostafa Kamal] at 04:49 18 October 2011

household survey. The singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) of the women, and mean age at
first marriage for females, were found to be 21.8 years and 18.9 years, respectively, which were
much higher than those at the national level. Findings revealed that woman’s educational
attainment and pre-marital work status significantly delayed the timing of marriage. Parents’
economic status and respondents’ birth order had the most significant effect on marital timing.
The multivariate statistical analyses also identified several variables as important determinants of
marriage timing for the tribal women, including ethnic identity, childhood place of residence,
father’s literacy and father’s survival status. The findings of the study may provide a clue to the
rising age at first marriage of the disadvantaged indigenous women.

KEYWORDS: Bangladesh; education; ethnicity; marriage; tribal women

Introduction

The practice of marrying girls at a young age is most common in sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia (United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF] 2001). Early marriage is almost
always associated with early childbearing, especially in South Asia, where marriage is
virtually universal, and where strong social sanctions exist against childbearing outside of
marriage (Bates et al. 2007; Caldwell 2005). Customs surrounding marriage, including the
desirable age and the way in which a spouse is selected, depend on a society’s view of the
family, i.e. its role, structure and pattern of life, and the individual and collective
responsibilities of its members (UNICEF 2001).
Marriage is early and nearly universal in Bangladesh. Although the legal ages of
marriage for males and females are 21 years and 18 years, respectively, a large
proportion of female marriages still take place before the legal age. A comparative study
on Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data noted that out of 40 developing
countries, Bangladesh had the youngest mean age at first marriage at 14.1 years in the
early 1990s (Singh & Samara 1996). The proportion of women marrying by the legal age
gradually decreased until 2000, increased slightly in 2004 and then declined in
2007 (National Institute for Population Research and Training [NIPORT] et al. 2009).
Asian Population Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, March 2011
ISSN 1744-1730 print/1744-1749 online/11/010069-16
– 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/17441730.2011.544906
 70 S. M. MOSTAFA KAMAL

Thus, Bangladesh has a long tradition of teenage marriage, and hence, motherhood at
adolescence.
The effect of marriage on fertility and demographic transition is well documented.
Early marriage does not only increase fertility (Manda & Meyer 2005); it can, if
accompanied by early childbearing, also endanger the health of the woman and her
offspring, and thus, cause high child and maternal mortality (Gupta & Mahy 2003).
Furthermore, early marriage may also contribute to a reduction in education and
employment opportunities for women, hindering them from contributing effectively to
the social and economic development of a country (Islam & Mahmud 1996; Ng & Gu 1995).
Age at first marriage is a product of various cultural, socio-economic and
demographic factors. Although cultural as well as other prevailing social values may
encourage and maintain a young age pattern of marriage, differentials of age at first
marriage by socio-economic characteristics are well documented. Age at first marriage is
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positively associated with socio-economic development. Besides development, ethnicity

has also been found as an important factor affecting the timing of family formation and
entry into motherhood (Thapa 1996; Yabiku 2005). Marriage patterns vary across and
within countries among different ethnic groups. Studies on several Asian countries with
diverse socio-economic status have shown that ethnicity significantly affects the timing of
marriage and the time of first birth, net of other socio-economic factors (Hirschman 1985;
Hirschman & Rindfuss 1982; Rindfuss & Hirschman 1984; Thapa 1989, 1996; Yabiku 2005,
2006).
Ethnicity is a powerful factor which affects all aspects of life for the individual. Ethnic
group identification represents a sub-system within a society, and reflects variations in
institutional arrangements concerning the starting pattern of reproduction (Thapa 1996).
In many developed and developing countries, ethnic identity is a more powerful reference
than the wider national identity (Banui et al. 2000). Individuals’ cultural attachment, norms
and beliefs, and identity determine attitudes and behaviours, including timing of family
formation.
Although age at first marriage and as a result, timing of family formation, are crucial
aspects of the development of future life course for men and women, studies on this
subject, particularly for the ethnic minority women of Bangladesh, have yet to be
conducted. Studies conducted so far on age at marriage, or timing of family formation,
have been directed toward Bengali women (see, for example, Islam & Ahmed 1998; Islam &
Mahmud 1996; Shaikh 1997). While the relative effect of ethnicity on demographic
behaviour has attracted much interest in both developed and developing countries, little
is known about age at first marriage of the ethnic communities known as the tribes
residing in the hilly areas of Bangladesh.
The family-building process consists of ‘a series of stages where women move
successively from marriage to first birth, from first to second, and so on, until they reach
their completed family size’ (Rodriguez & Hobcraft 1980). Moreover, the timing of marriage
itself may be considered an indicator of a familial and socially-regulated mechanism for
when to begin childbearing (Choe et al. 2005). Thus, female age at marriage in the ethnic
communities assumes great importance in the study of population, demography,
development, family and society. This study attempts to further our understanding of
the socio-economic and familial factors affecting women’s age at first marriage of the four
ethnic tribal communities in Bangladesh.
 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE 71

Data and Methods

The data for the study were gathered through a field survey conducted during
January to March 2006. Four tribal communities, i.e. the Chakma, Marma, Tanchangya and
Tripura, were selected purposively. A multi-stage random sampling procedure was
adopted to collect data. Step by step, three upazillas (sub-districts), 30 villages and 900
currently-married women of reproductive age from 807 households were randomly
selected from Rangamati Hill District. The women were selected using the probability
proportion of tribal people in the selected villages. Finally, 865 currently-married women
were successfully interviewed. Women who were born after 1985 were excluded from the
analyses because about three-fourths of them were still unmarried and thus, their
inclusion might create ambiguity in the trend of marriage timing. Thus, the study is based
on a pooled sample of 792 currently-married women born before 1986.
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Four individual groups of highly-educated investigators consisting of one male and

two females were trained to collect data. Each of the groups of investigators was assigned
to collect data from their own community. This was done for easy interaction between
interviewees and interviewers, as most of the rural illiterate women could not speak
another language other than their mother tongue. Detailed information on socio-
demographics, such as respondents’ current age, education, birth order, literacy and
socio-economic status of the parents, age at first marriage, fertility, contraceptive use, and
desire for children, were recorded in a pre-structured questionnaire.

Measures of Variables
Outcome variable. The outcome variable of this study is female age at first
marriage. All the respondents were asked at which age they were married. This was
analysed as a continuous variable.

Explanatory factors. In this study, we paid particular attention to improving the

understanding of timing of marriage of the four selected ethnic tribal groups, the Chakma,
Marma, Tanchangya and Tripura. The variable, ethnic identity, was grouped into four
categories according to the mother language of the study tribes. Women’s year of birth
was categorised into ‘born before 1961’, ‘1961
1970’, ‘1971
1980’ and ‘later than 1980’.
Respondents were asked if they had ever been to school and, if so, how many years of
schooling they had completed. Due to the higher degree in which this variable was
skewed, we used the categories, ‘illiterate’ (no formal education), ‘primary’ (one to five
years completed), ‘secondary incomplete’ (six to nine years), and ‘secondary or above’ (10
years and above).
All women were asked, ‘till you were 12-years-old, where did you live?’ On the basis
of the response to this question, childhood residence was made a dichotomous variable,
i.e. ‘rural’ and ‘urban’. A woman’s pre-marital working status was also made a dichotomous
variable with women being grouped into the ‘unemployed’ and the ‘employed’ categories.
Since only a small proportion of women replied that they were still in school when they
were married, they were merged into the ‘unemployed’ category. The ‘employed’ category
included those who were government or non-government employees, self-employed and
unpaid family workers at the time of marriage.
 72 S. M. MOSTAFA KAMAL

Father’s education was dichotomised as ‘illiterate’ versus ‘literate’ because the

number of fathers with more than five years of schooling was insufficient. Father’s survival
status at the time of women’s marriage invited a binary response. Parents’ financial or
economic status was measured by food security. Food security was measured by asking
women, ‘[d]id you feel [a] deficiency of food in your parents’ house before or at the time of
your marriage?’ The information provided by the women were categorised into any one of
the three prompt responses, i.e. ‘always deficit’, ‘occasional deficit’ and ‘balance or
surpluses’. Women’s birth order was grouped into ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, and ‘fourth or
higher’.

Statistical Analyses
Both quantitative and qualitative statistics were used in the study to examine the
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relationship between age at first marriage and background characteristics of the

respondents. We applied one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine the association
between age at first marriage and selected socio-economic and familial characteristics.
Besides, in assessing the net effects of the selected factors, we employed multivariate
regression analyses. The multivariate regression analyses were conducted using hazard
analyses, specially the Cox proportional hazard model (Cox 1972; Halli & Rao 1992). The
key equation for the Cox regression model is the hazard function, which is written as
follows:
hðt Þ ¼ h0 ðtÞ expðb1 x1 þ b2 x2 þ    þ bi xi Þ

In the model, the time variable, t, denotes the age at which first marriage takes
place. The dependent variable, h(t), is the hazard rate, the rate at which marriage
occurs. The term h0 is the baseline hazard function that varies only with t. The variables
x1, x2, . . ., xi are the covariates (explanatory variables), and the variables b1, b2, . . ., bi are
the regression-like coefficients showing the effects of the covariates. In essence, the model
shows how the covariates representing the characteristics of a sub-group of women
influence their risk of entering marriage in comparison to the baseline group. An
exponential b-value greater than one means that the covariate has the effect of raising the
hazard rate, or the risk of early marriage, compared to the baseline group, while an
exponential b-value of less than one has the opposite effect. An exponential b-value of
one is neutral and exerts no effect.
The model-fitting process involved three stages of estimation. Model I included only
the tribal groups. Model II included variables related to individuals, including the tribal
groups. Model III was constructed with all contextual explanatory variables considered for
the study. The results of the multivariate analyses were presented by relative risk (exp b),
with 95 per cent confidence interval (CI) for easy understanding of the effect of the
corresponding factor, net of other confounders. The statistical analyses were performed by
SPSS version 17.

Study Area and Study Tribes

Rangamati Hill District is a land of scenic beauty, interspersed with lakes and
mountains. The district is under the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region, located at the
 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE 73

south-eastern part of Bangladesh. The area of the district is 6116 square kilometres, of
which 54 square kilometres is riverine and 4825 square kilometres is under forest. The
population density of the district is 86 per square kilometre. The overall literacy rate
among people aged six years or above was about 42 per cent in 2001. The district
comprises 10 upazillas, 48 unions and 1353 villages. The total population of the district
was 525,100 in 2001. Ten different tribal communities constitute about 55 per cent of its
total population. The major tribal groups, i.e. the Chakma, Marma, Tanchangya and
Tripura, constitute 98 per cent of all tribal communities and 54 per cent of the total
population of the district. It is notable that the tribal communities constitute only slightly
over one per cent of the total population of Bangladesh (Rangamati Hill District Council
[RHDC] 2005).
The tribal people of the CHT are diverse in their religion, cultural norms, customs,
language, physical structure, socio-economic organisation and so on. The tribes in
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Bangladesh often like to identify themselves as indigenous, e.g. adivasi (native), jumma
(shifting cultivator), pahari (hilly), janglee (man of jungle). Whatever their nomenclature,
they are the ethnic minority communities of Bangladesh.
In general, the tribes of Bangladesh, like other indigenous communities of different
countries in the world, have been, to some extent, isolated geographically, socially,
economically, culturally and politically from the mainstream way of life. Even though the
tribal communities, except for the Garo and Rakhaine in Bangladesh, are patriarchal, the
tribal women enjoy higher autonomy in their own society than is the case elsewhere in
Bangladesh. Each of the tribal communities has their own identity, language and culture.
The Chakma, Marma and Tanchangya are Buddhists, and the Tripura are Hindus. Although
some people of the different tribal groups have been converted to Christianity in the early
1980s, the majority is still in their original religion. The Chakma is the largest tribal group in
Bangladesh, followed by the Santal and the Marma. The Marma are known as the Magh in
different regions of the country.

Profile of the Respondents

Table 1 demonstrates the frequency distribution of the women under study by their
socio-economic and familial background characteristics. The mean age of the respondents
was 32.1 years (standard deviation [SD]97.1). Among them, the Chakma constituted 33
per cent, the Marma, 24 per cent, the Tanchangya, 21 per cent, and the Tripura, 22 per
cent. About half (49 per cent) of the respondents were born in 1971
1980, slightly over
one-fourth (27 per cent) were born in 1961
1970, over one-fifth (22 per cent) were born in
1981
1985, and the others were born before 1961. Educational attainment among the
respondents was found to be very low with a mean of 3.3 (SD94.5) years education. Three
out of five respondents were illiterate, while only 14 per cent of the women had
completed at least secondary level of education. According to the 2001 Bangladesh
Population Census, two-fifths (40.8 per cent) of the adult women aged 15 years and above
were literate and 16.3 per cent had at least secondary level of education (Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics [BBS] 2003).
The vast majority of the women (87 per cent) had grown up in rural areas. Six per
cent were employed at the time of marriage. Seventy-two per cent had a father with no
 74 S. M. MOSTAFA KAMAL

formal education. Over one-fifth of the women had lost their father before their age at
first marriage. With regard to parents’ food security, 32 per cent of the women had a
balance or surplus of food, and the other 68 per cent had a food deficit. Of the women, 30
per cent were the first child of their parents, 33 per cent were of the second birth order,
23 per cent were of the third birth order, and the rest were of the fourth birth order or
higher.

TABLE 1
Frequency distribution of the currently-married tribal women by selected background charact-
eristics.
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Background characteristics N Percentage

Tribal identity
Chakma 259 32.7
Marma 191 24.1
Tanchangya 168 21.2
Tripura 174 22.0
Birth cohort
1957
1960 20 2.5
1961
1970 211 26.6
1971
1980 388 49.0
1981
1985 173 21.9
Women’s education
Illiterate 471 59.5
Primary 106 13.4
Secondary incomplete 103 13.0
Completed secondary or above 112 14.1
Childhood residence
Rural 688 86.9
Urban 104 13.1
Pre-marital working status
Unemployed 747 94.3
Employed 45 5.7
Father’s literacy
Illiterate 573 72.3
Literate 219 27.7
Father’s survival status
Not alive 162 20.5
Living 630 79.5
Parents’ food security
Always deficit 101 12.8
Occasional deficit 441 55.7
Balance/surplus 250 31.6
Birth order
First 239 30.1
Second 261 33.0
Third 178 22.5
Fourth or higher 114 14.4
Total 792 100.0
 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE 75

Results
Table 2 shows the percentage distribution of never-married indigenous women, as
obtained in the field survey, and that of women at the national level, as obtained in the
2007 Bangladeshi DHS (see, for example, NIPORT et al. 2009). Table 2 demonstrates that
83.2 per cent of the indigenous women in the age group 15
19 were never married,
whereas this proportion at the national level was 52.8 per cent. In 2007, the proportion of
never-married women aged 20
24 at the national level was 14.3 per cent. The
corresponding figure for indigenous women in 2006 was found to be almost 37.0 per
cent. The mean age at marriage of the indigenous women is clearly higher than that of
women at the national level. The proportion of never-married indigenous women aged
20
49 was found to be higher than at the national level by 7.4 percentage points (12.2 per
cent versus 4.8 per cent).
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Singulate Mean Age at Marriage (SMAM)

Table 3 shows the singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) of the study tribes
by residence and ethnic identity. The SMAM was calculated from the proportion of
single males and females using the formula developed by Hajnal, and provided in the
United Nations (UN) Manual X (UN 1983). When all the study tribes were considered
together, the SMAMs for females and males were 21.8 years and 25.5 years,
respectively. The corresponding figures for females and males, irrespective of ethnicity,
at the national level in 2001, were 19.0 years and 25.3 years, respectively, and those
in the study area were 20.2 years and 25.2 years, respectively (BBS 2003). Although
the SMAM for females was found to be almost the same among all women
regardless of ethnic identity, the Tripura and the Marma males had higher SMAMs
than others. As expected, the urban tribes had higher SMAMs as compared to their
rural peers.

TABLE 2
Percentage of never-married women by current age.

Tribal groupsa

Age group Chakma Marma Tanchangya Tripura Total Nationalb

15
19 85.3 89.8 86.6 70.4 83.2 52.8

20
24 42.4 30.4 27.9 41.9 36.9 14.3
25
29 6.9 6.8 9.8 20.7 10.6 4.3
30
34 2.0 2.3 3.8 6.1 3.3 0.6
35
39 0.0 2.7 2.4 9.1 2.9 0.6
40
44 0.0 4.2 3.0 3.8 2.8 0.2
45
49 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8
Totalc 11.6 9.1 9.5 8.3 12.2 4.8

a
Field survey 2006.
b
NIPORT et al. (2009).
c
Percentage of never-married women aged 20
49.
 76 S. M. MOSTAFA KAMAL

Differentials of Mean Age at First Marriage

Table 4 provides the mean age at first marriage and SD of the indigenous women by
selected background characteristics. Overall, the mean age at first marriage of the women
under study was 18.9 years (SD92.8) at the time of survey. Ethnic identity showed
significant association with age at marriage. The highest mean age at first marriage was
found in the Marma (19.4 years), followed by the Chakma (19.1 years), the Tanchangya
(18.5 years) and the Tripura (18.3 years). This suggests that on average, a Marma woman
got married 1.1 years later than a Tripura woman.
The bivariate analysis revealed that the mean age at marriage gradually increased
over time, and then slightly decreased for the youngest cohort born during 1981
1985.
The lowest age at marriage was found among women who were born in 1957
1960. The
value of the F-statistic suggested that the increase of age at marriage was not significant.
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Women’s education had a significant positive association with mean age at marriage. The
difference in mean age at marriage between women with at least secondary education
and those with no formal education was 3.3 years. Women’s childhood residence and pre-
marital work status, as expected, appeared to have significant associations with age at
marriage.
Father’s literacy and survival status had a significant positive association with
age at marriage of their daughters. The women, whose fathers were alive, were
married, on average, 1.6 years later than those whose fathers were not alive at the
time of their marriage. The women with balanced or surplus food, and those who
occasionally suffered from food insecurity in their parents’ house, were, respectively,
married 3.4 and 1.6 years later than those whose parents’ food security had always
been in deficit. Women’s birth order showed significant positive association with age
at marriage.

TABLE 3
The singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) of the tribal people of Rangamati Hill District, and at
the national level in Bangladesh.

SMAM

Area and ethnic identity Male Female

Nationala 25.30 19.00

Rangamati Hill District (RHD)b 25.18 20.20
Rural (national)a 24.80 18.60
Rural (RHD)b 24.39 20.06
Urban (national)a 26.80 20.00
Urban (RHD)b 26.47 20.47
Ethnic identityc 25.45 21.76
Chakma 24.97 21.83
Marma 25.71 21.81
Tanchangya 24.84 21.68
Tripura 25.69 21.60

a
BBS (2005).
b
BBS (2003).
c
Field survey 2006.
 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE 77

TABLE 4
Mean age at first marriage (MAFM) with standard deviation (SD) of the currently-married tribal
women by selected background characteristics and values of F-statistic.

Background characteristics MAFM SD F-statistic

Tribal identity 6.28***

Chakma 19.12 92.44
Marma 19.35 92.97
Tanchangya 18.51 92.19
Tripura 18.29 93.30
Birth cohort 1.70
1957
1960 17.95 92.89
1961
1970 18.80 92.67
1971
1980 19.04 93.05
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1981
1985 18.64 92.07

Women’s education 53.39***
Illiterate 18.18 92.32
Primary 18.76 92.68
Secondary incomplete 19.18 92.37
Completed secondary or above 21.52 93.23
Childhood residence 86.81***
Rural 18.52 92.44
Urban 21.10 93.63
Pre-marital working status 90.40***
Unemployed 18.64 92.55
Employed 22.47 93.59
Father’s literacy 41.44***
Illiterate 18.48 92.61
Literate 19.86 92.92
Father’s survival status 46.26***
Not alive 17.58 92.57
Living 19.19 92.72
Parents’ food security 67.51***
Always deficit 16.84 92.32
Occasional deficit 18.58 92.40
Balance/surplus 20.18 92.89
Birth order 25.14***
First 18.01 92.48
Second 18.51 92.52
Third 19.63 92.86
Fourth or higher 20.24 92.91
Total 18.86 92.76

***p B0.001.

Determinants of Age at First Marriage

Table 5 shows the results of the Cox proportional hazard regression analyses in three
separate models. First, a bivariate model (Model I) was employed to examine the gross
effect of ethnic identity of the study tribes on age at marriage. Second, two multi-
variate models (Model II and Model III) were fitted to assess the net effects of various
 78 S. M. MOSTAFA KAMAL

TABLE 5
Results of Cox proportional hazard regression analyses showing the relative risks on timing of first
marriage of the currently-married tribal women by selected socio-economic and familial
characteristics.

Model I Model II Model IIl

Background characteristics exp (b ) 95% CI exp (b ) 95% CI exp (b ) 95% CI

Tribal identity
Chakmaa 1.00 * 1.00 * 1.00 *
Marma 0.90 0.75
1.09 0.86$ 0.71
1.03 0.89 0.73
1.09
Tanchangya 1.21* 0.99
1.47 0.94 0.77
1.15 0.99 0.80
1.22
Tripura 1.17$ 0.96
1.42 1.10 0.90
1.33 1.27*** 1.04
1.57
Birth cohort
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1957
1960 1.00 *
1961
1970 0.74 0.47
1.16 0.70$ 0.44
1.12
1971
1980 0.73 0.46
1.16 0.59* 0.37
0.94
1981
1985 0.85 0.53
1.36 0.96 0.58
1.57
Women’s education
Illiteratea 1.00 * 1.00 *
Primary 0.79* 0.64
0.98 0.98 0.78
1.23
Below secondary 0.75** 0.60
0.93 0.92 0.72
1.17
Completed secondary 0.46*** 0.36
0.58 0.61*** 0.46
0.82
or above
Work status
Unemployeda 1.00 * 1.00 *
Employed 0.58*** 0.41
0.81 0.73* 0.51
1.05
Childhood residence
Rurala 1.00 *
Urban 0.63*** 0.48
0.83
Father’s literacy
Illiteratea 1.00 *
Literate 0.76* 0.53
1.08
Father’s survival status
Not alivea 1.00 *
Living 0.67*** 0.56
0.80
Food security
Always deficita 1.00 *
Occasional deficit 0.58*** 0.46
0.73
Balance/surplus 0.46*** 0.35
0.59
Birth order
Firsta 1.00 *
Second 0.83* 0.68
1.01
Third 0.67*** 0.52
0.85
Fourth or higher 0.51*** 0.39
0.67
2 log-likelihood 9223.14 9129.31 9032.99
2
Overall (score) x 10.21*** 198.88***
92.90***
df 3 10 18

a
Reference category.
***p B0.001.
**p B0.01.
*p B0.05.
$
p B0.10.
 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE 79

socio-economic and familial factors, including ethnic identity. Although women’s birth
cohort was found to be insignificant in bivariate analysis, it was included in multivariate
analyses to examine whether there was any change in the timing of marriage over time.
A close inspection of the regression results (Table 5) reveals that ethnic identity, women’s
birth cohort, education, work status, childhood residence, father’s literacy and survival
status, food security in parents’ house, and birth order are important factors in marriage
timing for the tribal women.
The Tripura were significantly more likely to be married earlier than the Chakma. The
Marma were more likely to postpone marriage timing than the Chakma, although the
effect was found to be insignificant in the final model (Model III). The results of
the bivariate analysis (Model I) showed that the Tanchangya were significantly (p B0.05)
more likely to marry earlier than the Chakma, although the effect was no longer significant
when contextual variables were controlled for.
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The estimated hazard risks indicated that the women born in 1961
1970 and 1971

1980 were significantly more likely to postpone marriage compared to those born in
1957
1960 (Model III). This finding indicates a slight increase in the age at marriage of the
women under study over time. The difference in the timing of marriage for the youngest
and the oldest women was found to be insignificant (Models II and III).
The more educated women were significantly less likely to be married earlier than
their lower-educated and illiterate peers (Models II and III). For instance, when individual
variables were controlled for (Model II), the women with primary level of schooling,
incomplete secondary education and who had at least secondary education were 21
per cent, 25 per cent and 54 per cent less likely, respectively, to be married earlier
compared to the women who had no formal education. The effect of education was
weakened when contextual variables were controlled for. For example, the effect of
primary and incomplete secondary education appeared to be no longer significant in
Model III.
The employed women were significantly more likely to be married later compared
to the unemployed women. The effect of the variable, women’s pre-marital work status,
persisted in the final model, but was substantially attenuated by the inclusion of other
socio-economic factors. The risk of early marriage was found to be significantly lower
among women who grew up in urban areas compared to their rural counterparts.
The relatively lower value of the hazard risk indicates a higher possibility of the
postponement of age at marriage among women with a literate father compared to those
with an illiterate father. The risk of early marriage was found to be significantly lower
among women whose fathers were alive at the time of their marriage compared to those
whose fathers were not alive at the time of their marriage. Women with parents having a
food deficit were more likely to be married earlier than those with parents who have
better food security. Women’s position between siblings is a vital determinant of age at
marriage. The more elder siblings a woman had, the more likely she was to postpone her
timing of marriage.

Discussion and Conclusion

Explanations about singlehood in Asia, including Bangladesh, are limited (Jones
2005, 2007). This paper makes a contribution to this literature by disentangling the
 80 S. M. MOSTAFA KAMAL

individual, familial and socio-economic factors affecting female age at first marriage of four
indigenous communities in Bangladesh. By and large, the tribes in Bangladesh are
disadvantaged in terms of socio-economic status. The vital indicator of socio-economic
status, namely, education, indicated that three out of five of the women of reproductive
age had no formal education. In spite of this, the SMAM and mean age at first marriage for
women aged 15
49 were 21.8 years and 18.9 years, respectively. The mean age at first
marriage was found to be the highest in the Marma, followed by the Chakma, Tanchangya
and the Tripura, ranging from 18.3 to 19.4 years. By contrast, at the national level, the
SMAM was 19.0 years in 2001 (BBS 2003), and the median age at first marriage of the
currently married women was 15.3 years in 2007 (NIPORT et al. 2009). In an earlier study,
the mean age at first marriage for the Muslim and indigenous Santal woman living in the
plains was found to be 15.1 and 14.3 years, respectively (Uddin 2009). These comparisons
indicate that the age at first marriage of the ethnic tribal women residing in the hilly areas,
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who are under study, is much higher than their Bengali neighbours and other tribal
women living in the plains in Bangladesh. The higher mean age at marriage of the ethnic
tribal women, compared to other ethnic communities in Bangladesh, is partly attributed to
their prevailing cultural practices, traditional beliefs and social norms.
Ethnicity has a large impact on the timing of marriage. Some of the effects of
ethnicity may not have been captured by the variable, tribal identity, because of almost
homogenous cultural practices among the study communities. For instance, three ethnic
communities, i.e. the Chakma, Marma and the Tanchangya, are Buddhists, and the Tripura
are Hindus. The findings reveal that early marriage is significantly more common among
the Hindu Tripura than other Buddhist tribal communities under study. Another possible
reason for incidences of early marriage among the Tripura is their underprivileged socio-
economic status compared to other tribal communities of the study area. The Tripura were
lagging behind the other study tribal groups in educational attainment during the study
period. In terms of socio-economic indicators, the Tripura ranked fourth, and the Mros
ranked fifth (Nath 2001), out of five ethnic communities in the CHT region. Thus, cultural
practices, religious norms and underprivileged socio-economic status of the Tripura may
have influenced their earlier marriage as compared to women of the other tribal
communities under study.
Analysis by birth cohort reflects that tribal women are in transition with regard to
timing of marriage. For instance, younger women are found to significantly delay the
timing of marriage as opposed to their older counterparts. This may be partly attributed to
the higher educational attainment of younger women compared to their older counter-
parts. Although the hazard risk showing that the youngest, compared to the eldest, were
more likely to be married at later ages, the effect was insignificant as this might be partly
attributed to the fact that more than one third of the women aged 20
24 remained
unmarried. This finding is consistent with those of earlier studies conducted on national
survey data in Bangladesh (Islam & Ahmed 1998) and other developing countries (see, for
example, Gupta & Mahy 2003; Singh 1998).
Typically, higher education of the respondents is likely to be associated with lower
probability of early marriage. The findings reveal that there is no basic difference in timing
of marriage among women with no formal education, primary school and incomplete
secondary education. It is only the completion of secondary education that has a major
effect on marriage age. This implies that girls should be kept in school for a longer period,
not only for the purpose of raising age at marriage, but also for biological, physical and
 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE 81

mental maturity. In general, education is instrumental in placing an individual in a better

labour market position (Wong 1999). This is also true in Bangladesh, where employ-
ment opportunities are more favourable for higher-educated women, particularly for
disadvantaged indigenous communities. Due to prolonged schooling and delays in
finding a suitable job, higher-educated women are more likely to delay their marriage.
Pre-marital work status is a potentially important determinant of timing of marriage.
It is likely that women engaged in formal jobs have comparatively higher education than
others. Besides, they are committed to their jobs, and to advancing their careers in the job
market. They may also have to invest substantial time for training purposes, resulting in a
delay in marital timing. In addition to these, in developing societies like Bangladesh, where
job crises are common, a woman engaged in a formal job often delays the process of
looking for a suitable groom, resulting in substantial postponement in timing of marriage.
This finding is supported by an earlier study conducted on Nepalese women (Yabiku
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2006).
The patterns of covariates of marital timing among the women under study also
reflect a society in evolution. Covariates associated with culture, such as place of birth or
childhood residence and father’s literacy status, have a significant effect on the pace of
marital timing. Place of birth partially explains the socialisation process. Besides, parents’
education is an indicator of the development process. These variables would reflect the
family values that a woman would have grown up with, and which would influence how
she evaluates the costs and benefits between marriage and remaining single. Respondents
born in rural areas are likely to reflect the more traditional behaviour of early marriage.
Incidences of early marriage are more frequent among women whose fathers are illiterate.
Indeed, parents with some education are more likely to place greater emphasis on the
educational attainment of their children. These findings are also consistent with those of
earlier studies conducted elsewhere (Choe et al. 2005; Wong 1999).
Father’s survival status appears to be an important determinant of timing of female
age at marriage. Women whose fathers were alive tended to be married later than those
whose fathers were not alive. In patriarchal society, and in the Bangladeshi cultural
context, women depend on their family for most decisions, including marriage. Girls
become more helpless in the absence of their father, and depend, instead, on the rest of
the family. In most cases, brothers see their sisters as an economic burden to the family
and would arrange for their sisters to be married off as early as possible. Food security*a
major proxy for parents’ economic status*is also an important determinant of timing of
marriage. The higher the economic status of the parents, the lower is the probability of
early marriage. This is no doubt partly because parents with a worse economic status are
less likely to keep their daughters in school, due to financial difficulties.
In the Bangladeshi culture, younger females are in higher demand than older
females as potential brides, and they require less dowry as well (Islam & Mahmud 1996).
Hence, marriage at a young age and early childbearing are encouraged, particularly in rural
Bangladesh. In lowland Muslim and Hindu communities, if a pubescent girl is not married
off soon after her first menarche, her parents, and sometimes, the girl, are criticised by
neighbours, and even by relatives, but the same is not true among the tribes. In spite of
this, parents with poor socio-economic status, even in the tribal communities, begin to
think of their daughters as a burden. In contrast, better-off parents view adolescence as a
time for education, not family formation (Caldwell et al. 1998). Parents with a better
 82 S. M. MOSTAFA KAMAL

economic status are likely to provide their children with more alternatives to early
marriage, such as higher educational and occupational attainment.
Birth order of the respondents*another cultural variable*is shown to have a net
effect on the timing of marriage. The higher the birth order, the lower is the probability of
early marriage. This result is quite expected with the prevailing cultural practice in
Bangladesh, where siblings are supposed to take turns in entering marriage, in accordance
with their birth order. It is believed that if the elder sister is not married first, this may
reflect on the personal character of the girl as well as on the family. To clear the path of
marriage for the younger daughter, parents would be in a hurry to marry off the eldest
daughter of the family. This finding is also consistent with that conducted in an advanced
society like Hong Kong (see, for example, Wong 2005).
The earlier discussion leads to the conclusion that birth order and parental food
security are the most important factors relating to female age at first marriage. Education
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is also an important determinant of timing of marriage. More vigorous attempts should be

made to keep tribal girls in school for extended periods. In this regard, economically-
disadvantaged tribal girls should be provided with full free studentships till the
undergraduate level of education. Along with formal education, women must have
access to informal education. One such informal education is the creation of awareness on
the risks and consequences of early marriage. The mass media can play an effective role in
this regard. Awareness of the need to follow the ordinance of the legal age of marriage,
and to keep family size small for the betterment of the family as well as children, should
also be created. More efforts should be made toward the provision of suitable jobs for the
educated tribal women, to enhance their career advancement.

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S. M. Mostafa Kamal (author to whom correspondence should be addressed), Department

of Mathematics, Islamic University, Kushtia-7003, Bangladesh. Tel: 88-071-62201 to
6 Ext. 2355; 88-071-73736. E-mail: kamaliubd@yahoo.com

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