- Nearly sixty percent of women were married -- illegally -- before their 18th birthday. However the median age of marriage is creeping up -- among India's latest generation of young women, those now aged 20 to 24 years, the median age was just over 18. Less than 12 percent of these young women were already married on their 15th birthday.
- The average women has 2.7 children in her lifetime, down a little from 2.9 in 1998/99.
- Seventy-four in every 1,000 children die before their fifth birthday, down from 95 children in 1998/99.
LITERACY, EDUCATION AND CHILD LABOUR
- Just under half of all women -- 45 percent -- cannot read. Among women aged 20 to 24 years, illiteracy drops to a third.
- Around 83 percent of children aged 6 to 10 years are going to school. Most children leave school by the time they are 15.
- Fifteen percent of boys and 18 percent of girls between 12 and 14 years are child labourers, either working for their family or outside the household.
HOUSING AND LIFESTYLE
- More than half of all Indians are forced to use a field or other outdoor space as a toilet.
- A third of all households have no electricity. Around 60 percent use wood or animal dung for cooking fuel.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
- A little over half of all Indian men think hitting or beating their wives is acceptable in certain circumstances, particularly if she disrespects the in-laws. A smaller number think bad cooking or refusing sex are reasons enough. Nearly 55 percent of women think wife-beating is sometimes acceptable.
- Just over a third of married women said they had been pushed, slapped, shaken or otherwise attacked by their husband at least once. One wife in ten said her husband had forced her into sex on at least one occasion.
