Knowledge and attitude towards marriage of currently married women in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India

The roots of the factors influencing marriage are entrenched in the socio-cultural milieu of our society. Specific objectives of the study were to ascertain knowledge and attitude and practices towards marriage among the currently married women in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. A cross-sectional study using a quantitative approach was carried out from July 2012 to December 2012 among 350 currently married women in the age group 15 – 49 years randomly selected from 7 blocks with nearly equal number of respondents per block. Data from respondents were collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Results of this study revealed the overall knowledge and attitude of the study population towards marriage is more incorrect. The majority of the participants (69.0%) had incorrect knowledge of age at marriage. However, in spite of their knowledge, approx 2/3rd of the study population was preferred social marriage (64.5%). One-fourth (78.7%) of study participants indicated that they doesn't approve dowry system for marriage. Variation in the education, SLI, monthly income and type of family actively influence the knowledge and attitude towards marriage of currently married women. Furthermore, findings of this study indicated substantial proportion of respondents to have positive attitude for choice of partner for marriage by their children towards marriage. Therefore, there is need proper education and culturally sensitive initiatives to encourage the women for their positive attitude towards marriage planning with unmarried women.