Marriage and dowry in urban slums of Dhaka

Sajeda Amin, Laila Rahman and Md. Irfan Hossain

Population Council

12 July 2012, icddr,b, Sasakawa Auditorium, Dhaka

Objectives: Correlates analysis of marriage characteristics

• Descriptive paper: nature of marriage

• Explore antecedents of marriage

• Explore interrelationships between marriage characteristics

Conceptual framework

Personal characteristicsAge Education Work status, orphan hoodMarriage intact /dissolved

HouseholdDivision, migration status, Household wealth quintile

Early marriageMarried before age 15

• Married before age 15

• Love marriage• Consent taken • Wanted to marry• Registered marriage

• Was dowry demanded

Data and method

• Explored correlates of marriage outcomes using binary logistic regression

• All ever married women of three slum study sites of Dhaka included in analysis (N = 2,989)

• Only significant associations shown after controlling for potential confounding variables

FINDINGS

Marriage Characteristics

35 39

70 72

31

65 61

31 28

69

Marriage before 15 years of age

Love marriage Obtain consent to marry

Wanted to marry

Dowry demanded

Yes No

Early marriage by orphanhood

43%31%

57%69%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

One or none of the parents alive Both parents alive

Marriage at 15 years or above

Marriage before 15 years

***

***=significant at p≤ 0.001

Love marriage by migration status

64%51%

37%49%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Migrated Notmigrated- born in Dhaka

Love marriage

Other type of marriage

***

***=significant at p≤ 0.001

Did you want to marry your current/last husband?

83% 89%

17% 11%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Marriage before 15 years of age

Marriage at 15 years or above

Did not want to marry

Wanted to marry

***

***=significant at p≤ 0.001

Dowry demanded and Husband’s education

38%

37%

31%

26%

20%

15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

No education

Primary incomplete

Primary complete

Secondary incomplete

Secondary complete and above***

***=significant at p≤ 0.001

Dowry demanded by Division of Origin (Desher Bari)

31%

16%

23%

32%

42% 43%

52%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Dhaka Khulna Barishal Sylhet Rangpur Chittagong Rajshahi

***

***=significant at p≤ 0.001

Summary of results

• Poverty significantly associated with multiple marriages and limiting females’ consent and choice in marriage

• Higher educated men less likely to demand dowry, marry girls less than 15 years and more likely to exercise own choice in marriage

• Early marriage associated with less consent and choice, higher unregistered marriage, more dowry demand and multiple marriages

THANK YOU