Kolkata, Sep 18 (AHN) The awareness level on the ill-effects of the pre-mature marriage among the people residing in the rural pockets in West Bengal seems to be much higher than those residing in the urban and metro pockets of the state. Sounds inconceivable! But precisely that trend is the indication from the findings of the latest report on premature marriages in the country.

In the report on the latest statistics on the sample registration report published earlier this month, it has been revealed that the percentage of females getting married before attaining the official marriage age of 18 in the urban and metro pockets of West Bengal stands at a quite high level at 7.6 per cent.

Now, the figure is not only the highest among the corresponding figures reported from the metro and urban pockets in the other Indian states, but also significantly higher than the same figure recorded in the rural pockets of West Bengal.

In the rural pickets of West Bengal, as per the report, the percentage of females getting married before attaining the official marriage age of 18 is lower than 5.2 per cent. On this aspect too, the figure achieved in West Bengal is the highest among all the Indian states.

“As it is, the figures on this count for both rural and urban and metro pockets are a cause of concern, since the figures under both these counts are highest among the Indian states. However, what is of more concern is that the figure on this count in the case of the urban and metro areas in West Bengal is higher than the corresponding figure recorded in the rural pockets in the state. This means that the state government’s awareness campaign against premature marriages had not been that effective in the urban and metro pockets in the state, as it had been in the rural pockets,” said a senior officer of the state health & family welfare department who did not wish to be named.

He also said that there is an urgent requirement to identify the gaps in awareness drives that have prevailed on this count in the urban and metro pockets in the state.