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Child marriage is a substantial barrier to social and economic development in India, and a primary concern for women's health. We assessed the prevalence of child marriage—ie, before 18 years of age—in young adult women in India, and the associations between child marriage and women's fertility and fertility-control outcomes.

Data from the National Family Health Survey-3 (2005–06) were limited to a sample of Indian women aged 20–24 years (n=22 807), of whom 14 813 had been or were presently married (ever-married). Prevalence of child marriage was estimated for the whole sample. We used regression models adjusted for demographics, and models adjusted for demographics and duration of marriage to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for the associations between child marriage and both fertility and fertility-control outcomes, in the ever-married subsample.

44·5% of women …