A recent study released by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi has distressingly revealed that child marriage has continued to remain a huge problem across the country, with about 50% of the women getting married before even hitting the minimum legal marriageable age of 18. The study's results were released on Saturday.

"Marriage happens very early for most of the women in most states - one fifth were married below the age of 15 years and 49 percent were married before turning 18", the study said.

The study was carried out across six major Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, between the years 2006 and 2008, and involved over 58,000 subjects in the age group of
15-29 years.

"Not only did marriage occur at young age but it was also often arranged without the participation of young people themselves, particularly young women. Majority of them said that their parents did not seek their approval while selecting their spouse", the study further added.

The situation was discovered to be the worst in Bihar, where 77% of the women got married before the age of 18.