Andhra Pradesh has the lowest average age at marriage for women in India. It has also a very high rate of anaemia in women

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad:  Andhra Pradesh has the lowest average age at
marriage for women in the country. It has also a very high rate of
anaemia in women.

Statistics released by the Academy for Nursing Studies and Women’s
Empowerment Research Studies (Answers) and two other organisations
ahead of the International Human Rights Day show that Andhra Pradesh
has failed to reduce the incidence of anaemia among pregnant women,
improve female literacy and age at marriage of girls.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Answers executive
director Dr M Prakasamma, Human Rights law Network coordinator MA
Shakeel and Society of Midwives-India AP president K Sujawathi said
though the State government has succeeded in increasing the
contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) and reducing the total fertility
rate (TFR), it failed in controlling the maternal mortality ratio (MMR).

They said the MMR in Andhra Pradesh is 134, which is the highest for
any southern State. The prevalence of anaemia is 62.9 per cent among
pregnant women as against 32.8 in Kerala and 53.2 in Tamil Nadu. The
mean age at marriage for women is 19.9 years as against 22.7 years in
Kerala, 22.4 years in Tamil Nadu and 20.5 in Maharashtra. Even States
like Uttar Pradesh and Assam have a mean age of 20.2 and 21.1
respectively.