Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.626

c7.626

In Madras among the various Brahman castes, although they are all against widow marriage and for child marriage, the number of widows among 10,000 women of the age between 15 and 39 fluctuates between 1994 and 2994. The number of child widows is proportionately large throughout, which, e. g., among the Kalingis of Madras amounts nearly to 1 per cent of the girls under 9 years of age; this is, as the Report remarks, "apparently a small percentage, but in consideration of the age, it is enormous."¹