History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c31.22.4

v2.c31.22.4

Among infants of less than one year old there were in the whole of India as many as 796 males who were widowers and 1515 females who were widows, among children up to 5 years there were 12799 widowers and 30880 widows (out of these last the Hindus contributed 10266 as widowers and 23667 as widows). It is true that amongst the castes to which most of these must have belonged widow remarriage is allowed by custom, but there must be a certain number of females who are widows before five, who cannot remarry by the custom of the caste and who would not dare to take advantage of the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act. Between the ages of 5-10, 11-15, 16-20 the numbers of Hindu widows for the whole of India are respectively 83920, 145449, 404167. The age of marriage for girls is rapidly rising owing to economic causes, the spread of literacy among the masses, and the operation of the Child Marriage Restraint Act (XIX of 1929) and it may be hoped that these high figures of child widows will be substantially reduced in the near future. Persons finding fault with Hindu society for large numbers of child widows should not forget one thing. According to Hindu notions every girl must be married at any cost. Hence people rush into child marriages. But there has been no problem of old spinsters in Hindu society, as there is in Western countries, though it appears that in the near future that problem will arise even in India.