The causes of the overpopulation can be put in different categories, which combined represent the cause of this destructive phenomena. One of these issues is represented by the early marriage. The origins of child marriage in India are deeply rooted into its historical and cultural background. Early marriages were made backwards societies in order to maximize the chances of survival of the children due the high rate of mortality. Therefore it was advantageous for the Indian people and also to other cultures to marry at a young age. Nevertheless, child marriage Nevertheless, child marriages also created further economic, political and social relations due to the high rate of poverty and by the fact that sometimes the only chance of survival for a family was to marry the daughter and have one less mouth to feed.
The role of woman in the Indian society is defined by their deeply rooted culture, which gives women a lower social status than to men. This cultural factor has a very large influence upon the development of society from many points of view. Firstly, since the women have a lower social status than men, families struggle to give a male heir, therefore they tend to produce as many children as it takes until one of them will be born a male. Therefore, the family is enlarged rapidly, without taking into consideration the economic issues regarding their welfare. This act of increasing the number of family members in order to have a male heir has a negative effect upon its lineage.
When the family realizes that has no possibility to sustain economically, decides to give into marriage one of the young daughters, in order to obtain economic stability in the family. In this case, the family of the bride receives different kind of material reward from the groom’s family. This practice is widespread all over India, especially in rural areas, but can lead to domestic violence affecting the bride. It is considered that the younger bride is more valuable than an older one, because it can contribute more to the family of the groom, that is why the prices offered for the young brides are higher than for those for example who are older than 18 and have a legal marrying age
In India the poverty and illiteracy are the second biggest factors for the overpopulation phenomena. India’s high population growth is another factor which maintains the rate of poverty and vice-versa, poverty sustains overpopulation. One of the reasons why this is happening is because of the Indian economic stagnation. The productivity rate in the agricultural sector is not increasing due to the farming methods of the population. Millions of people are able to survive only relying on farming, and knowing that the Indian arable land is too small in comparison with the population’s desired exploitation quota, farming becomes less efficient. In order to achieve the necessary self-sufficiency levels, many people choose to migrate from the rural to urban areas, where they can find jobs only in mass-production factories.