Data on marital status of population by age and sex are essential for understanding the social health of the people of a state or country.

In the last Census of 2001 the data on both age and martial status of the people of Manipur were collected. The marital status of the population of Manipur by age and sex at the 2001 census presents a number of interesting features.

It is natural for the population of the "never married" exceeding that of the "ever married" because of a very large population (448,197) of children under the age group of 0-9 years representing 20.66 per cent of the State's total population (2,166,788).

The population of the "never married" represents 57.41 per cent of the total population of the State.

As for the sexes, the proportion of "never married" males (59.94%) is higher than that of the "never married" females (54.82%) which is indicative of a higher rate of marriages of females as compared with that of the males since the higher rate of female marriage will lower the proportion of "never married" females.

15 to 39 or 40 years of age is the peak period when marriages of both males and females take place and the interesting phenomenon is that females have a tendency of higher frequency of marriage than that of the males.

In other words the proportion of "never married" females to the total female population under each age group from 15-19 to 40-44 is less than that of the "never married" males. The details are presented in a tabular form (Table I).

In the case of females aged 45 years and above the tempo of their marriage gradually declines when compared with that of the males in the same age groups and naturally the proportions of "never married" females to the total female population become higher than that of the males as less marriages of females take place as compared with that of males from the age group of 45-49 onwards.

In our society marriage of males around 60 years of age sometimes takes place though rare and rarer still for females, and naturally the proportions of "never married" females become higher than that of the males.

Before making an analysis of the currently married persons, it may be pointed out that in Manipuri society including the Muslims, Polygyny or a man having more than one wife is permissible and it is presumed that data on such individuals might have been returned in the last Census of 2001.

An interesting phenomenon is that according to the said census the number of married males (420,702), instead of being less or equal, is more than the number of married females (416,389). The only plausible explanation is that at the time of enumeration, many married males belonging to military and paramilitary forces and persons from other States came to Manipur by leaving their wives at home.

A comparative proportions of married males and females to their respective total populations under each age group from 10-14 onwards have been presented in a tabular form Table II.

It may be noticed that there are married persons of both sexes from the age group of 10-14 years though their proportions to those of the higher age groups are negligible.

The highest proportion of married males takes place in the age group of 45-49 years with 95.12 per cent of the total population followed by 95.07 and 94.01 per cents in the age groups of 50-54 and 55-59 respectively.

The corresponding proportions for females are 87.14, 86.41 and 86.09 in the age groups of 40-44,45-49 and 35-39 respectively.

The declining proportions of married persons of both sexes at the higher age groups is partly connected with the death of either spouse thereby reducing the once married status to the categories of widowed, divorced or separated.

As a matter of tradition and irrespective of communities or ethnic groups, the age of a married female is often less than that of her husband and following the laws of nature, a younger wife will survive her older husband as they advance in age, and naturally the proportions of married females are bound to be much lower than that of the married males under each age group and hence higher the age group lower the proportions of married females.

Thus the death of a currently married male leads to the birth of a widowed female. It is a sad thing that there is a very high proportion of widowed females as compared to widowed males.

Out of 74,345 widowed persons representing 3.43 per cent of the total population, there are only 14,886 widowed males (20.02%) as against 50,459 widowed females representing 79.98 per cent of the total widowed population.

to be continued....