new delhi there has been a dramatic decline in child marriages in india across various religious communities and even among less educated sections census 2011 data released on friday reveals the share of girls getting married before reaching the legal marriage age of 18 years fell steeply from 44 per cent in 2001 to 30 per cent in 2011 a proportion still alarmingly highhindus and muslims have almost the same proportion of belowlegal age marriages of girls at about 31 per cent down from 4345 per cent a decade ago sikhs and christians have the lowest share of underage girls getting married at 1112 per cent with the jain community only slightly more at 16 per cent while buddhists continue to be more in line with hindus and muslims with 28 per cent underage girls getting married among communities of other religious persuasions including parsis and all ancient tribal faiths the proportion is about 24 per cent down from 36 per centthis latest round of census data yet again shows that in all important matters of marriage children and such there are similar trends across religious communities as other data has shown declining fertility rates increasing age of marriage gaps and order of children etc are following similar trends in fact in a somewhat muted form some of the social evils such as preferring a son and dowry too are spreading evenly all this is probably a result of the culturally intertwined lives of all peoples across faiths data from census 2011 released on friday reaffirmed that the more educated the girl the later she gets married thus among illiterate girls 38 per cent were married off before 18 years but among graduates or above just 5 per cent got married below the legal age but another surprising fact emerges there is a sharp decline in the share of girls getting married before 18 even among the illiterate or those with belowsecondary level education among illite rates in 2001 a whopping 51 per cent of married women had tied the knot before reaching 18 that share had plunged to 38 per cent in 2011 still high but considerably lower than a decade ago similarly among girls who could study till middle school but dropped out before class 10 the share of those getting married before 18 years fell from 34 per cent to 25 per centhowever 91 per cent of all married women were married by the time they reached 25 years of age in 2011 indicating that too much delay is not yet acceptable socially in 2001 this proportion was 94 per centtimes viewthe data underlines once again just how crucial it is to educate women an educated woman is likely to become a mother at a later age an educated mother is of immense help to children in their getting educated and in a whole host of other things like maintaining hygiene and healthy practices at home it must therefore be a priority of all governments to