1. Marriage and dowry in urban slums of Dhaka
Sajeda Amin, Laila Rahman and Md. Irfan Hossain
Population Council
12 July 2012, icddr,b, Sasakawa Auditorium, Dhaka

2. Objectives: Correlates analysis of marriage characteristics
Descriptive paper: nature of marriage
Explore antecedents of marriage
Explore interrelationships between marriage characteristics

3. Conceptual framework Personal characteristics Household Division,
Age
Education
Work status, orphan hood
Marriage intact /dissolved
Married before age 15
Household
Division,
migration status,
Household wealth quintile
Love marriage
Consent taken
Wanted to marry
Registered marriage
Early marriage
Married before age 15
Was dowry demanded

4. Data and method
Explored correlates of marriage outcomes using binary logistic regression
All ever married women of three slum study sites of Dhaka included in analysis (N = 2,989)
Only significant associations shown after controlling for potential confounding variables

5. FINDINGS

6. Marriage Characteristics
Needs are legend dark blue =yes;

7. Early marriage by orphanhood
***
***=significant at p≤ 0.001

8. Love marriage by migration status
***
Respondents born in Dhaka were more likely to say they had a love marriage.
Rather than describe non-love as other I think we can label it arranged marriages
***=significant at p≤ 0.001

9. Did you want to marry your current/last husband?
***
Respondents who married early were more likely to say they did not want to marry
***=significant at p≤ 0.001

10. Dowry demanded and Husband’s education
***
Row percentage of hus edu is used
Dowry demand decreases with husband’s education
***=significant at p≤ 0.001

11. Dowry demanded by Division of Origin (Desher Bari)
***
Row percentage of division is used
Reorder bars to show from high to low and show sig (I believe Rajshahi and Khulna sig diff. from Dhaka
***=significant at p≤ 0.001

12. Summary of results
Poverty significantly associated with multiple marriages and limiting females’ consent and choice in marriage
Higher educated men less likely to demand dowry, marry girls less than 15 years and more likely to exercise own choice in marriage
Early marriage associated with less consent and choice, higher unregistered marriage, more dowry demand and multiple marriages

13. THANK YOU