LUCKNOW: Underage marriages in Uttar Pradesh have recorded a drastic decline in the past decade, suggests the recently released National Family Health Survey-4. As per the report, only 21.2% women in the 20-24 years age-group admitted they were married before they were 18. In 2005-06, when the third NFHS was released, 58.6% women in the same age bracket were married before they attained the legal age The improvement appears remarkable on comparing the figures with the national average. Nationally, about 47.4% girls were married off before the legal age at the time of NHFS-3 which has comedown to 26.8% now—which is a 20 points improvement over a decade. UP, however, recorded an improvement of over 37 points.The development, believe health experts, will have implications on various health parameters like maternal, infant and neonatal mortality. “Underage marriages are at the root of many health challenges like maternal mortality, infant, neonatal and under-five mortality. Fewer girls getting married before the designated age will surely have a positive impact on all these health parameters as well,” said Dr Neelam Singh, health activist, UP.Underage marriages are linked directly to teenage pregnancies in the state which forms a huge chunk of ‘high risk pregnancy’. Experts point out that a number of socio-biological reasons account for the great risk involved. Data shows 60-70% women get pregnant in first year of marriage which is true for underage marriages too. Medically, a woman’s body is not prepared to have a baby before 20-21 years. The mother’s nutritional status plays a role too.“Weak mothers are bound to give birth to weaker baby not able to fight natural challenges of survival like infections. While the risk of death is a constant thing, the baby’s physiological and mental development suffers because of poor immunity. Delay of just one year will bring many girls closer to the preferred biological age of conception and reduce the inherent challenges significantly,” said Prof Shally Awasthi, faculty, paediatric department, King George’s Medical University.National Health Mission director Alok Kumar attributed the improvement to two broad reasons. “The literacy rate of both men and women has gone up in the past decade (from 44.9 to 61% in women and 76.2 to 82.4% in men) which would have helped them comprehend the health message better. The same period saw deployment of ASHA workers who created health awareness besides serving a point of contact in their own way,” he said.Decline has also been noted in number of men getting married before attaining legal age of 21. In times of NFHS-3, 51.4% men were married before the legal age which has come down to 28.6% in NFHS-4.