GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- India's younger generations are almost as socially conservative as their elders when it comes to suitable marital arrangements. (See Related Articles: India's Lock-Step Generations.) If there are to be progressive changes in this area to accompany the seismic shifts in India's economic landscape, Gallup World Poll data suggest the fault lines are more likely to run along educational attainment levels.
Indians with higher education levels still represent a small segment of the population -- about 6%, according to 2006 Gallup World Poll results. Although the country's literacy rate has soared in the last decade -- 48% of Indian respondents were found to be illiterate in a 1996 Gallup survey, down to just 26% in the 2006 update -- the percentage of Indians with a college or postgraduate education has remained static.
Most Indians at any educational level -- including 71% of those with little formal education, 86% of those with a high school education, and 96% with a college education -- approve of women who want a job or a career outside the home. On the other hand, it is only among the most highly educated group that a majority approves of conjugal arrangements traditionally considered taboo.
Two-thirds (66%) of Indians with a college or postgraduate degree approve of people who marry someone of a lower social class, compared to 47% of those with a secondary education, and 37% of those who have no formal education. Similarly, 57% of college graduates approve of marrying an Indian of a different religion, versus just 34% and 12%, respectively, of those in the less-educated groups. Overall, less than one-third of the total population (29%) approves of Indians marrying non-Indians, but among the college-educated group the number rises to 41%.
One recent phenomenon in India -- couples living together without getting married -- meets with staunch disapproval regardless of education level. Overall, 1 in 20 (5%) Indians approve, including just 10% of college graduates.
Survey Methods
Results are based on face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of 2,100 residents of India, aged 15 and older, conducted Jan. 3-Feb. 15, 2006. Interviews were conducted in English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali. For results based on these samples, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling, weighting, and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
