Indian Journal of Marketing

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Profile Centric Community Awareness and Engagement for Adolescent Girls : An Empirical Study on Early Marriage in India


Affiliations
1 Project Consultant and Doctoral Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
2 Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
3 Associate Professor, Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
4 Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
5 Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
     

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Early marriage is a pernicious practice traditionally observed even today in several countries, with a fifth of the global female population getting married by 18 years of age. The custom has far-reaching adverse effects on the girls’ physical, mental, and socioeconomic welfare and their future progeny. Therefore, it is critical to disseminate the right messages to the communities of girl children to deter them from letting their daughters marry early. A study was carried out in 2019 that involved the design, execution, and evaluation of a volunteer-driven technology-enabled communication intervention to emphasize the importance of education in securing a girl’s future and to discourage girl child marriage. Seven hundred and eight-six residents of the sub-district of Todaraisingh in Tonk, Rajasthan, participated in the study. A strong positive cognizance of the personalized communication was empirically confirmed. Furthermore, a high influence of cognitive response and sympathy towards the communication was found on the evaluative judgment of the participants that strongly influenced the intention to spread positive word of mouth and behavioral intention.

Keywords

Child Marriage, Communication Efficacy, Rajasthan, Behavioral Intention.

Paper Submission Date : November 28, 2020 ; Paper Sent Back for Revision : February 10, 2021 ; Paper Acceptance Date : June 19, 2021 ; Paper Published Online : September 20, 2021.

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  • Profile Centric Community Awareness and Engagement for Adolescent Girls : An Empirical Study on Early Marriage in India

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Authors

Charru Hasti
Project Consultant and Doctoral Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
Sonal Arora
Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
Amit Mehndiratta
Associate Professor, Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
Mahim Sagar
Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India
Harish Chaudhry
Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, India

Abstract


Early marriage is a pernicious practice traditionally observed even today in several countries, with a fifth of the global female population getting married by 18 years of age. The custom has far-reaching adverse effects on the girls’ physical, mental, and socioeconomic welfare and their future progeny. Therefore, it is critical to disseminate the right messages to the communities of girl children to deter them from letting their daughters marry early. A study was carried out in 2019 that involved the design, execution, and evaluation of a volunteer-driven technology-enabled communication intervention to emphasize the importance of education in securing a girl’s future and to discourage girl child marriage. Seven hundred and eight-six residents of the sub-district of Todaraisingh in Tonk, Rajasthan, participated in the study. A strong positive cognizance of the personalized communication was empirically confirmed. Furthermore, a high influence of cognitive response and sympathy towards the communication was found on the evaluative judgment of the participants that strongly influenced the intention to spread positive word of mouth and behavioral intention.

Keywords


Child Marriage, Communication Efficacy, Rajasthan, Behavioral Intention.

Paper Submission Date : November 28, 2020 ; Paper Sent Back for Revision : February 10, 2021 ; Paper Acceptance Date : June 19, 2021 ; Paper Published Online : September 20, 2021.


References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.17010/ijom%2F2021%2Fv51%2Fi9%2F166161