Infamous for witchcraft killings,Jharkhandhas earned the disrepute of having the highest percentage of underage girls getting married, according to the latest demographic sample survey by theunion home ministry. The percentage of girls getting married before attaining majority is as high as 5.8 in Jharkhand, according to the survey brought out by the office of theRegistrar Generaland Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs.

In Jharkhand, child marriages accounted for 7.3 per cent of marriages in rural areas and three per cent in urban areas, it said.

TheSample Registration System(SRS) Statistical Report contains estimates of various demographic, fertility and mortality indicators based on the data collected through one of the largest demographic surveys in the world covering about 8.4 million sample Population.

The survey said that while 54.9 per cent of girls are married in West Bengal before attaining the age of 21 years, the figure for Jharkhand is 54.6 per cent as against the national Average of 29.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, as per theNational Crime Records Bureau(NCRB), 32 people were killed on allegations of practising witchcraft in Jharkhand in 2015, 27 in 2016, 19 in 2017, 18 in 2018, and 15 each in 2019 and 2020.