I agree, that marriage is a personal issue and the age at which one must get married depends on individuals. However, I feel that the atmosphere in which people grow up and live in contributes equally to setting a certain age limit for getting married. eg. in rural areas, where there is not much importance given to women's education and general mindset is that a woman's role and place is inside the home, girls are married as soon as they reach puberty. in those situations and environs, it is the girl's physical security that matters most, the parents want to get rid of a young girl as quickly as they can to protect her from leering eyes of undesirable characters. in an urban setting, where education and careers matter most, women are choosing career over marriage and therefore, now we are seeing more and more women postponing marriage where the established norm now is 30 years and beyond. So it very much depends on what kind of setting we are looking at.

Legally minimum age for marriage is 18 and 21 years for girls and boys. Most of people know it. But in urban area no one marriage at this age. Most of boys and girls cross 25 years. Marriage for girls up to 30 years is right one. If girls married after 30 years than she may be face some problem in giving birth to child.

Now a days, even in rural regions, people are preferring marriages at the age between 25 and 25. Girls are showing interest for education and jobs. They prefer to be more self reliant.

@ Kalyani I agree that lifestyle and demands of the society one lives in plays a dominant part in deciding the age at which children get married and since arranged marriages are still very much a part of it , parents have more say than the children. But things are slowly changing ..

@anil, rambabu ,  I agree that in large and even small cities 25 or even 30 is not a great age since it takes that long for both boys and girls to get settled in their career and stabilise before they think of getting married.

Here, I would like to write about myself. I was actually disinterested in getting married but finally when I decided to get married I was thirty years old and my hubby was thirty-two. It was fine until my son was born when I was thirty-five. Then I realised I made a wrong decision of getting married so late. After being parents my husband started calculating how to put everything at the right place for our son before his retirement and I used to get exhausted very quickly while looking after him. At 35 I lacked that patience and energy which was very much needed to nurture a child. I sincerely feel that if at all a girl wants to get married then it should be around 25/26. I would suggest so but will never force anyone to do so because it's definitely a personal choice. Now, that my son is no more a toddler so I don't need to run after him but the concern regarding his completion of education and his further establishment still remains a concern for us because up to an extent the parents are responsible for their child's future. 

rambabu wrote:

Now a days, even in rural regions, people are preferring marriages at the age between 25 and 25. Girls are showing interest for education and jobs. They prefer to be more self reliant.

It is only in your region, but Rajasthan is infamous of child marriage. Here in rural area only few people wait for the marriage of their child till age of 18 and 21.

usha manohar wrote:

@ Kalyani I agree that lifestyle and demands of the society one lives in plays a dominant part in deciding the age at which children get married and since arranged marriages are still very much a part of it , parents have more say than the children. But things are slowly changing ..

@anil, rambabu ,  I agree that in large and even small cities 25 or even 30 is not a great age since it takes that long for both boys and girls to get settled in their career and stabilise before they think of getting married.

I heard a case of a girl who escaped from her village in the state of Maharashtra to avoid child marriage. An NGO helped her. The girl wanted to study and do a job.

Shampa Sadhya wrote:

Here, I would like to write about myself. I was actually disinterested in getting married but finally when I decided to get married I was thirty years old and my hubby was thirty-two. It was fine until my son was born when I was thirty-five. Then I realised I made a wrong decision of getting married so late. After being parents my husband started calculating how to put everything at the right place for our son before his retirement and I used to get exhausted very quickly while looking after him. At 35 I lacked that patience and energy which was very much needed to nurture a child. I sincerely feel that if at all a girl wants to get married then it should be around 25/26. I would suggest so but will never force anyone to do so because it's definitely a personal choice. Now, that my son is no more a toddler so I don't need to run after him but the concern regarding his completion of education and his further establishment still remains a concern for us because up to an extent the parents are responsible for their child's future. 

That is a very honest and frank appraisal...I agree that it is better to have children while one is reasonably young and fit ! But nowadays we find couple getting married without any plans of having children .One of my neighbor and her hubby are in their late thirties, she being older by a couple of years , have adopted a girl child and looking after her with the help of grand parents and they have no plans on having any children of their own.I see a lot of young couple going in for adoption !

Adoption is certainly a great choice if the couple has a minimum chance of having their own child but that does not lessen the job of the mother to look after the child. The tenacity matters a lot which every mother requires to nurture her child be it of her own or an adopted one. I think when marriage takes place at late age then love between the couple which is the essence of a married life simply converts into responsibilities and more responsibilities. Somewhere down the line the couple misses some great moments in their lives.   

Will there be any Mother who will not relish the sweet and sonorous word, "Mamma " ? Every mother floats on the waves of ecstasy when she hears the word " Mamma ".

When a Mother doesn't have the the possibilities of having children due to some reasons, definitely she goes for adoption. And she will not have an iota of hesitation to bear the difficulties involved in Motherhood. Hence, I definitely say that adopting a child is a wise decision.

Here I must say that parents should take care to adopt a Just born baby. The idea is the baby should not know that it's an adopted child.