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@article{209409,
        author = {Dr.Patibandla Hemalatha},
        title = {Youth Marriage Expectations and Changing Marriage Trends in India},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {5},
        pages = {1988-1995},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=209409},
        abstract = {Marriage remains one of the most significant social institutions in India, connecting individuals with families, kinship networks, communities and wider systems of social organisation. However, the meaning, timing and decision-making processes associated with marriage have undergone substantial transformation among younger generations. Expansion of education, urbanisation, occupational mobility, economic change, digital communication, changing gender expectations and increasing emphasis on individual aspirations have influenced the way young people understand marriage and partner selection. At the same time, parental authority, caste, religion, family reputation and socioeconomic considerations continue to influence marital decisions. This paper examines youth marriage expectations and changing marriage trends in India from a sociological perspective using secondary evidence from the National Family Health Survey, India Human Development Survey-based research, the Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults survey and open-access empirical studies. The evidence demonstrates a substantial decline in early marriage and a corresponding increase in the age at marriage. According to NFHS-5, 23.3 percent of women aged 20–24 had married before the age of 18 in 2019–21, compared with substantially higher levels in earlier NFHS rounds. (UNFPA India) Research based on the India Human Development Survey also indicates that joint spouse selection between women and parents increased from 47.4 percent among marriages in the 1970s cohort to 62.6 percent among marriages in the 2000s cohort, while parent-only selection declined from 49.6 percent to 31.0 percent. (PMC) The evidence therefore suggests that contemporary Indian marriage is not simply moving from arranged marriage to love marriage. Instead, marriage is increasingly becoming a negotiated institution in which individual preferences and family expectations interact. 
The paper argues that changing marriage trends should be understood through the concepts of delayed marriage, individualisation, negotiated authority, educational expansion, economic independence and continuing family embeddedness.},
        keywords = {youth, marriage expectations, marriage trends, India, marriage timing, spouse selection, arranged marriage, family, education, individualisation, gender, social change},
        month = {October},
        }