Summary
In this paper we develop a method for estimating the incidence of widow and widower re-marriages from the current marital status data given in a census or survey. The method basically consists of reversing the procedure of estimating adult mortality from information on widowhood status. The method is applied to the all-India data from the Census of 1971. The principal result is that about one-third of the ever widowed women and slightly fewer than two-thirds of the ever widowed men were currently remarried in 1971. Similar application of the method to earlier censuses, and to state-level data, may provide answers to some of the riddles in Indian sociology.
The authors wish to thank Professor S. H. Preston for valuable comments on an earlier draft.
The authors wish to thank Professor S. H. Preston for valuable comments on an earlier draft.
Notes
The authors wish to thank Professor S. H. Preston for valuable comments on an earlier draft.