Abstract

"Marriage in Indian society is a religious duty. Consanguineous marriage is common, where individuals prefer to marry within their clan. Traditionally, some cultures have practiced and continue to practice marriage between relatives such as cousins, as a means of strengthening family ties and retaining property within the family. In India, the recent estimation of consanguinity rates vary from as low as 1- 4% in the northern region to as high as 40-50% in the southern region. In comparison to a non-consanguineous couple, consanguineous are more likely to have marriage, at early age. Consanguineous unions range from cousin-cousin to more distant relatedness, and their prevalence varies by culture. Consanguinity has been known to increase the chance of the husband and wife carrying an identical gene derived from a common ancestor. Children of such a marriage, therefore, are at greater risk of being homozygous for a harmful gene and consequently suffer autosomal recessive genetic disorders1. Pregnancy wastage has also been found to be high for women marrying close relatives1.Higher rates of birth; rates of abortion, postnatal mortality, congenital malformations and genetic disorder are evident among consanguineous couple. "

Authors and Affiliations