Nearly 12,105 children aged between 10 and 14 years were identified as divorcees in Census 2011, 53.67% or 6,497 of them girls. However, the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India fails to explain the legal basis of categorising underage individuals as 'divorcees' when child marriage itself is unlawful. The data stands testimony to the fact that child marriage remains fairly common.

As regards the overall number of minor divorces, that is people whose marriage ended before adulthood, Maharashtra accounts for the highest share of all states (1,984), followed by Uttar Pradesh (1,875), Gujarat (1,638), West Bengal (1,286) and Bihar (801). Rajasthan, considered to be the child marriage capital of the country, only has 366 such minors.

A K Saxena, joint director, Directorate of Census (Madhya Pradesh), said, "These are exact field data from our enumerators who go house-to-house to collect and record information as given to them."