Shruti R Sharma
A Bill for increasing the legal marriage age for women from 18 to 21 years was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani. And the Lok Sabha has sent the bill to the standing committee. Just like many other crucial bills like CAB, J&K Reorganization, UAPA Amendment, EWS etc. passed by the Indian parliament, this bill, is also going to be a trademark for the current Government to be used as a flagship in future. This amendment will not only influence the social scenario of our nation but will also somewhere affect India’s race towards gender parity, improving HDI, women empowerment etc. to a certain degree. Hence it becomes a centre of discussion both inside and outside the Parliament. But before forming any such bills which directly impacts our society, it is quintessential for our Government to take advice by holding local surveys etc., which should give the framers an idea of what common people want and what needs to be done. Because coercive laws have only proven to be failed attempts to serve the masses if they’re not approved and accepted by society.
Reason for Bringing the Amendment
The recommendation for modifying the legal marriage age of women from 18 to 21 mentioned under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, was proposed by a Task Force set up on 6th June 2020. The primary motivation behind constituting this Task Force, a 10-member panel headed by the former chief of Samata Party, Jaya Jaitly, was to look into the age of the motherhood with an aim to lower the maternal mortality rate, enhance their nutritional levels and give them chance to pursue their careers. Although ‘age change’ was one of the other major recommendations given by this Task Force to the PMO and Ministry of Women and Child Development in December 2020. The other recommendations included making a safe schooling environment for girls by providing transport services, free access to sanitary pads as well as clean separate toilets to reduce the school dropouts, providing sex education and vocational training, etc. If this amendment bill is passed by both the houses and signed by the President, it will amend the relevant portions of the PCMA, 2006, along with amending the Special Marriage Act, 1954, Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1972; the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936; Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937; and the Foreign Marriage Act, 1956. This will lead to changes in the community laws prevailing in our country regarding marriage age, e.g., Hindu laws state that the marriage age for boys should be 21 years and those of girls 18 years, while Muslim law says that minors are permissible for marriage after attaining puberty.
Will this legislature bring any significant impact?
Although pushing the marriage age of females should be one of the steps towards the journey of empowering women in India, it should not be the only step. Increasing marriage age can’t veil all the other major crises being faced by women today. Issues like rape threats, high maternal mortality rate, forceful marriages, being financially dependent on their husbands, domestic violence, dowry issues, leaving education for marriage and family etc. cannot be solved by making women marry at the age of 21 instead of 18. Studies show that the maternal mortality rate is higher in young mothers and also the children born to them have a higher risk of stunting and malnutrition, but experts suggest that this is rather due to poverty. Therefore, eradicating poverty is one tool towards helping young mothers and improving the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of our country. According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-2021), 23.3% of the women aged 20-25 were married before the age of 18. This result proves that the already existing laws are rampantly being violated, so instead of bringing Bill for increasing marriage age, which will only wider the cases of illegal marriages, Govt should be giving preference to strengthening the already existing laws. Many opposition leaders are stating that this Bill is unwanted, unconstitutional and in violation of article 25, which gives each citizen, freedom of conscience and propagation of religion. According to them, it is an invasion of personal law and the fundamental rights in the country. Since, 18 years is considered a lawful age for voting, driving etc, making it an age of entering adulthood, increasing the age of marriage is also nabbing away the rights of women to own their decisions to marry early.
How can marrying at 21 be beneficial for women?
Opposition leaders are strongly vocalising against this bill by quoting the examples of developed nations like the US and the UK where the legal marriage age for women is 18 years (16 years with the consent of their parents). But the comparison of a developing nation like India having many deep-rooted social issues with some highly advanced western nations working on a totally different ideology is unsubstantiated. Even if we keep aside the “developed nation” talks for a minute, the social mindset, diversified cultural and religious beliefs, primitive socio-cultural norms, traditions, including the age-old issue of patriarchal civilisation, is far more discrete from the western culture. Hence this gives us a clear head-start on why we should not be comparing the legislatures of the western world with the ones in India. Since, 21 years is the age of getting graduated from college, keeping a hold on the idea of marriage till then, gives young girls a scope to think about their career beyond the limited vision of marriage and family life. Vocational education side by side can benefit in shaping their minds for educational and economic independence, making them aware of their legal rights as well. Since most of the marriages in India are arranged by the parents, many marriages are below the age guidelines which is happily accepted by the families involved. According to UNICEF, 56% of the marriages of minors occur in rural India while 29% in urban areas. Since young girls are easy to tame, people believe that they will quickly adapt to the new environment in their husband’s houses. While the covert reason is that marrying young girls in India is considered a way to make women submit before the evils of patriarchy. Pushing the legal age for marriage will give them a chance to develop an opinion of their own and this law can act as a tool to fight for their rights against early marriage. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has openly extended support for this step but he also expressed that this law should not be implemented before 2023, as according to him, 2022 should be used to run educational campaigns all over the country, especially rural India, to aware parents and their daughters on how marrying at the same age at boys will be beneficial. He is not wrong in making such statements as most of the Indians are either unaware of their legal rights, or are limited in their thoughts and ambitions. By organizing an awareness campaign, the Government can help them understand the issues related to early marriage and the urgent need for economic sovereignty for girls.
Although this bill alone cannot bring a significant amount of change in the issues related to the women section of our society due to its much deep-rooted causes, if enforced stringently with other strong laws already existing in our country, this amendment can prove to be a smart weapon for fighting this battle. Mainstreaming of women section of our society is always an agenda quoted in every political party’s manifesto during each election, but to bring the ground level changes which are visible to all is very challenging, although not impossible. Meanwhile, Government is trying its best to eradicate the evils of Indian society, it is we, as a society, who needs to bring adaptations in ourselves, accept and follow such laws being made by the government and present our voices against those who do criminal acts. This will fetch a ‘bottom-up’ approach in our country, which emphasises the participation of the local community in development initiatives. And the day such changes start ensuing in our nation, only then, and not till then, can we envision ourselves stepping towards the path of what is called a real development.
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