Raising legal age of marriage

2021 DEC 20

Mains   > Society   >   Role of women   >   Women and Child issues

IN NEWS:

  • The Union Cabinet recently took the decision to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years and the same was send to the parliamentary standing committee for consideration.

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LEGAL AGE OF MARRIAGE:

  • Before Independence, the legal marriage age for women in India was set to 14 years in 1929. It was defined in Child Marriage Restraint Act. The same act also set the legal marriage age for men to 18 years.
  • After independence, the law was amended twice i.e., in 1949 and 1978. In 1978, the legal age of marriage was changed from 15 years for a girl and 18 for a boy to 18 years and 21 years respectively.
  • Today, Personal laws of various religions that deal with marriage have their own standards, often reflecting custom.
    • The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, prescribe the age of 18 years for the bride and 21 years for the groom.
    • The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, allows marriage if the boy and the girl have attained puberty.
    • The Special Marriage Act, 1954, which governs inter-faith marriages lays down 18 years for women and 21 years for men as the age of marriage.
  • There is also the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which prohibits marriage below 18 years for women and 21 years for men.

BACKGROUND OF RECENT CHANGE:

  • In June 2020, the Ministry for Women and Child Development set up a task force headed by Jaya Jaitly to look into the correlation between the age of marriage with issues of women’s nutrition, prevalence of anemia, IMR, MMR and other social indices.
  • The committee has recommended the age of marriage be increased to 21 years.
  • The committee has also asked the government to look into:
    • Increasing access to schools and colleges for girls, including their transportation to these institutes from far-flung areas.
    • Sex education in schools
    • Ensuring toilets and sanitary napkins at schools so that girls do not drop out
    • Skill and business training
    • Awareness campaign on a massive scale to encourage social acceptance of the new legislation
  • The committee said these deliveries must come first, as, unless they are implemented and women are empowered, the law will not be as effective.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RAISING MARRIAGE AGE:

  • Gender neutrality:
    • Raising the age to 21 will equalize the marriageable age of men and women and breaks the patriarchal stereotyping that husband should be older than wife.
  • Women empowerment:
    • By raising the age, India is adhering to the Convention on the elimination of discrimination against women which calls for abolition of all laws developed on the assumption that men and women have differential intellectual and physical rate of growth.
  • Reduce child marriages:
    • According to UNICEF, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India each year, accounting for a third of the global total.
    • Also, according to NFHS 5, while child marriage has declined, it has been marginal: from 27% in 2015-16 to 23% in 2019-20. Raising the age of marriage can boost this decline.
    • https://www.ilearncana.com/details/Child-Marriage-in-India/2569
  • Improved health outcome:
    • An early age of marriage, and consequent early pregnancies, have impacts on nutritional levels of mothers and children, and on Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate. This can be solved by raising the age of marriage.
  • Better human resource development:
    • Marriage has direct correlation with lower educational attainment for girls, limiting their employment opportunities, economic security and productive capacity to society.
    • Also, child of young uneducated mothers is less likely to attain high levels of education, thereby perpetuating cycles of low literacy and limited employment opportunities. These issues can be addressed by raising the marriage age.
  • Reduce risk of domestic violence:
    • Girls who are married young often lack status and power within their marriages and households, and so are more likely to experience domestic violence, sexual abuse, and isolation from family and community.
  • Reduce population growth:
    • Lower age at marriage directly affects fertility rates. Lower the rate of age at marriage higher is the fertility rate.

CRITICISM:

  • Abdication from government’s responsibilities:
    • Marrying women off early is seen as a solution to deal with poverty, escalating dowry demands and the haunting fear of sexual assault. By ignoring these and focusing solely on raising the age, government is abdicating its responsibilities towards a welfare state.
  • Women's infantalisation:
    • All laws that apply to adult citizens, including criminal laws, will apply to a woman at the age of 18. But according to the proposed Bill, a woman is too young to exercise a choice to get married. This is against the principle of autonomy in matters of personal choice that an adult woman enjoys.
  • Ineffective law enforcement:
    • According to NFHS 5, 23.3% of women aged 20-24 years married before the age of 18, which shows that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, has not been successful in preventing child marriages.
    • Here, increasing the legal age at marriage will only expand the number of persons deemed underage and render them with ineffective legal protection.
  • Discrimination against vulnerable sections:
    • 70% of early marriages take place in deprived communities such as SCs and STs, who also happen to be the largest bearers of poverty. The new legislation would simply push a large portion of the population into illegal marriages.
  • Aggravates misuse of legislations:
    • Currently, many cases under PCMA are registered by parents to punish their daughters who marry against their wishes or elope to evade forced marriages, domestic abuse and housework. The extension of legal age can aggravate this situation.

WAY FORWARD:

  • Development is the best contraceptive:
    • Maternal and infant mortality, malnutrition and women’s safety are problems linked to public policy. To attain the targets of women empowerment, improvements on these indicators are the need of the hour.
  • Focus on education:
    • The marriage age at 18 was set in 1978, but child marriage started to decline only in the 1990s, when the government stressed primary education of the girl child and took measures to reduce poverty. Hence, emphasis must be given on reducing drop out rates and encouraging skill training and higher education among women.
  • Promote reproductive health:
    • Steps must be taken to address early pregnancies by extending family planning and reproductive health support which focus on preparation for pregnancy and delaying the first birth.
  • Assure safety:
    • It is also important to ensure a safe environment free from the constant threat of rape and sexual assault in the country.
  • Adopt successful models:
    • Guaranteed employment opportunities and access to education are critical factors in enabling young women to make informed choices. States which have ensured higher levels of access to education for girls have successfully addressed the challenge of child marriage, for example in Kerala.
  • Implement other recommendations of the committee:
    • Raising the age of marriage is one of the many recommendations of the committee. Unless other recommendations in matters of education, skill development, sex education and reforming patriarchy go with it, the objective of raising marriage remains unfulfilled.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. Increasing the legal age of marriage is not a panacea but none the less a right move towards promoting women empowerment. Discuss?