ABSTRACT
Marriage at a young age causes havoc in the lives of girls, as they suffer much due to numerous factors such as lack of education and the influence on their mental and physical health. With the changing time and mentality of people there was an evolution in the minimum age limit for the marriage of both men and women from no explicit laws to eighteen years we could mark the change in the age of marriage. However, the figures are still staggering, and our track record in reducing marriage between minors under the age of eighteen is dismal. The present female’s marriage age breaches the concepts of gender equality, gender justice, and women’s dignity. Child marriages are currently just voidable, not void by default – such unions are not declared void until the partners involved contest it. Raising the legal marriage age for women to twenty-one years will help in preventing health problems among women at their most vulnerable ages. India has seen dramatic drops in both fertility and child marriage during the last decade. These changes have occurred not as a result of legislation or incentives, but rather as a result of more accessible schooling, health, and other entitlements, which have resulted in a radical shift in norms for girls, as well as a willingness to invest in them and postpone their marriages. This change will undoubtedly give all women more power and legal support, allowing them to choose possibilities to study and empower themselves before being burdened with marriage and parenthood. Moreover, it will also provide a significant time window for young girls, bridging the gap between rural and urban Indian girls and proving to be an empowering option for the overall improvement of young girls.
Keywords:Child Marriage, Gender Equality, Uniform Age, MinimumAge Limit.
- Introduction
For any community to thrive and prosper, change is unavoidable. As a result, revising the marriageable age of girls in India is unavoidable too. In previous year, on Independence Day’s speech from the walls of Red Fort, the Honourable Prime Minister hinted at a modification in the minimum age limit for marriage specifically for females. The status quo of the early marriage of girls is a very significant issue. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on Independence Day, saying, “We have constituted a committee to ensure that the daughters no longer suffer from hunger and are married off at the appropriate age.”[1] Relevant decisions regarding the age of marriage for daughters will be made as soon as the report is filed. Moreover, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the task group during the budget session in February 2020-21, stating that variables where changes such as education, healthcare, and maternal mortality must be considered. To shed some light on history, the Sharda Act was revised in 1978, and the marriage age for women was raised to 18 years. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006 upheld the same position. According to data gathered by UNICEF in India, 27 per cent of Indian women marry before the age of 18. If the government raises the marriage age for women to 21, new strict laws will be enforced to prevent early marriages.
Early marriage of a girl has been used as a weapon by parents in our patriarchal society to punish their daughters for elopement, and it has been used in conjunction with other laws to punish males in self-arranged marriages. A male adult in the Indian social structure has a greater sense of foreseeability of the consequences of this social evil of child marriage, and the punishment prescribed by law to deter them is too mild in effect, especially in this era of social justice when penology has become more reformative than a deterrent. If the government does not change the minimum age limit for girls, they would continue to suffer from the issues such as unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), poor sexual and reproductive health, lack of nutrition and maternal mortality. However, concerning the change in marriage age for females, the question arises as to whether the implementation of the new marriage laws will have an impact on religious or secular legislation? Various Muslim organizations in India have challenged the minimum marriage age in court, claiming that it should be left to Sharia law (after the attainment of puberty). Also, in Hindu Law, there is no strict law to prevent the early marriage of girls. All the personal laws provide for their particular rules, considering the umbrella rule as the minimum age limit of females is Eighteen, it should be increased to twenty-one to give a better life to females of our society. Let us analyse the effect of the government’s move to address the issue of marriage age along with respecting religious views.
[1]Jagriti Chandra, Government May Relook Marriage Age for Women,THE HINDU(Aug. 15, 2020, 11:54 PM), https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/government-may-relook-age-of-marriage-for-women/article32364889.ece.