Govt Passes Proposal To Raise Legal Age Of Marriage For Women To 21 Yrs: Report
Mumbai: Union Cabinet has passed a proposal to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years, the same as men, reports said. The proposal clearance comes more than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the plan in his address to the nation on the 74th Independence Day.
In India, men are legally allowed to marry at the age of 21. The proposed reform would equalize the legal marriageable age for both sexes. The Indian Express, citing sources, reported that after getting the cabinet’s nod, the government may amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, the Special Marriage Act and the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 through individual legal means.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the NITI Aayog on the basis of recommendations received from a task force last December to address matters “matters pertaining to the age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate), improvement of nutritional levels and related issues”. The task force was led by Jaya Jaitly, the former president of the Samata Party.
Jailty clarified in an interview with The Indian Express that the task force’s rationale behind the recommendation was not population control. She supported his claim with the recent findings of the National Family Health Survey, which shows that the total fertility rate (TFR) is declining and the country’s population is under control. She said that the idea behind the recommendation is women empowerment.
“We have had feedback from 16 universities and engaged over 15 NGOs to reach out to young people, particularly in rural and marginalised communities, such as in particular districts in Rajasthan where child marriage is quite prevalent. Feedback was taken across religions, and from urban and rural areas, equally,” Jailty told The Indian Express.
Other recommendations of the task force included an elaborate public awareness campaign to encourage social acceptance of the decision, the introduction of sex education in the school curriculum, women’s training in polytechnic institutions, etc.
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