Such a decision would cause social issues leading to live-in relationship” and “illegitimate children”, says Noorbeena Rasheed
Kozhikod siyasat.net
Central government’s plan to raise the legal age for marriage of women from 18 to 21 has not gone down well with the Indian Union Muslim League’s women’s wing which said such a decision would cause social issues leading to “live-in relationship” and “illegitimate children”. Peeved at the move, the Indian Union Women League (IUWL) has sent a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking to scrap it.
The Central government had set up a 10-member task force headed by Jaya Jaitly to look into raising the age for marriage of women. “The IUWL has sent a petition to the prime minister demanding that such a move should be dropped,” said the body’s general secretary P K Noorbeena Rasheed, a former state women’s commission member.
Mrs.Noorbeena said many developing countries had brought down the women’s marriage age from 21 to 18 considering their biological and social needs. “We’ve the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 with strong penal provisions including rigorous imprisonment. What is the point in raising the marriage age of women instead of implementing the existing law more effectively?” she asked.
“I’ve heard that the Centre found that around 30 per cent of women are getting married before they turn 18. Does raising the age bar in any way prevent such child marriages?” asked Noorbeena, who added that the IUWL did not discuss the issue with the Muslim League. The party sources confirmed that the women’s wing’s stance was independent. Kerala reported 266 complaints of child marriage between January 2019 and July 2020.
Earlier, PM Modi in his Independence Day speech, said that the government is mulling over what should be the minimum age of marriage for women, and a committee has been set up to look into the matter.
In India, the Child Marriage Prohibition Act was enacted in 1929 during the British rule and the age of marriage was fixed. However, in 1978, the law was amended to 18 for girls and 21 for boys. The law was later repealed in 2006 with the enactment of a strong law prohibiting child marriage. Raising the age of marriage for girls will not be good for women but will be bad for the society ,the Women’s League National General Secretary Adv. P.K. Noorbeena Rashid added.
Activists caution against revising the age of marriage from 18 years to 21 years and appeal that the issue must be addressed by empowering girls as poverty and lack of safety are the main drivers of early marriage.
The National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns on behalf of 21 NGOs in its submission to the Task Force last month asserted that increasing the legal age of marriage for girls will only “artificially expand the numbers of married persons deemed underage and criminalise them and render underage married girls without legal protection. Instead, transformative, well resourced measures that increase girls’ access to education and health, create enabling opportunities and place girl’s empowerment at the centre will not just delay marriage but lead to a long term, positive health and education outcomes.” It also underlines that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 instead of curbing child marriages, has only played as a weapon in the hands of parents to punish their daughters for elopement and is used in conjunction with other laws to punish boys in self-arranged marriages.
As per UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) study, around 27% of the women in India are married before turning 18th birthday. This judgement, if passed, it is hoped setting a higher age of marriage for women to 21 will bring strict laws, which will prevent children from being married off too young. (With input from siyasat.net, Ahmedabad,Gujarat,India based website)
