"Hello, friends!" "Recently, the Cabinet passed a proposal," to increase the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years old. Claiming that it will lead to Women Empowerment. So then why are some people criticising it? What can be its benefits? And what is the real issue with Child Marriage? "Come, let's understand it in today's Blog." """The Union Cabinet has passed a proposal" "to raise the legal age of marriage""" """...from 18 years to 21.""" We can't prevent that. """Is this a step in the right direction?""" Does it address the underlying cause of early marriages? "In June 2020, the Ministry of Women and Child Development" formed a task force headed by Jaya Jaitly. "Talking to the Indian Express, Jaya Jaitly said that" the reason behind increasing the minimum age for marriage the agenda wasn't population control.
Because India's population has already been controlled. "According to the latest data," the total fertility rate in India has already
fallen below 2.0. So there's no need to
be concerned about it. Their main agenda
was to tackle the issues related to
motherhood. Like the maternal mortality
rate. And to reduce the deaths during
childbirth. "For this, they took
feedback from 16 universities" "talked
to 15 NGOs," and then it was
decided to raise the age for marriage. "But
obviously, the underlying issue here"
is of Child Marriage. "When
girls are married off at a young age,"
the chances of death during childbirth increases. "The question then arises," why are some people criticising this
decision? There are mainly 2 points of
objection. The first objection was
raised by Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi.
She shared this clip of a newspaper on Twitter Showing the names daughters are given in some
places in India. "'Dhapu,' meaning
Fed Up." "'Ramghani' as in 'O
Lord, that's enough.'" 'Antima' as
in Hopefully this will be the last girl child.
'Faltu' or useless. "Obviously,
this reflects that in some areas of the country," how society perceives girls and women. "Priyanka Chaturvedi says," that there is a need for a societal change and legislative interference wouldn't make
any difference. "She said that 79%
of the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' budget"
is spent on ads. And the
government isn't doing anything on the ground.
"In my opinion, this objection is a Logical Fallacy." False Binary Logical Fallacy. "Here, two unrelated things are being
compared." "I agree that the
Government is in the wrong for spending so much on ads," but what does it have to do with this
decision? "It isn't that had the
marriage age not been raised," then
that could've brought about a change in society. "In fact, the task force on whose
recommendation this Bill has been introduced," has put forth more recommendations for
bringing about societal change.
Like increasing the accessibility for women in schools and
colleges. Easing the transportation for
women to schools and colleges. And also
focus on skill development and business training. The committee has even said that "till the time the other things are
implemented," this law wouldn't be
very effective. Let's talk of the second
objection. The point of the second
objection is Freedom of Choice. CPM
politician Sitaram Yechury has said that
"when a woman becomes 18 years old," she gets the right to vote. "She is treated as an adult," "but when it comes to marriage," she will be treated as a juvenile. How can it be? "Similarly, the AIMIM Cheif Owaisi said
that" the Modi Government behaves
like an uncle from your neighbourhood. "If
an 18-year-old woman can choose her MP and MLA," "she can choose the Prime Minister of
the country," "can start her
business," "can sign
contracts," but can't marry of her
own will. "In the opinion of the
people raising this point of objection,"
the legal age of marriage for both men and women should be 18 years. The same thing was suggested in a 2018 Law
Commission Report. That men and women
should be allowed to get married at the age of 18. "In fact, if we look at the trend
worldwide," we can see a similar
thing in the other countries. "According
to the United Nations," 180
countries have the age of marriage for men at 18 years. "And in 158 countries," women are allowed to get married at 18 years
of age. Here comes a big question. Why wasn't the marriage age of men reduced to
18 years? So that it could be 18 for
both? "Instead, they decided on the
complete opposite."
The age was raised to 21 years for women. It's 21 years for both now. "To know the answer to this
question," we need to understand
the problem of child marriage in the country.
"According to the estimates of 2019," more than 1.5 million girls in India weren't 18 years old at the time of their
marriage. "If we look at the global
numbers of child brides," "one-third
child brides of the total, are from India." "And the most shocking fact," "According to the 2019-21 NFHS
data," 23% of marriages in India are child marriages. Can you imagine? More than one-fifth of the marriages in India
are child marriages. Does that mean that
so many people are violating the law? "To
understand this, we need to go into history." "About 100 years ago," "in 1917," some women came together to establish the
Women's Indian Association. An
association to raise the issues related to women. That was under the British Rule. "So the social issues they considered
important," were raised in front of
the British Indian Government. Some of
these women were "But
unfortunately, the Britishers were interested in bringing these social
reforms." So these women approached
the Indian Freedom Fighters. And laid
their claims to them. Requesting them to
raise the issues relating to women. "In
1929, on Gandhi's advice," "Harbilas
Sharda introduced a Bill," to
restrain child marriages. The Women's
Association rallied on the roads supporting it.
Using placards saying that any person opposing Sharda Bill will be
laughed at by the world. "Under
this pressure, the British India Parliament finally" passed the law "the Child Marriage Restraint Act,
1929." "According to this
act," the minimum marriage age for
girls was fixed at 14 years. And for
boys at 18 years. But actually
implementing this law did not bring any benefits to the British. So they didn't really try to popularise this
act. Or to implement it on the ground
level. That's why there weren't many
changes on the ground. The next major
step was taken after the Independence. In
1949 when the minimum marriage age for girls
was raised from 14 to 15 years. "And
then in 1978,"
it was raised even further from 15 to 18 years old. "And in the same year, this age was
raised for men from 18 to 21 years old."
"Under this act, the offences were now cognizable." "Before this," "if you complained about a child
marriage taking place," then action
could be taken based on your complaint. "But
now, the authorities could take action on their own," even if no one complained about it. This was a major difference. And a very important one. "Because normally, who would complain
about child marriage?" "But
now the authorities, the government and the police, could take action on their
own." "But even after this,
the authorities were hardly concerned."
They weren't much interested in preventing it. "And when a child marriage did take
place," they believed in letting
bygones be bygones. And ignored it. The ground reality didn't change much. The most important change took place in the
year 2006. "The Prohibition of
Child Marriage Act, 2006." This was
the first time that child brides were given the option to have their marriages declared void. That they could cancel their child marriage. "Before this," they had to go through divorce once the child
marriage had taken place. "But
now," "they didn't need to
take a divorce," "if someone
was a victim of child marriage," they
could go and complain and their marriage
would be cancelled. Without needing a
divorce. "Section 3 of the Act
stated," that every child marriage
is voidable. But it was subject to a
condition. There was a time limit for
this rule. 2 years after attaining the
marriage age.
"Meaning that if someone was a victim of child
marriage," "and they wanted to
declare their child marriage void,"
they could do so up to 2 years after attaining the legal minimum age for
marriage. "For men, it was 21+2, up
till 23 years of age." "And women
could get it done by 18+2, 20 years of age." "Once that age limit crossed," the child marriage couldn't be cancelled
after that. And this was a big loophole
in the law. Child marriages weren't
automatically void. They were voidable. They could be declared void. But how many people got them declared void? Especially when an age limit was set for the
children. Was 20 years a sufficient age
limit for the girls? A 20-year-old girl
generally lives with her family. "So
when the parents wouldn't agree," how
could she independently go and get her marriage declared void? There were some cases where child marriages
were automatically void. Mentioned in
Section 12 of the Act. Like if the
parents or guardians of the child weren't present at the wedding. Then it would be automatically void. "But in the rest of the cases," they were voidable. They had to apply to get it declared void. And most people did not try to do it. "Things were so weird," "that till 2017, the age of consent for
physical relations for girls," was
18 years.
"But for a child bride, the same age was" 15 years only. "So in a child marriage, marital rape
was legal." "There was an NGO,
named Independent Thought," it had
filed a petition in the court regarding this.
To complain about this. "And
thankfully, our Supreme Court took an action regarding it." "The bench of Justice Madan Lokur and
Justice Deepak Gupta," criminalised
marital rape for girls below the age of 18.
But the biggest question to arise here is Why isn't a simple law formed? "That if any child below the age of 18
is married off," then it couldn't
be legal under any circumstance. Children
aren't cattle to be handed over to others
even if they aren't 18 yet. "Not
only this, in my opinion, this should be criminalised." "When a child marriage is taking
place," "the parents of both
sides," that consent to the child
marriage should be punished in some way
or the other. "Theoretically, in
Sections 9, 10 and 11 of the 2006 Act, "
have the provisions of levying punishments. Imprisonment for up to 2 years. "And fine up to ₹100,000." But when the Act also contains "that the child marriages are
voidable," "but not
automatically void," how would this
law work? "That's why even today we
can see," that 23% of all marriages
are child marriages. "Hundreds of
thousands of girls are married off at such a young age," but the cases registered regarding it is only
a handful. "Between 2014 to
2016," "a mere 1,785 cases
registered only." And how many of
these cases resulted in convictions? Only
274 cases. "And surprisingly, of
the cases that are being registered,"
"and those that result in a conviction," most of them are cases where the couple had
eloped.
The cases of elopement.
This was found in a study of 83
verdicts from the High Courts and District Courts "by PLD, a Delhi-based group." "They conducted this study," "and found that 65% of these
cases," were of elopement. "One thing is very clear here,
friends," the authorities are
taking almost no action to deal with the problem of child marriage. "We need to have a true, total, blanket
ban" on a marriage of a child below
the age of 18 years. "And friends,
this problem isn't seen only in India."
Many countries around the world have the same problem. "According to a 2010 UNFPA report," "in 158 countries," the legal age for marriage has been set at 18
years. "But in 146 of these 158
countries," the law allows the child marriage of girls with the consent
of parents. "If the parents consent
to it, the countries allow child marriages." Let's look at the example of the countries
that have taken progressive steps for this issue. "Tanzania in Africa," "it has a rule that if the parents
allowed, a 15-year-old could get married."
"But in 2016, the High Court of Tanzia stated that" it is unconstitutional And declared all marriages of children below
the age of 18 as illegal. "This
rule existed n Norway as well," "In
2018, Norway's court declared" a
blanket ban on marriages below the age of 18.
Their Minister of Child and Equality said that all marriages should be based on free
consent "on informed consent," and full consent. So that they are aware of the consequences of
getting married. "In Indonesia, a
similar law was passed recently." "They
have the age of marriage set at 21 years,"
"but girls can be married at 19," if the parents agree. "So let's come back to the Bill," raising the marriage age to 21 years by the Modi government. "In my opinion, this is a good
decision." Because it is
fundamentally against child marriages. "When
the age limit is raised so much," "hopefully,
it will motivate people" to have
marriages at that age limit. "But
at the same time,
I'd say that this is an empty promise." "If it doesn't come with the decision
that all child marriages are illegal,"
then this decision would not bring about much change on the ground. Because the existing law relating to it maintains that the child marriages are
voidable. And not completely void. Then the implementation of the new decision
would be almost nil. If it doesn't come
with this step. "Overall, changing
the mindset of the whole society is extremely difficult." It is a very slow process. "In fact, changing one's own mindset is
so difficult" you would have seen
it. "Changing one's habits," letting go of bad habits. "First, try to change your own
mindset." "Related to this,
there is an inspiring audiobook called Mindset on KUKU FM." It shows how you can bring about a change in
your mindset and adopt better habits. And achieve your goals. I definitely recommend it. "If you don't know KUKU FM," "you'd already know it by now," it is a brilliant audio-learning platform "on it, you can get many biographies and
such books to listen to," "normally,
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one book, you can listen to thousands of them." "The link is in the description," Do check it out "and New Year is the time to set new
goals," and bring a change within
oneself.
"Coming back to the topic, we still need to answer one
question." Why wasn't the age set
at 18 years for both girls and boys? Why
was it raised to 21? "It is argued
that the age to vote is 18," "for
setting up a new business, it is 18,"
"but in my opinion, it has a very simple answer." "think about it, an 18-year-old boy or
an 18-year-old girl," where are
they in terms of career? They would've
just passed 12th grade. Not even in
college yet. A career is farfetched when
they don't even have a job. An
18-year-old person doesn't have any source of income. "In such circumstances, if a girl has a
child," where would they get the
money to raise the child? How would an
18-year-old person get the time to care
for the child? This affects the mental
health of the newborn as well. Several
people claim that girls are being denied a basic Human Right here By not letting them get married. "In my opinion, it isn't a human right
to get married at the age of 18." No
one is being prevented from falling in love.
Or being in a relationship. Or if
a boy and a girl are not being allowed to live together. All of it is still allowed. "The age limit of 21 years set by the
government," "gives a nice
time gap for safety," so that
people could settle into their lives and careers. And have children only after that. What is your opinion? Comment below to let me know. "And if you found this blog to be
informative," you can definitely
check out this playlist of my educational series. "To watch similar blogs," on similar topics. Let's meet in the next blog. Thank you very much!