Plan it wisely
Marriage is a big decision in anybody’s life. This aspect of our life has a bearing on two people’s lives besides their families as well. Therefore, the institution of marriage needs lot of social support and understanding by the members of the society.
In India marriageable age limit for men has been kept at 21 years and for women it is legal to get married after attaining the age of 18 years. However, given the young age among the women as the legal age for getting married, various social and civil rights groups had been advocating for increasing the legal marriage age among women as well.
These groups cited equality among the sexes to discontinue with the practice making a case that women too need to be provided a chance to earn a name and status for themselves.
It was after a lot of brainstorming sessions that the government has decided to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years, bringing it at par with that of men. The decision is based on the recommendation of a four-member task force led by former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly.
Seeking to increase the marriageable age among women the Union Cabinet had on Wednesday cleared a proposal to bring in uniformity in the marriageable age of men and women. The government is likely to bring a bill in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
The proposed bill may also seek to make consequential changes to various personal laws relating to marriage of different communities to ensure a uniform marriage age.
Presently, a lot of talk is happening on providing equal chances to both the sexes in every field. If we talk about gender equity and gender empowerment in every field, we cannot leave marriage out because this is a very odd message that a girl can be fit to be married at 18 that cuts away her opportunity to go to college, and the man has the opportunity to prepare himself for life and earning up to 21 years.
These days when girls are capable of doing so much and the main reason why they are married off is because they are not an income earning members. Therefore, they needed to be provided a chance as it takes more than 24 to 25 years for a young adult to complete his formal education and seek some job opportunity.
Interestingly, the latest NFHS-5 report shows that the number of women marrying early (before 18 years) has reduced from 27 per cent in NFHS 4 to 23 per cent.
Even so nearly, 50 to 60 per cent of marriages still take place before the age of 21 years. Raising the age of marriage to 21 years will criminalise all such marriages taking place in future. The minimum age of marriage has been 18 years since 1978.
Raising the age for marriage among women will ensure education and better standards of living for them due to reduction in poverty as they will get a chance to earn and contribute in alleviating their families as well.
However, the decision to raise the marriage age should accompany with opportunities and incentives built in for a girl to have access to complete secondary school education so that the proposal achieves its objective for making the girl child completely independent.
KV Network
