Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day on Saturday, said that the government has set up a committee to reconsider the minimum age for marriage of girls in India.
“We have set up a committee to reconsider the minimum age for marriage of our daughters. We will take an appropriate decision after the committee submits its report,” said PM Narendra Modi.
He added that the committee will also look at efforts that can be taken to reduce malnutrition among girls. Today India is one of those countries where women are being included in combat and non-combat roles in the Navy and the Airforce. “Various policies of the Indian government like those on maternity leave, triple talaq have empowered our country’s women. Over 5000.
The legal age for marriage in India is 18 for women and 21 for men. Reports that the government is looking to review the threshold have been doing the rounds, but it is not known so far what the new age limit might be. Efforts in this direction are aimed at ensuring that women are not pushed into marriage and motherhood before they are ready, a factor that can put her and the child’s health at risk.
In June, the Women and Child Development Ministry set up a high-level committee under former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly to review the legal age for marriage of women. The committee, which had a deadline of 31 July, is yet to submit its report to the government. While presenting the 2020 budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about constituting a task-force to provide recommendations on the appropriate age for women to enter motherhood, with an aim to lower the maternal mortality rate.
In 2018, the National Human Rights Commission had recommended that the marriageable age for both women and men should be uniform in India. The human rights watchdog, however, stopped short of specifying what that age should be. The same year, the Law Commission had recommended that the legal age for marriage for both sexes, cutting across religions, should be fixed at 18 years, the universal age of majority.
Stressing that the government is “working relentlessly” for the improved health of women, the Prime Minister said sanitary pads as inexpensive as Re 1 per pad had been developed and given to 5 crore women across the country. While India’s MMR has seen a decline from 130 per 1 lakh live births in 2014-2016 to 122 per 1 lakh live births in 2015-2017 — a decline of 8 points (6.2%) — the government is now pushing to bring down this rate further.
The minimum age of marriage for men and women was initially introduced to combat child marriages. Section 5(iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 for the groom. Child marriages can be declared void at the request of the minor. In Islam, the marriage of a minor, who has attained puberty, is considered valid. The Special Marriage Act, 1954, and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men, respectively.
