Don’t increase girls’ age for marriage, reduce boys’

The recent Union Cabinet decision to raise the age of marriage for girls to 21 years will not achieve the desired objective of improving the nutritional levels of girls or reduce maternal mortality or morbidity. The raising of age of marriage, in fact, can also lead to adverse consequences for young couples.Prime Minister Narendra Modi linked malnutrition and the age of marriage in his Independence Day speech in 2020. The government set up a task force led by ex-Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley to examine this question. This task force submitted its report recommending the age increase as it will ostensibly empower women. According to reports, the task force says that delay in marriage has positive economic, social and health benefits for families, women, children and the society at large.Firstly, increasing the age of marriage for girls on paper will have no effect unless the underlying causes which result in underage marriage are addressed. A National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) report in 2018 had identified poverty and the lack of education as key factors which influence child marriages.The National Family Health Survey-4 data (2015-2016) had revealed that young girls from poor families and those who had not completed secondary education were more likely to get married before the age of 18. The 18th Law Commission report on child marriage had also pointed this out. medium88408934Further if the nutritional status of a woman is low from birth onwards, just marriage at a later date is not going to improve maternal and children mortality, and the children born from such marriages are likely to suffer from stunted growth and low weight.Nearly 18 lakh children remain malnourished in India while allocations to nutritional programmes like the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) have seen a cut. The country spent only 3.1% of its GDP on education in 2019-2020 and continues to spend far below the desirable level of 6% of GDP recommended by the national policy since 1968. Healthcare available to women prior to and during pregnancies also remains grossly inadequate.Secondly, this move will actually be counterproductive and undesirable because it will result in a direct attack on young couples who choose to marry a person of their choice. Many of these ‘choice marriages’ are opposed by parents throughout the country. They retaliate mainly by filing false criminal cases, including that of kidnapping and rape. The offence of rape under the amended criminal law also carries harsh sentences, including life imprisonment. The police often side with the parents and relatives of the girl and take the boy into custody, sending the girl to her parents’ home or a shelter home.Though the Supreme Court and many high courts have consistently held that young people have a right to choose their partners, young boys and girls are made to suffer if they do so. Cases are also filed under the Child Marriage Prohibition Act against the boy and his family for participating in and aiding such marriages. A significant number of such unions take place during adolescence. This is why women’s groups and organisations had recommended that the age of consent should be kept at 16 years in keeping with the trend in a large number of democratic countries.However, the government raised the age of consent to 18 and now wants to raise the age of marriage from 18 to 21 which will result in stopping young couples from exercising their right to choose their spouses. It has increasingly become evident that patriarchal and communal forces in the country are against inter-religious and inter-caste marriages. By increasing the age of marriage to 21 for girls, more voluntary unions can be criminalised. Such a move will only deny young women and young men their basic constitutional rights of autonomy and privacy.The Majority Act in our country states that every person domiciled in India shall attain majority on completion of 18 years of age. Citizens have been given the right to vote and to enter into contracts at 18 years of age under the law as it considers them mature and responsible enough at this age.In about 140 countries, the age for marriage is 18 for both boys and girls. It is therefore only natural that the minimum age of marriage should be 18 when young people attain the age of majority. medium nocaption88409899Women’s organisations like All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) had, in fact, suggested that the age of marriage for men should also be reduced to 18 as the difference in the age of marriage is not warranted and was based on patriarchal notions that girls should be younger than men when they get married. The argument that the age of marriage should be raised to bring about gender parity is fallacious and arbitrary. It is a denial to young persons of their right to choose their spouse and partner at an appropriate age. The 18th Law Commission had also recommended that the age of marriage should be 18 for boys to bring about equality as have other government bodies and international covenants.The task force has thankfully not suggested that marriages below 21 be declared void. However, as stated before, such marriages can lead to prosecutions under various criminal laws like the Prohibition of Child marriage Act. To raise the minimum age of marriage is a draconian and unnatural measure. In any case, the latest NHFS-5 figures show that the age of marriage is going down as are fertility figures. Raising nutritional, health and educational levels through adequate budgetary allocations and creating awareness about the negative consequences of child marriage is the need of the hour.It is, therefore, unnecessary and counter-productive to raise the age of marriage for girls. This measure can at best have a propaganda value which will divert the people’s attention from what actually requires to be done to eradicate child marriage. medium nocaption88410713Kirti Singh is a women's rights lawyer working in Delhi and is the legal advisor to All Indian Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA)Untitled Carousel 88375683