According to experts, the pressure to raise girls in poor families until the age of 21 will increase the rate of sex-selective abortion in the country. The fear of rape or running away will also be great because of the proposed law, especially in rural areas. Some women`s groups supported the bill. “Completing her education and employability ensures a better life for a girl than being dependent on her husband for the rest of her life,” Ranjana Kumari, director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Social Research, told VOA. “The in-laws might say that the government has already extended the age of marriage and now you need another year to complete your education. Therefore, the problem of marital pressure will remain the same regardless of the age of the family, and the case for improving gender equality through the new change remains hollow,” Tuteja said. So why did the Modi government act to raise the legal age of marriage for women? While supporting the proposal to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21, senior congressional leader P. Chidambaram proposed not to enact the law until 2023. The coming year, he says, should be used by the government to educate people about the benefits of marriage only after the age of 21.
Vinoj Manning, CEO of the Ipas Foundation for Development, says that if women can vote at 18, why do they have to choose their life partner at 21? “If you look at all the laws, 18 is the limit, why do we increase marriage to 21? This contradicts all existing legal rights in the country. From the age of consent to the right to choose an abortion, Indian laws have allowed women aged 18 and over to decide for themselves. Single women under the age of 18 need the consent of their legal guardian to have an abortion due to an unwanted pregnancy. The government should also review all of these laws before implementing this law,” Manning said. At present, the bill to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 has been referred to the Standing Committee of Parliament. However, the country still has a long way to go before Indian women manage to be on an equal footing with men, regardless of caste, creed, religion and socio-economic status. In New Zealand, however, the age of marriage is 20 for both men and women. In Singapore, persons under the age of 21 who wish to marry must obtain parental consent, and those under the age of 18 also require a special licence issued by the Ministry of Social and Family Development. Even in the bill, girls do not have the freedom to choose their partners, and no importance is attached to girls` consent, says Anubha Rastogi, an independent lawyer and CAG member of the Pratigya Campaign, a non-profit collective that campaigns for women`s rights and gender equality. “The government says it would bring gender equality to the country and solve other problems such as maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, poor health of women, etc., but simply extending marriage for two years without considering other social factors cannot be the right way to change legislation,” says Anubha Rastogi.
According to Irani, raising the age of marriage for women would help reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, many countries have limited the age of family to 18 for both boys and girls. The list includes Australia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Israel, Iceland, Switzerland and Russia. “This is a big step forward,” said Prachi Chauhan, 17, one of the activists. “Such a law will help reduce social and parental pressures to marry soon after the 18th birthday that many girls face.” To put women on an equal footing with men, the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21. According to Prime Minister Modi, raising the legal age of marriage will empower girls and help them build their careers. According to experts, many girls decide to marry early to get rid of abusive homes where they are seen as a burden and need to be married. They see marriage as an option for freedom. However, the implementation of this law could be a game changer. “We do this so that they have time to study and progress.
The country is making this decision for its daughters,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the law banning child marriage was introduced in Parliament on Tuesday. The action comes more than a year after he said in an Independence Day speech that the government was considering raising the legal age of marriage for women. By raising the age of marriage for women to 21, the proposed legislation aligns the legal age of marriage for men and women. It contains amendments to the personal status laws of different communities regarding the age of marriage in order to ensure uniformity in this regard. “Marriage as an institution is not an old age situation, but was built on many other things, including economic models, fear of violence against young girls, early pregnancy, sex, many of these things affect marriage but not age,” says Prabhleen Tuteja. The proposal was also welcomed by hundreds of young girls who campaigned in the northern Indian state of Haryana to raise the age of marriage for women. However, she agrees that every branch of society, such as government, political parties or civil society, must work to make an older age for girls` marriage acceptable to communities. “It is not by changing the law that you change society or the institution of marriage, which is a social institution accompanied by cultural practices.” In India, the government has proposed a law to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21, putting it on an equal footing with men and claiming that it will empower women.
But many campaigners say the bill would do little to address the deep-rooted societal problems that drive millions of young girls to marry even before 18. The draft law on the age of marriage is deeply political.