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India Has 1.5 Million Underage Brides Every Year. Here’s How ’21’ Can Change That
On 2 June, the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development established a task force to examine issues related to age of motherhood, lowering Maternal Mortality Rate and improvement of nutritional levels. The task force also found a mention in PM Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on the 74th Independence Day. “We have set up a committee to reconsider the minimum age of marriage for girls. The Centre will take a decision after the committee submits its report,” he said.
The task force is headed by former Samata Party President Jaya Jaitly, Dr Vinod Paul of the NITI Aayog and several top bureaucrats from the Centre, and one of the many issues that it will examine to address these concerns is the possibility of increasing the age of marriage for women from the present 18 years to 21 years.
This is a particularly contentious issue, particularly among religious and social conservatives.
The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, prescribes a minimum age of marriage to both outlaw child marriages and protect minors from abuse. However, the reality is vastly different.
“Estimates suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world – accounting for a third of the global total,” says UNICEF.
Personal laws of various religions on the question of marriage have their own standards. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 has established 18 as the minimum age for the bride and 21 for the groom. As per Muslim Personal Law, a Muslim girl can marry when she attains puberty or completes 15. Similar to the PCMA, The Special Marriage Act, 1954, prescribes 18 and 21 as the minimum age of consent for marriage of women and men respectively.
In addition, the Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, who is below 18, is rape. The ‘consent’ of a minor is invalid since she is deemed incapable of giving consent at that age. However, under PCMA, only a child bride or groom can file a petition to annul their marriage. Moreover, the petitioner needs a guardian or best friend, who must be an adult, and a Child Marriage Protection Officer, to file this petition.
There are naturally strong concerns about such difficulties in accessing justice.