During his Independence Day address of 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hinted at raising the legal age of women to marry. Stating that the government is “constantly concerned about the health of daughters and sisters, the PM had said that to save women from malnutrition, it is necessary that they’re married at the right age.
Now, as per sources and media reports, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday (December 15) passed a proposal to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years.
The proposal is based on recommendations submitted by a task force set by the Centre to Niti Aayog to examine matters related to the right age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate), improvement of nutritional levels and related issues. Jaya Jaitly is heading the Centre’s task force.
Currently in India, the legal marriage age for women is 18 years while for men it’s 21 years. According to reports, apart from this, the Government is also looking to introduce an amendment to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and then bring amendments to the Special Marriage Act and personal laws such as the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
Jaya Jaitly said empowerment and not population control was the aim, “I want to make clear that our reasoning behind the recommendation was never one of population control. Recent data released by NFHS 5 (National Family Health Survey) have already shown that the Total Fertility Rate is decreasing and the population is under control. The idea behind it (the recommendation) is the empowerment of women.”
The same report further mentions that the committee has recommended for sex education to be formalized and introduced in the school curriculum. In order to ensure that an increase in marriageable age is properly implemented, women will be trained in polytechnic institutes, skills and business training and livelihood enhancement.
