oppn parties The Legal Age Of Marriage For Girls Should Also Be 21 Years

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
The Legal Age Of Marriage For Girls Should Also Be 21 Years

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2020-08-17 11:10:25

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The government is thinking of upwardly revising the legal age of marriage for girls. This is an excellent initiative that was long overdue. Prime Minister Modi hinted about this in his Independence Day address to the nation. He said that the government had set up a committee to review the legal age of marriage for girls and will take suitable steps once the committee submits its report. While Modi suggested that malnutrition among girls was the main reason why the government wanted to increase the age, there are several other reasons for the pressing need to revise the age.

The last time the legal age of marriage for girls was revised was back in 1978 when it was raised from 15 to 18. In the last 42 years, there have been major changes in Indian society and girls have been allowed to do a lot of things that were previously off-limits for them. Opportunities have also opened up for girls, both in education and employment. Consequently, girls have been opting for higher studies and a career instead of rushing into starting a family.

Pressures from society and the immediate family for an early marriage have also decreased - at least in the educated urban society. It is not uncommon to see girls marrying at the age of 25 and above now. Among the poorer sections of society, poverty often forces the parents to arrange an early marriage for their daughters. But that is more dangerous to the girl's health as she might suffer from malnutrition at 18 and if she becomes a mother soon after marriage, she will give birth to an unhealthy child and her own health will also suffer drastically in the absence of proper post-delivery nutrition. Opening up of opportunities, including education, skilling and earning opportunities (so that parents do not consider them a burden) for girls from the poorer sections is of utmost importance.

Then there is the case of gender discrimination. Why have the legal ages of marriage for boys at 21 and for girls at 18? At the bare minimum, both should be the same at 21. Most of the 18-year-old girls, though considered as adults under Indian laws, are not ready for marriage as they have not seen the outside world, having probably led a sheltered and protected life within the family or in a girls-only school. At 18, they are ready only to join college and pursue higher education, which sometimes becomes difficult if the family marries them off taking shelter behind the legal age of marriage.

Hence, it is important to revise the age to 21. That will give the girls time to complete their graduation. It will also give them time to shape their minds to decide what they want to do in life other than run the kitchen and start a family. When they will meet girls and boys of their own age at college or any other course they choose to pursue and imbibe different thoughts and learn of what they can do with their talent and learning, they will be better placed to take independent decisions about their life. That is something we must allow them to do instead of marrying them off when they cross 18 or even earlier.