Activists And Experts Oppose Government’s Proposal To Increase Marriage Age For Girls To 21. It Won’t Help, They Say
In June, the government announced that it was mulling over the revision of legal marriageable of women in a bid to empower women and since then, there has been a lot of debate on the subject. What actually seemed like a great move initially turned out to be a sexist and redundant initiative that was largely based on motherhood rather than empowering women in the true sense.
On 15th August, PM Narendra Modi announced that a task force has been employed to moving up the minimum age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21 years. In his Independence Day speech, he said, “We have set up a committee to reconsider the minimum age for marriage of our daughters. We will take an appropriate decision after the committee submits its report.” Child rights activists and advocacy groups are not convinced with this move and think it’s rather regressive. They think that the focus of government should be on working against illegal practices like child marriage and not increasing the age of marriage for girls.
According to the experts, the government is not undertaking the underlying issues and shifting focus to age rather than the root cause of child marriages and mortality rate which is poverty, patriarchal mindset and control over women. Activists argue that increasing the age of marriage isn’t going to help gender equality or women empowerment or abolish child marriage as it doesn’t guarantee access to education and employment opportunities for girls. Instead, it is only going to make situation worse for young girls or have no impact at all.
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The latest information released by Sample Registration System (SRS) a couple of months ago suggested that although more women are marrying late, child marriages are still on the rise in India. This means that the mean age of marriage for women has had no impact on the child marriages. Girls in rural areas are prematurely married off anyway and increasing the legal age of marriage is not going to stop that. Plus, unless the practice of child marriage is eradicated, there’s not going to be any improvement in the infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality ratio (MMR).
A report titled ‘Young Voices: National Working Group’ was submitted to the task force appointed for the revision of legal marriageable age, which consulted 2500 young people from 15 states across the country. It says, “The root causes of early and child marriage are poverty, norms around centrality of marriage, patriarchy and control over girls’ sexuality. A law to change the age of marriage does not address all these causes.” It further adds, “Increasing the age of marriage will either harm; or have no impact by itself unless the root causes of women’s disempowerment are addressed.”
Due to Covid lockdown, the education of a lot of girls has come to a sudden halt due to lack of devices and internet facilities in the remote areas. These girls with no work or medium to study are being forced to marry no matter how young she is. Yes, there is a law in place but child marriages happen anyway so how is increasing legal age going to help is a major concern among the experts.
This might look good in theory but practically, it isn’t going to make any difference on the social level and more importantly it takes over the power of making decision regarding their own lives so it’s not empowering women either. Mamta Jangid, one of the women surveyed for the ‘Young Voices’ report, said “You can have a minimum age for marriage, which is 18. After that, we should be able to decide. When we can vote and drive at 18, why can’t we decide to marry?”
She added, “Back in the village, decisions are taken based on the girl’s body language and how [old] she looks. It doesn’t depend on her actual age.” “There is a major difference in the laws and the situation in the village. It is tough for us to remain at home till we are 18 only. Early marriage happens because there aren’t opportunities, access or awareness about getting us educated, not the other way round.”
They speak about key issues, including gender, agency, empowerment, age of marriage. Many of them are from SC, ST, OBC & minority communities. Many live in rural areas & urban slums. Their responses make up the Young Voices National Report.#AmplifyYoungVoices #YoungPeopleDemand pic.twitter.com/b7yDZY7kzG
— Point of View (@povmumbai) July 30, 2020
Also Read: The Government Is Considering Moving Up The Legal Marriageable Age For Girls In India To 21. But Only For Motherhood, Not So She’s Emotionally More Mature
The main concerns of the these society bodies and activists is how government is completely overlooking the real problem at play here. Child marriages happen not because the legal age of marriage is 18 or 21 for girls but because of the deep-rooted patriarchy and societal pressure that see girls as a burden. According to UNCIEF, India ranks highest in the absolute number of child brides in the world. This means that the prohibition of child marriage is only on paper while it is still rampant and rising in today’s times.
The critics in this domain want the government to take into account the rise of child marriages, dowry cases and female foeticide in India which are not impacted by legal age of marriage but the lack of access of education and employment for girls. Rather than revising the age of marriage, they should work on the root cause of child marriages and take initiatives to eradicate that to truly empower the young women of India.
