Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Minimum Age of Marriage)

Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Minimum Age of Marriage

In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the Centre will decide on the recommendations of a committee set up to reconsider the minimum age of marriage for women.
Currently, the law prescribes a minimum age of marriage is 21 years for men and 18 years for women.
The minimum age of marriage is distinct from the age of majority which is gender-neutral. An individual attains the age of majority at 18 as per the Indian Majority Act, 1875.

On June 2, the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development set up a task force to examine matters pertaining to age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) and the improvement of nutritional levels among women.
The task force will examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.
It will also look at key parameters like Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), MMR, Total Fertility Rate (TFR), Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) and Child Sex Ratio (CSR), and will examine the possibility of increasing the age of marriage for women from the present 18 years to 21 years.
Headed by former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitely, the committee includes Member Health at the NITI Aayog, Dr Vinod Paul, and several Secretaries to the Government of India.

The law prescribes a minimum age of marriage to essentially outlaw child marriages and prevent the abuse of minors.
For Hindus, Section 5 (iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom. However, child marriages are not illegal — even though they can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage.
In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid.
The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.
Additionally, sexual intercourse with a minor is rape, and the ‘consent’ of a minor is regarded as invalid since she is deemed incapable of giving consent at that age.

From bringing in gender-neutrality to reduce the risks of early pregnancy among women, there are many arguments in favour of increasing the minimum age of marriage of women.
Early pregnancy is associated with increased child mortality rates and affects the health of the mother.
Despite laws mandating minimum age and criminalising sexual intercourse with a minor, child marriage are very prevalent in the country.
Last year, the Delhi High Court also sought the central government’s response in a plea that sought a uniform age for marriage for men and women.
Several experts argued that Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee the right to equality and the right to live with dignity, were violated by having different legal ages for men and women to marry.

Noting the law’s patriarchal underpinnings, the 18th Law Commission report (2008) asked for uniformity in the age of marriage at 18 years for both men and women and lowering the age of consent to 16 years, a recommendation also of the Justice Verma Committee.
Efforts to address child marriage in India should be in consonance with the socio-economic realities that demand investment in education, welfare, and opportunities for women.
Increasing the legal age of marriage to 21 years will add to these existing hurdles for young women’s access to reproductive and sexual healthcare. All these put SC-ST households, who have the least recourse to legal and other safeguards, at a greater risk.
In September 2018, the National Human Rights Commission showed how higher education levels lead to a lower likelihood of women being married early and strongly recommended that the Right to Education Act, 2009, be amended to make it applicable up to the age of 18 years.