Uniformity of Age of Marriage in India

Author: Shubhangi dengre

In 1917 group of ladies started women Indian Association and raised the issues related to
women , some of them were Annie Besant , Margaret Cousins , Kamladevi Chattopadhyay .
In 1929 At the advice of Harbilas Sharda Introduced a bill to restrain child marriages The child
restrain act 1929 , In which it was fixed that the age of marriage of boys and girls is 14 years,
this act is popularly known as Sharda Act and the act was passed further In 1978 The age of
women in India was increased from 15 to 18 by the amendment of Sharda Act of 1929 . In
2006 there were most Important changes in The Child Marriage act child brides have the option
to declare there marriage void .

Some Important provisions Under The Prohibition of child marriage Act ,2006 were :

Section 3 : Child marriage to be voidable at the option of contradicting party being a child .

Section 9 : Punishment for male adult marrying a child

Section 10 : Punishment for solemnizing a child marriage

Section 11 : Punishment for promoting or permitting solemnization of child marriage

Last year on the day of Independence our PM Narendra Modi in his speech said “ To end
malnutrition among girls, to assess what should be the age of marriage, we have set up a
committee” , Recently the cabinet approved by amending The prohibition of child marriage act
, 2006 (PCMA) , The consequence of this bill after passing by the parliament is the raise in age
of marriage of girls from 18 to 21 . The main question raised by the government of India was
The uniformity of age of Marriage , the key to gender equity and justice. The concerns raised
were that how law plays vital role among the poor and marginalized groups , this was the debate
on the limits of personal laws . the government plan of bringing the bill to increase the
minimum legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 . The union cabinet cleared the
proposal and the government plans to bring the bill which will bring the marriage age of women
at par with men . The decision is based on the reference made by Task force head former
Samata party chief Jaya Jaitly . she said that “ Gender equity and gender employment is
required in every field , we cannot leave marriage out because this is very odd to say that a girl
can be fit to marry at 18 which cuts her opportunity to go to college , which women has the
opportunity to prepare herself for life and earn up to 21 years”. The main agenda was to
examine matters pertaining to age of motherhood, imperative’s of lowering MMR ( maternal
mortlity rate) , improvements at nutritional levels and related issues to tackle this ,To do this
she took feedback from 16 Universities and 16 NGO’s and then the issue was raised in the
parliament . The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, seeks to raise the
age of legal marriage for women from 18 to 21, will apply to all communities in the country
and, once enacted, will supersede existing marriage and personal laws. Irani said that, “All
women from all faiths, under Hindu Marriage Act or the Muslim Personal Law, should get
equal rights to marry,” “In section 1 in sub-section (2), after the words “citizens of India
without and beyond India”, The amendment proposed to define a child states: ‘(a) “child”
means a male or female who has not completed twenty-one years of age’.

Criticism Raised–

1. RS (MP) Priyanka Chaturvedi “ she said that we need societal changes not legislative
changes” she also said that 79% of the Beti Bachao Beti Padao budget goes in Ads ,
and govt. does nothing on ground.
2. CPM politician Sitaram Yechari said that “a women at age of 18 is legally an adult ,
for the purpose of marriage treating her as juvenile is self contradictory , and the
proposal violates an adult rights to make personal choices of her partner”.
 3. AIMIM chief Asadduddin owasi in his tweet said “ Govt . proposes 18 as age of consent
in data bill . If 18 year can choose how there data is used , why can’t they choose there
life partners ?.

According To the criticism raised by them The legal marriage

age for man and women should be 18 .which was same suggested in 2018 law commission
report in this report it was suggested that the legal age for men and women should be
18years , said that the instances on recognizing different ages of marriage between
consenting adults must be abolished .

Reply to the criticism -

1. Irani said, “We are 75 years late in providing equal rights to men and women to enter
into matrimony. In the 19th century, the marriageable age for women was 10 years. By
1940, it was increased to 12-14 years. In 1978, women who reached the age of 15 were
married. For the first time, through this Bill, men and women, keeping in mind the right
to equality, can decide on their marriage.” She took exception to suggestions that
uneducated women would not be able to understand or exercise their rights, saying it
was “an insult to rural women”.

World wide Issue –

• Acc to United Nations In 2010 , 158 countries reported that 18 years was the minimum
legal age for marrying without parents consent or approval by a pertinent authority .
However in 146 countries or customary law allow girls younger than 18 to marry with
the consent of parents or other authorities , in 52 countries , girls under age of 15 can
marry with parental consent .In contrast the legal age of marriage without consent
among males in 180 countries.
• Acc to NHFS 2019-21 data shows that between age 15 and 18, 23% girls were married
before age 18 even though the law does not allow it.
• In 2017 there was an NGO – Independent Thought that filed petition in court
complaining marital rape of girls below the age of 18 years later in on of the Sc
Judgement “ the marital rape has been criminalized for girls below 18.

Countries who took progressive acts were-

 • Africa one of the highest rated country in case of child marriages in world. In 2016
Tanzanian High court in Africa in a landmark decision it was ruled that Section 13 and
17 of the Tanzania Law of Marriage act , which allows girls to marry at age 51 with
parental permission and at age 14 with the permission of court is ruled unconstitutional
• In 2018 Norway ‘s minimum marriage age is 18 , but exceptions can be made for
children as young as 16 “ A marriage should always be based on full , free and informed
consent”.
• Indonesia ‘s marriage Act (1974) in 2019 which raised the age of marriage of girls
with parental consent from 16 to 19 years . The age of marriage for both men and
women without parental permission is 21.

This step of raising the marriage age of girls in India will decrease
maternal mortality rate which will eventually lead to women empowernment but until there is
the presence of loophole under Child Marriage act 2006 Section 3 which says that the marriage
is voidable at the option of child and is not considered as Illegal or void will still be a problem
for Increase in cases of child marriages, The main underlying issue of child marriage still
remains unsolved .