THE PROHIBITION OF CHILD

MARRIAGE (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2021:

RAISE IN AGE OF MARRIAGE FOR
WOMEN
Authored By: SAKSHI, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi
ABSTRACT

The practice of child marriage has been prevalent in the Indian subcontinent even after the
enactment of several legal provisions. The problem is persistent and has subjected the women
to many societal cruelties. This in turn leads to stunted development of women as a group and
India overall. The new proposed legislation argues to improve these conditions of women and
provide them a wide number of opportunities equal to men. However, this cannot help in its
escaping from the critics for feasibility and practicality in implementation.

PRACTICE OF THE CHILD MARRIAGE

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill was introduced on 20 December 2021in
Lok Sabha. The Bill proposed to increase the marriageable age for girls from 18 to 21which
would have an overriding effect on the provisions of any of the personal laws. The practice of
child marriage is not new to India which has witnessed it as the customary practice in many
parts of the country. It has been normalized in the country and the south Asian region too.
According to recent studies it has been found that, out of 60 million marriages that include
girls under the age of 18, approximately 31 million are in the South Asia alone. Many studies
have shown that at least 1.5 million girls in India are married under the age of 18 making it
the home of largest child brides in the world- accounting for almost one- third of such
marriages. Child marriage is a practice that reduces the role and activities of women to just
householders and maternal bodies.
India has witnessed countless child marriage since the time is immemorial.
States like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh
and so on is home to many child brides and the practice has seen a spike during the pandemic
and lockdown periods. There is evidence that states that more than one in five marriages
takes place below the age of 18 but no criminal records are there to support this evidence as
the victims of the child marriage usually tends to negotiate with their perpetrators due to the
fear of ranging form of penalties imposed by the Caste Panchayats who are the supreme
decision making body in rural India and other parts of the country. These penalties range
from fines to excommunication and even to the honor killings for violating the customs in
many instances.

LEGAL PROVISIONS FOR CHILD MARRIAGE

The child marriage has been criminalized in India by the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929
and The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, the latest amendment proposed to increase
the minimum age for girls and seeks to amend the provisions of the Prohibition of Child
Marriage Act 2006, Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act
1936, the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937, the Special Marriage Act
1954, the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, and the Foreign Marriage Act 1969.
It aims to amend the definition of a child in Section 2(a) to mean “a male or a female who has
not completed twenty-one years of age. Secondly, it also increases the window for a child to
file a petition to declare a child marriage void. A child marriage can be declared null and void
by a court when either party to the marriage files a petition under Article 3(4) of the 2006
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The petition under this section may be filed at any time
but before the child filing the petition completes two years of attaining majority, Section 3(4)
currently reads, allowing a woman to file for declaration of the child marriage as void before
she turns 20 and for the man before he turns 23. After that, marriage would be deemed valid
and the couple can file for divorce. The Bill proposes to extend this window for the woman
and the man to five years after attaining the majority. However, the existing Act does not
make child marriage automatically illegal.

AN EVALUATION OF THE PRESENTED BILL

The move by the present government has been appreciated by few but criticized by many on
the grounds that ‘raising the age of marriage to 21 will only criminalize youth while doing
little to ensure women’s empowerment’. The arguments that supports the Present Bill
includes that it is to ensure decrease in maternal mortality rates, fertility levels, increase in
nutrition of mother and child, sex ratios, and on a different register, education and
employment opportunities for women. But it has little improvement in these areas and other
factors like poverty and health services are the main determiners for improving women’s and
children’s health and nutritional status.
The legislation is an attempt to deny the young women of their reproductive rights and turns
them deeper into the patriarchal system where they are controlled firstly by their father and
then the husband and in-laws. It is a prevalent practice that parents are the one who takes the
matrimony related decisions for their children in more than 70 per cent of the cases.

Hence it is necessary for the State to implement the existing laws strictly to ensure women
empowerment rather than proposing some legislation that is difficult to implement.

REFERENCES
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/legally-speaking/prohibition-of-child-marriage-
amendment-bill-2021-a-critique/

https://frontline.thehindu.com/social-issues/gender/the-prohibition-of-child-marriage-
amendment-bill-has-a-flawed-notion-of-gender-justice/article38054966.ece

https://theprint.in/tag/prohibition-of-child-marriage-amendment-bill-2021/

A legal fix, hard to implement by Mary E John, The Indian Express, Tuesday, December 21,
2021

Wrong on rights by Shireen Jejeebhoy, The Indian Express, Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Personal Laws in marriage by Apurva Vishwanath, The Indian Express, December 23, 2021