The Government of India on 26th December 2021, decided to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years. The proposal was cleared by the Union Cabinet and will be added in an amendment to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006.
According to the administration, raising the age of marriage for women to 21 years will bring parity and uniformity in the legal age of marriage, for men and women. The proposal has amendments to the individual laws of various communities to the age of marriage, to maintain sameness across the board.
This issue has been addressed for a very long time. In 1989, the United General Assembly recommended making 18, the legal age of marriage, for both men and women. The Law Commission in 2008, even, suggested the same.
Need To Raise The Legal Age Of Marriage For Women
In the past, the acceptable age for marriage was quite young, and still many niche communities in the country tie their children, as young as five years of age, into the holy and responsible union of marriage.
Child marriage is a very complex system, that is, still prevalent in many communities across India. As per a report by UNICEF in 2015-16, the rate of child marriage is at 27% in India. Though already outlawed since colonial times, i.e., 1929, still many rural communities believe in pre-puberty marriage, especially for a girl child. The average age in child marriage is between 5 to 10 years old.
The Jaya Jaitly’s Task Force And Its Recommendations
The task force, led by Jaya Jaitly, was set up in June 2020, by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. It included Dr. V K Paul of Niti Aayog and the Secretaries of the WCD, Health and Education ministries, and the Legislative Department.
It submitted a report to the PMO and the Ministry of Women and Child Development in December 2020. It also had academicians like Najma Akhtar, Vasudha Kamat, and Dipti Shah on its committee.
The report recommended an increase in the marital age for women from 18 to 21. It said, “On a social front, this will lead to social benefits like lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) as well as improvement of nutrition levels”. It will also open financial front opportunities for women to pursue higher education and careers and make them financially empowered, thus resulting in a more egalitarian society in thinking.
Jaitley added that the recommendation was not based on population control but to bring gender equality and women empowerment. The committee suggested that access to education and livelihood must be enhanced simultaneously for the law to be effective.
A survey was conducted by the Jaitly task force, to reach out to young people in 16 universities and 15 NGOs, specifically in rural and marginalized communities residing in districts of Rajasthan, where child marriage is quite prevalent.
Uniform feedback was collected from urban and rural areas, and across different religions, by the task force. It was found that the targeted group supported the motion to increase the marital age to 22-23 years despite criticism from certain groups.
According to the suggested recommendations by the task force an all-inclusive public awareness campaign needs to be organised to encourage social acceptance of the decision. Access to schools and universities for girls, including transportation in the case of educational institutes, in far-flung areas should be sought.
It was also recommended to formalize and introduce sex education in the school curriculum.
The committee has further recommended that sex education be formalized and introduced into the school curriculum. Skill and business training of women and livelihood enhancement has also been recommended to ensure that an increase in marriageable age can be implemented.
The committee said these deliveries must come first, as unless they are implemented and women are empowered, the law will not be as effective.
Early Marriages For Women
Women who get married late are in an advantageous position over those who marry early, as they can get better educational qualifications, which is a prerequisite to survive in society.
Early marriages leave a deep impact on the physiological health as well as on the mental health of women. Many women suffer from anxiety and depression due to their inability to cope well with their marital or family circumstances.
They feel enormous pressure in their marital homes to meet family expectations and find little support in their surroundings. Inability to achieve their goals and dreams in life might lead to conflicts with family and ultimately to low self-esteem and decreased confidence.
Section 2(a) of the Special Marriage Act declares the legal marriageable age for women as 18, while, for men, this age is 21. It seems to have no justifiable logic other than the high rate of puberty in females than in males.
Maternal And Infant Mortality With Malnutrition
Maternal mortality refers to deaths due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth. In India, there is a need to curb this rising issue among young mothers. The decline in the Maternal Mortality Ratio would mean an increase in the availability of better healthcare facilities, and fulfilment of other requirements, for mothers and children.
India has committed itself to the latest UN target, for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for MMR at 70 per 1,00,000 live births, by 2030. Girls who are married at an early age are not physically and emotionally prepared for motherhood. The presence of early marriages in society increases this health issue among women.
The infant mortality rate is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births. All pregnant women should be provided with antenatal care and immunization, along with the identification of high-risk pregnancies and the implementation of secondary prenatal healthcare, to reduce the rate of infant mortality in the country.
Young girls who marry early tend to give birth to babies, who are susceptible to various health concerns, including premature death.
According to a study by Harvard Chan School of Public Health, mothers’ lack of education and extreme poverty are some factors that influence the level of malnutrition in India. Women, who get married early, tend to be more unaware and are more oblivious about these types of things, which is why malnutrition is still rising at an alarming rate.
Working For The Development Of The Better Status Of Women
According to the recommendations, suggested by the Jaitley task force, the increase in marital age would lead to an increase in the labour participation ratio and female literacy rate. Legal amendments will provide them with better opportunities especially when it comes to education and health.
Equality derives from equal laws, and social transformations are both the precursors of laws and a consequence of them.
Female literacy and marriages share a cause-and-effect relationship, in which if a child marriage of a female takes place, they are most likely to drop out of secondary education reducing the literacy level of females in the country.
However, the delay in marriage provides them with more freedom and opportunities to complete their higher education and thus increasing their literacy level. The labour participation ratio requires the effort of both men and women to progress in the path of development.
Educated unmarried women contribute largely to this ratio. So, delay in marriage leads to an increase in the workforce that will contribute to the economy.
Though, the task force has elaborated on many reasons for the rise in the marriage age. There are many deficiencies in the law.
Myopic Vision Of Progress?
A law does not ensure social empowerment. Development is a long-drawn-out process that involves people making rational choices based on present and prospects. Just raising the age for marriage does not lead to empowered choices and neither development.
A multi-country study from the World Bank in 2017, concludes that there are no significant gains from raising the minimum age for marriage. The government is trying to treat the symptoms, rather than focusing on the causes- deep-rooted gender inequality, regressive social norms, financial insecurity, lack of quality education, and employment opportunities.
The priority of the government should be on providing better infrastructure to women, so they don’t see marriage as an ultimate goal.
This law was forwarded to a 31-member parliamentary committee, where only one-woman Member of Parliament, TMC’s Sushmita Dev, was there for discussion.
This implies that men are going to decide what problems women should face and what steps should be taken to solve their problems, without apt representation.
Primary Education System In Shackles
When the government talks about the benefit of better education by raising the age, it forgets that most young girls are not able to attend schools, because their families are deeply mired in poverty.
Even when they manage to go to school, 92,275 elementary and secondary schools in India have only one teacher. Women have to quit going to school because of a lack of basic amenities in school and social taboos.
A 2014 report by the NGO Dasra titled Spot On! found that nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually, due to a lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities, which include the availability of sanitary napkins and logical awareness of menstruation. The report also came up with some astonishing numbers.
70 percent of mothers with menstruating daughters considered menstruation as dirty, and 71 percent of adolescent girls remained unaware of menstruation, till menarche.
A 2014 UNICEF report pointed out that in Tamil Nadu, 79 percent of girls and women were unaware of menstrual hygiene practices. The percentage was 66% in Uttar Pradesh, 56% in Rajasthan, and 51% in West Bengal.
Studies have noted, poor sanitation in schools and lack of access to good quality sanitary products can be associated with lower enrolment in schools, absenteeism, and dropout.
Girls are more vulnerable after the Covid 19 pandemic, and their education is affected the most, in this hard time. Marriage is not the reason. Marriage is the product of dropping out early due to the lack of higher educational facilities in rural areas.
With Social Taboos Intact, Control Tightens Over Women’s Choices
Only a few travel to cities for better education. Here, the numbers are meager as the sexual chastity of those girls is in danger. The fear that they might be assaulted- rapes, harassment, and other women-related crimes, deter parents from sending their daughters to venture out of their homes.
The girls might exert their will on their bodies. If they get educated, they might elope with someone of their choice. It all condenses to control over women’s bodies and their consciousness. Raising the age also provides a weapon in the hands of parents, who prioritize honor over girls’ choice.
The move of raising the age tries to infantilize the girls rather than allowing them to choose what they want.
Poverty, Dowry, And Their Relation To Early Marriage
The highest number of dowry cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh at 2,274, with 2,302 victims. This was followed by Bihar, where the reported cases were 1,046, with 1,047 victims.
A total of 608 cases were registered in Madhya Pradesh, followed by West Bengal (522), Rajasthan (479), Odisha (320), Jharkhand (275), and Haryana (251). In Delhi, 110 cases of dowry deaths were reported, in 2020.
Dowry is the selling and buying of brides and grooms, and marrying at an early age compensates for the price of the marriage. The younger the bride, the less the dowry, so poverty pushes the parents to the edge of selling off their children to other families to sustain the rest of the family.
Also, the sexual chastity of girls is of utmost importance. It will be safe only if they are married at an early age. Child marriages are very prevalent in some regions.
Estimates suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world – accounting for a third of the global total.
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Nearly 16 percent of adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married. While the prevalence of girls getting married before age 18 has declined from 47 percent to 27 percent between 2005-2006 and 2015-2016, it is still too high.
There are many marriages that are pushed underground, and now, there will be a bunch of them as social conditions are not being dealt with, just the legal aspect has been turned against the people.
How will those women be dealt with who have been married at an age less than 21? Will they be provided a respite in the cases where they are widowed? Or will they be treated as criminals? Will they get the benefit or not? The questions still are unanswered.
Is Early Marriage The Reason Behind The Increasing Health Issues Of Women?
When there’s a lack of awareness in girls and financial dependency on male counterparts, the health of a girl/woman would be in the hands of the males, and therefore, not a priority. Women are fed customs in such a way that they keep their needs aside and ignore symptoms of fatal consequences.
1,11,549 cases were registered under cruelty by the husband or his relatives against 1,24,934 cases in 2019 and 1,03,272 cases in 2018. West Bengal registered the highest number of such cases, with 19,962, followed by Uttar Pradesh (14,454) and Rajasthan (13,765).
The State, too, does not provide appropriate health care systems. PHCs require 25,650 doctors across India to tend to a minimum of 40 patients per doctor per day for outpatient care, as per Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS).
If these standards are met, 1 million patients could benefit every day. But with a shortage of 3,027 doctors, 1,974 PHCs are without doctors. This statistic means that 12%, or 121,080 patients, go without access to primary health care every day.
For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, the state government in High Court provided the statistics that only 43 women doctors were deployed in a total of 3,496 PHCs in UP while, only 534 of a total of 773 CHCs across the state, deployed women doctors.
Where there is a taboo in the rural areas in showing their faces, how will women go to male doctors for a cure? There is no focus on primary health care, social taboos, and, therefore, the deaths of new mothers and infants.
What Is It All About Then?
Honestly, it all depends on social awareness. The basic obstructions of development are social taboos, infrastructure, government policies, gender bias, and legality turned against the citizens in a democracy.
To ensure less force dropping out of teen girls from school, the states can increase their network of residential schools, public transport, and girls’ hostels, especially in the underprivileged areas of the country.
Gender equality discussions should be carried out by teachers, in class, to build a broadminded and progressive attitude in students. The government should try to implement educational and employment schemes for women, in real-time.
Decentralization of birth and marriage registration to gram panchayats will protect women and girls with essential age and marriage documents, thus better enabling them to claim their rights.
If these basic problems are solved, then there’s no need to raise the marriage age because it is not about marriage, it is about the mindset. It is not about reforms, but it is about control. It is not about health, it is about well-being. It is not about a raise, it is about choice.
Everything, in the end, is related to the social awareness and education of girls, which is dependent on the level of socio-economic status of the family they belong to. Government should focus more on retaining girl students in schools with better education and infrastructure.
The government should enable them to complete higher education or vocational training, to let them be financially independent, and lead a healthy life of their choice, rather than just raising the age of marriage.
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Sources: The Print, Indian Express, Hindustan Times
Find the blogger: Katyayani Joshi
This post is tagged under: age of marriage, marriage, dowry, education, maternal mortality ratio, infant mortality ratio, UNICEF, health, hospital, primary school, malnutrition, primary health care, Jaya Jaitly, legal age, raise, body, choice, caste, harassment, threat, honour, right or wrong, social taboo, Covid 19, menstruation
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