Let marriage age bill address key concerns

The Central government has taken a wise decision by referring the bill to increase the minimum age of legal marriage for women to 21 to a select committee. The Statement of Objects and Reasons in the Bill states: "In order to address the issues of women in a holistic manner, as a measure for empowerment of women, gender equality, increasing the female labour force participation, make them self-reliant and to enable them to take decisions themselves."

Raising the marriage age, the government says, is key to gender equity and justice. There are concerns over how the law plays out among the poor and marginalised groups. Applying it across faiths sets the stage for a debate on the limits of personal law.

But then the opposition too has a valid point. A woman is considered an adult at the age of 18. All laws that apply to adult citizens, including criminal laws, will apply to a woman at the age of 18. She is held responsible for the actions she takes. Between the ages of 18-21, a woman is old enough to be sentenced to a jail term in an adult prison, but according to the proposed Bill, she is too young to exercise a choice to get married. This being the situation how can this bill be called another step towards women's empowerment? What the young women, particularly in rural areas, need is educational and economic uplift not enhancement of marriage age, they opine.

Interestingly, the youth are also divided on this issue. While some feel the rise in marriage age would help them complete their education which can help them to stand on their own legs and they can become a big support to the family, while others say it will add to the burden of parents in big families and having more than one girl child as they will have to pay more dowry.

The government says that in rural areas, parents fix the marriage of a girl when she is in Class IX without bothering about her dreams and aspirations due to poor financial conditions. The focus should be more on safety, security, education, training, employment and income generation.

Suppose a girl is in Class IX and wants to become a nurse but her family's poor economic condition is an obstacle and parents want to push for early marriage, there is nobody to counsel such girls and their parents on how she should go about fulfilling her dream. Most adolescent girls aspire to be educated, paid and exposed to the world. They want to be capable enough to choose where, when and whom to marry but everyone is not that fortunate. Hence, the increase in marriage age would help in giving a chance to all such girls to get educated and stand on their own legs and that will empower them to choose their life partner, the government argues.

Well, this is not a small issue which can just be decided in Parliament after holding discussions for a few hours as both the government and opposition will argue, based on their respective party lines rather than ground realities. One thing is clear that the government did show some haste in trying to push the bill. It should have held detailed discussions with all parties before tabling the bill.

Nevertheless, now that it has decided to refer the bill to a select committee, let us hope that the committee members will rise above party lines and discuss the matter in an impartial manner and come to a proper conclusion.