The Union Cabinet on Wednesday passed the proposition which demanded the legal age of marriage for women to be raised from 18 to 21 years, the same as men, according to media reports. The Government will also introduce an amendment to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and consequently bring amendments to the Special Marriage Act and personal laws such as the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 after the Cabinet’s approval, The Indian Express reported quoting its sources. A task force headed by Jaya Jaitly was set up in June 2020 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to examine matters that directly affected the decision of the rightful marriageable age of women.
Key Points:
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the plan to reconsider the right age of marriage for women in India during his Independence Day address of 2020 and after more than a year, the Cabinet on Wednesday passed the proposal.
2. The decision of the Cabinet was based on recommendations submitted to Niti Aayog in December 2020 by the Centre’s task force, headed by Jaya Jaitly, the report said. The Jaitly headed task force was organized to examine “matters pertaining to the age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate), improvement of nutritional levels and related issues,” it added.
3. “I want to make clear that our reasoning behind the recommendation was never one of population control. Recent data released by NFHS 5 (National Family Health Survey) have already shown that the Total Fertility Rate is decreasing and the population is under control. The idea behind it (the recommendation) is the empowerment of women,” Jaitly told Indian Express.
4. The fifth round of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-5) had revealed that the country's total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped to 2 which is lower than the internationally accepted replacement level fertility rate at 2.1. TFR is the number of children per woman in the country. It had also disclosed that for the first time in its history, India has recorded more women than men and for every 1,000 men in India, there are 1,020 women now
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5. Jaitly also said that the decision was made after extensive consultations with experts and also young adults, especially young women. As the decision directly affects women, the task force had taken feedback from 16 universities and engaged over 15 NGOs to reach out to young people, the report said.
