The Modi government has done well to refer the Bill that seeks to raise the age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 to a parliamentary standing committee. The practice so far has been to have such Bills passed in both Houses of Parliament with virtually no debate. The ruling party has the requisite majority to ensure that whatever laws it wants to enforce can be enacted in such a manner. That is how it enacted three agricultural laws that turned the agriculture sector upside down forcing the government to apologise and rescind the laws. It reminded the nation of the saying, “act in haste, repent at leisure”.
The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, has caught almost everyone by surprise. Nobody knows for sure what prompted the government to raise the age of marriage except that it brings forward one of the BJP's cardinal electoral issues — uniform civil code. As is only to be expected, it will overtake all the personal and secular laws that govern the age of marriage for women. The name of the Bill itself evokes laughter for a person would be considered a child till he or she attains the age of 21. `If that indeed is the case, how will children be allowed to vote as soon as they reach the age of 18? They can also get jobs, can sign legal documents and register property in their own names. The Supreme Court had ruled that any man and woman who have reached the age of 18 can cohabit or live together and their relationship is as good as a marriage. The children born out of such relationships also have legal rights as any other children. The Bill is touted as an attempt to bring about equality between sexes.
If equality was the prime consideration, at least 50 per cent of the members of Parliament and state legislatures would have been women. The new law will criminalise the act of marriage if a couple enters wedlock before they reach 21. As Union Minister Smriti Irani, who initiated the Bill admitted, 23 per cent of the girls who got married were below 18. The percentage of such “illegal marriages” will only increase with 21 as the age of marriage. Demographic data suggest that education is the key to family planning and the nation is on the right track. It is against this backdrop that the move has evoked concern among a large section of the population.
