New Delhi: The cabinet has cleared the proposal for increasing the women’s marriage age from 18 to 21 years. This comes a year after PM Modi had announced the plan on Independence Day 2020.
The proposal is based on the recommendations by a task force set by the Centre to examine matters pertaining to age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate), improvement of nutritional levels and related issues.
Headed by Jaya Jaitly, former member of the Samata Party, the task force’s recommendation came “after extensive consultations with experts, and more importantly with young adults, especially young women as the decision affects them directly”. Jaitly told The Indian Express that the move was to empower women and not control population as data released by NFHS 5 (National Family Health Survey) has already shown that the Total Fertility Rate is decreasing and the population is under control.
As per the Indian Express report, Jaitly said, “We have had feedback from 16 universities and engaged over 15 NGOs to reach out to young people, particularly in rural and marginalised communities, such as in particular districts in Rajasthan where child marriage is quite prevalent. Feedback was taken across religions, and from urban and rural areas, equally,” she told the Express.
Currently, the Hindu Marriage Act, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, and the Special Marriage Act set the minimum age of marriage as 21 and 18 years for women and men respectively.
