Rising Marital Age
Why in news :
- On Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking to increase the minimum age of marriage of women in India from 18 years to 21 years.
- The Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, noted that the power to amend the law lies with Parliament.
Background of the issue :
- The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2021.
- The Bill proposes to raise the age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years.
- But after Opposition MPs demanded greater scrutiny of the Bill, it was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
- Despite the legal age of marriage for women being 18 years, almost 23% of women who were aged between 20 and 24 years in 201921 married before their 18th birthday.
- In fact, in the eastern States of Bihar and West Bengal, the share was over 40%.
- In Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, the share was over 25%.
- The share was below 10% in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, among other States.
- Despite such a high share of women marrying before turning 18 years, only 1,050 cases were registered under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
- Such a small number of cases shows that reportage of underage marriages is negligible, resulting in limited enforcement of the law.
- These figures may go up in 2023 given the massive crackdown in Assam on child marriages leading to over 3,000 cases.
- With the Bill proposing to raise the legal age from 18 to 21, the question of enforcement gets even bigger.
- In India, over 60% of women who were aged between 25 and 29 in 201921 married before their 21st birthday.
- In the eastern States of Bihar and West Bengal, the share was over 70%.
- In Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura, it was more than 65%.
- Even in Goa, the State with the least share of such women, one in five women aged between 25 and 29 in 201921 married before turning 21.
Syllabus : Prelims + Mains; GS2; Governance