UP Khaps Oppose Girls' Marriage Age Change

UP Khaps Oppose Girls Marriage Age Change: On December 29, several khap panchayat heads from Uttar Pradesh met at Delhi demanding the centre to fulfil the promises made by the government to the agitating farmers. They also opposed the centre's decision to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21-year-old, same as that of men.

The meeting was attended by Chaudhary Vinay Kumar of the Battisa Khap, Sachin Jawla of Budyan Khap, Amit Benival of Benival Khap and Upendra Choudhary of Dandhu Khap, amongst others. This meeting was held for the attendees to determine the future course of action on the issues.

One of which was the decision of the cabinet to raise the legal age for the marriage for women. The central government is now looking at introducing an amendment to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006. The idea of raising women's legal marriageable age to 21 was first discussed in 2020. The main reason for this raise was the maternal mortality rate and the health of young mothers in the country. The task force behind this suggestion had taken feedback from 16 universities and 15 non-governmental organisations, as well as rural and marginalised communities. Read more about it here.

Recently, in one of the Lado Panchayat in Meerut, women decided to not vote for candidates who oppose the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) (PCMA) Bill, 2021, in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The social activist and founder of Lado Panchayat Sunil Jaglan said, "The Lado Panchayat was attended by hundreds of girls from different communities and after deliberations and speeches in which girls shared their experiences, the panchayat resolved that it would politically and socially boycott such candidates (who oppose the bill)."

The other was a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is a kind of safety net that protects the farmers from the uncertainties of market and withdrawal of cases registered against the protesting farmers as well as clearing of the sugarcane dues. After a long protest, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on December 9 announced the end of a year-long protest. They withdrew it after the central government accepted the demands of the farmers which included the withdrawal of police cases against farmers and MSP.