Will Love Marriages Require Mandatory Parental Consent In Gujarat?

The chief minister of Gujarat, Bhupendra Patel, announced on Sunday that his government will be considering making parental approval mandatory for love marriages if it is constitutionally feasible.

Patel was at a Patidar Community event facilitating students at Nugar village in Mehsana district when he commented. The Chief Minister’s announcement allegedly addresses a consistent demand by a section of the Patidar community in the state that was reportedly concerned with the "incidents of elopement of girls."

Parental Consent In Love Marriage Gujarat

The event was organised by the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), a Patidar group, and was also attended by the former deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel along with several Patidar leaders.

The CM's announcement seemed to have the support of the opposition Congress party as well. Congress MLA Imran Khedawala of Ahmedabad’s Jamalpur-Khadiya constituency wrote a letter to the CM offering his support.

He noted that the families of the girls who run away break down and aren’t able to face society. Considering that parents raise their children, their consent should be mandatory, he explained. He also added that he was aware of many such cases of girls eloping against the wishes of their parents and later regretting it.

He demanded a bill on the issue in the monsoon section of the assembly and said that he would support it. He said it was important to bring the bill because "children are not under their parents' control these days" and "have become callous."

But isn't this exerting control over women?

This proposal perpetuates the patriarchal notion that a family’s honour is dependent on a woman’s conduct and seeks to impose control over women’s life choices and bodily autonomy. While it’s true that parents do raise children, how can that mean they can exert control over them? At a time when the current generation is advocating gentle, respectful, and mindful parenting starting from a baby’s infancy, how is it fair for parents to continue exerting control over their adult children?

There could be cases where girls fall in love with the wrong person, elope, and then regret it later. However, the statement itself points out that the real problem here is that girls are not empowered enough to choose the right person. So, instead of making it mandatory for love marriages to have parental consent, shouldn't we have initiatives that empower women to take major life decisions, including choosing the right partner?

When is society going to realise that parents holding control over their daughters’ lives is downright toxic behaviour? Women’s bodies are associated with the family's honour, which only reiterates the concept of "Ladkiyaan parivaar ki izzat hoti hain." But aren’t women individual beings who deserve to take decisions for themselves? Isn’t denying women their fundamental right to exercise agency over their lives and autonomy over their bodies illegal and unfair?

In view of numerous incidences of honour killings and women being ostracised by their families and community, how appropriate would it be to give parents the authority to dictate who their daughters should marry? Since every sane person would be aware of the challenges that come with eloping, that would often be the last resort. What is pushing girls to take this decision? Is it likely that girls’ parents fail to understand and hold on to social, economic, and cultural differences as a hindrance to marriage?

In that case, won’t a bill that mandates parental consent for love marriage encourage parents to forbid their daughters from marrying their loved ones and instead forcefully get them married to someone else? If the concern is truly about women regretting eloping and marrying the wrong person, shouldn’t we be focusing on empowering women to make the right choices?

Suggested Reading: Kerala Opposes Rising Marriageable Age For Women: Can Society Stop Forcing Women Into Marriage?

Views expressed by the author are their own