Why Delaying Women's Marriageable Age Bill Comes At A Heavy Cost

The parliamentary committee assigned to scrutinize the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, has been granted a significant extension, highlighting the gravity and complexity of the matter at hand. This bill proposes a substantial shift in the legal framework governing the age of marriage for women, advocating an increase from the current 18 years to 21 years. As the nation anticipates the Budget Session of Parliament commencing on January 31, this extension positions the committee to finalize its report by May, just ahead of the culmination of the 17th Lok Sabha on June 16.

A bulletin issued on January 24, 2024, read, "Chairman, Rajya Sabha, has granted extension of time for a period of four months with effect from January 24, 2024, to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports for examination of the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021."

Why does a Delayed Process cause Uncertainty?

On December 16, 2021, the Indian Union Cabinet finally approved the long-standing proposal of increasing the marriageable age for women from 18 to 21. Even if the proposal has been accepted, which is a sign of hope, it has taken more than a year for the government to go forward with the idea, despite it being an effective tool to empower women's states in India.

Earlier, the central government had to introduce amendments to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, the Special Marriage Act, and the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Only after these amendments are cleared will the age of marriage be finally raised for women in India. And now, the committee has been given an extension of four months to table their report. And who knows? After the report is presented, will the government find another reason to delay the process? We are very well aware that the House is going to dissolve by June and that the pending bills are likely to lapse. One such bill is the demand to raise the marriageable age of women.

The initiative to raise a girl’s marriageable age from 18 to 21 was like a breath of fresh air over the foul stench of patriarchy. It was being hailed as a progressive move that would decrease the maternal mortality rate, increase the rate of higher education among women, and encourage their empowerment. Although oppositions were made against the move, hands-down, it was one of the most progressive moves to have come from the government in the past many decades.

However, one does wonder: why has it taken so long for our system to realise the importance of raising the age of marriage for women? Why is the proposal hitting roadblocks even in this day and age? Yes, amendments to bills, drafting of proposals, etc. do take time, but with each passing day, we are losing more girls to regressive practices like early marriage and motherhood that set women up for a life of financial dependency, malnutrition, and mental exhaustion due to early motherhood and household duties.

Early Marriage continues to Plague Women

Pooja’s marriage was set for June 2020. She is my acquaintance. I was enraged by her early marriage because she had not even turned 18. She was still a child, struggling to understand LCM and HCF. But to “settle” her down, her mother fixed her marriage with an older and supposedly educated man. But when the government announced that it would increase the marriageable age, I happily told Pooja and her mother that her marriage would be deemed illegal. Pooja’s mother, under the fear of being arrested, somehow delayed her marriage. But because the government failed to speed up the process, Pooja was married off as soon as she turned 18. Now she is just an uneducated woman who married early.

Like Pooja, many other girls are being married off every single day, while various political lobbies have gone back and forth over the proposal in the past year. Without any legal obstacles, early marriage continues to be a glaring reality today. As per the NFHS-5 data, every four women of age 20–25 reported having been married before they turned 18. Even though child marriage is on the decline, India still reports one of the highest numbers of child marriages in the world. Keep in mind that these numbers are based on only the reported cases. The unreported cases are, most of the time, higher. 

India shoulders a significant burden in the global context, harboring one in three of the world's child brides. Despite multifaceted progress, India grapples with a critical challenge: the current rate of decline is insufficient to meet the ambitious goal of eliminating child marriage by 2030, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Does our political system—governments of past and present and elected leaders—have any explanation for the lives of the women that have been risked with this delay? Who will take accountability for lives lost to early motherhood, bodies that bore the brunt of malnourishment, and opportunities that were lost when pens were traded for utensils?

But can the blame be entirely dumped on your political and legal system? Do we, the citizens, understand the importance of this proposed change? Do we elect leaders who take women’s issues seriously? Is it not true that, in the past, leaders’ responses to the increasing marriageable age of women have been bizarre? Remember when a former minister of Madhya Pradesh said that there is no need to increase women’s marriageable age and that women should be married at the age of 15 itself?  This is why we need to compel the authorities to understand the urgency of the change.

Secondly, we have to remember that early marriage is a social evil, not a political one. While the government is obliged to weed out such practices from our society for the wellbeing of women, we too must acknowledge our accountability. How many of us try to create awareness about the ill-effects of early marriage in our immediate society?

In conclusion, I want to urge the government to speed up the process before more girls give in to the pressure of early marriage while addressing the question of increasing women's education, women's minimum age to have sex, and their freedom to make decisions. But the government shouldn't stop with bringing in a legal change. We need a drive to create awareness on the issue at every level in our society so that early marriage is discouraged, not just out of fear of legal repercussions, but also due to knowledge about its harmful impacts on women.

Views expressed are the author's own.