Knot Ready Yet?

바카라�If we can vote as 18-year-olds, why can바카라�t we get married at 18?바카라� asks Heena, a third-year undergrad student at Delhi University. Heena is one of the young women who participated in a dialogue with the task force set up by the Union government to examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood. 바카라�Marriage should be a woman바카라�s choice,바카라� she says. Living in an urban resettlement colony in Delhi, the 19-year-old is aware of the implications of raising the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21. PM Narendra Modi made this announcement in his Independence Day speech on August 15, sparking a debate in civil society.

During his speech, the PM said a committee had been formed and a task force notified, adding that their reviews were expected to come out soon. However, not everybody agrees with the government바카라�s argument that the move will ­enhance women바카라�s access to higher education, besides improving the infant mortality rate and the maternal mortality ratio. Heena points out that a higher age of marriage is not sufficient to ­ensure that young women like her have the opportunity for higher education. For example, she wanted to pursue a ­degree in law, but had to drop the idea as she couldn바카라�t avail an education loan.

Moreover, increasing the legal age for marriage wouldn바카라�t solve the root causes for underage marriages바카라�poverty, and lack of access to education and employment. 바카라�Backward communities and the poor usually don바카라�t have enough money to send their children to school, so they sit at home until they are 18,바카라� says Heena. 바카라�When parents have some money in hand, they try to marry off their daughter. Now the government is asking them to wait for three more years instead of addressing the real problems by measures such as extending free ­education till Class 12 and creating ­conditions that enable easy access to loans for education.바카라�

Many young women endorse this view, and it is echoed in a report, Young Voices: National Working Group, put together by 96 civil society organisations in ­response to the task force. These ­organisations roped in 2,500 young ­people across 15 states to get their view on the issue. The problem lies somewhere else, say the youngsters in one voice. One of the main demands in the report was for comprehensive intervention by the task force to address the ­underlying issues바카라�access to and incentives for education, job creation, sex ­education, healthcare, nutrition etc바카라�­instead of increasing the age of marriage.

Mary E. John, a senior fellow at the Centre for Women바카라�s Development Studies (CWDS), says it바카라�s not desirable to tamper with the legal age of marriage as it바카라�s in tandem with global standards. 바카라�Globally, 18 years is accepted as the age of ­adulthood. As an adult, you can vote, buy and sell property, and enter into a ­contract. So why can바카라�t you decide on your personal life at 18?바카라� asks John, who has also presented a memorandum to the task force.

Experts also say that the efficiency of existing laws needs to be examined ­before changing them. Madhu Mehra, a founding member of Partners for Law in Development, says the debate should be on ­reviewing the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Citing a study by her organisation on underage marriage cases from 2008 to 2017 in India, she says most cases were initiated by parents against marriages self-arranged by their daughters. In these cases, the husband may be jailed for up to 20 years under POCSO. 바카라�A large number of consenting couples, even those who are married, are being prosecuted under POCSO. If the man is ­punished at 20, he will be 40 when he comes out of jail. Data shows this is ­happening widely. The change in age of marriage will also criminalise sexual ­activity of young people below 21 years,바카라� says Mehra. In sharp contrast, parents who forcibly marry off their daughter can be jailed for a maximum of two years under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006.

Activists are also apprehensive of the reasons behind the move to raise the marriage age because statistics on child marriages in India are not showing any worrying trends. The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS 4) of 2015-16 shows a drastic decline바카라�almost by 50 per cent바카라�in the percentage of underage marriages compared to 2005-06. The move is also seen as a population control measure as promised by the PM in his 2019 Independence Day speech. However, John says that data shows ­fertility rates plummeting over the years. 바카라�I think there is an ideological mindset at work, which is not about facts. It was always about population control. In 1978, women바카라�s age of marriage was ­increased from 15 to 18 years by amending the Sharda Act of 1929,바카라� she adds.

While some hail it as a progressive move towards gender equality, activists and young women choose to differ. R. Sharmila, a 22-year-old from Madurai, says that raising the marriage age is a small step towards gender equality, but there are bigger battles to fight. 바카라�There is deep-rooted patriarchy and we need to fight that,바카라� adds the final-year ­student of Masters in Social Work. Conceding that a higher legal age of marriage could mean an opportunity for girls to study more, it could, paradoxically, also lead to more child marriages. 바카라�As parents marry off their daughters believing it is for their protection, they may wait till they are 18, but not till they are 21,바카라� she explains.

Kavita Ratna, director of advocacy at a child rights non-profit, The Concerned for Working Children, had conceived the idea of the Young Voices report and says the delaying of marriage without addressing underlying ­issues will lead to new challenges such as an increase in ­female foeticide cases. Although the government claims that a higher threshold age would be a boon for both maternal and child health, Ratna says it will only have adv­erse impacts. 바카라�During our survey, many girls felt that the delaying of marriage doesn바카라�t automatically increase opportunities. One told me that women would be a bigger burden for their parents in three years,바카라� she adds.

Payal, a 16-year-old from Odisha바카라�s Koraput district, feels increasing the legal age of marriage is a good step as women would be more prepared psychologically and physically to bear the ­responsibility of marriage and children. 바카라�By 21, women will have better reproductive health. But this would be a futile exercise if the government doesn바카라�t ­provide the means for higher education and job opportunities,바카라� she says.

Along with economic independence, delaying of marriage is said to bring greater freedom of marital choice as well as reproductive freedom. Activists, however, point out that this perception is based on a distortion of the cause-effect relationship. 바카라�We think that a woman will be better off by delaying marriage as marriage age tends to be higher among better-off groups. The marriage markets of middle-class India demand higher edu­cation and a higher standard of living, which go hand-in-hand with higher ages of marriage,바카라� says John. 바카라�This is where the biggest confusion lies.바카라�