Legal Age for Marriage in India Hindi

“The law is being used as a weapon to serve honor, caste and communal controls against young couples without stopping underage marriages,” the report said. “The outcome of the law will leave girls speechless longer in personal decisions, with legal support.” The Committee should consider raising the age of marriage and its impact on the health of women and children, as well as improving women`s access to education. The committee should also recommend a timeline for the implementation of the policy, as well as changes that would need to be made to existing legislation to achieve this. The Union`s cabinet decided on Wednesday (15 December) to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21. The legal age of marriage for men is 21. The definition of child marriage was recently updated by India with the Child Marriage Prohibition Act 2006, which applies to all Indians except the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the renewers in the Union Territory of Pondicherry. For Muslims in India, the definition and regulations of child marriage based on Sharia and Nikah have been claimed by some as a personal entity, but have been ruled by various courts that they apply to Muslims as well. [6] [8] For all others, the Child Marriage Prohibition Act 2006 defines “child marriage” as a marriage or marriage about to take place in which one of the parties is a child; and the child for the purposes of marriage is defined according to the sex of the person – if it is a man, it is 21 years old, and if it is a woman, it is 18 years old. [13] “The government states that this would bring gender equality to the country and solve other problems such as maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, poor health of women, etc., but simply extending marriage for two years without considering other social factors cannot be the right way to change legislation,” says Anubha Rastogi. The government says the proposed change is also triggered by concerns about the health of women who become mothers at a young age. Early marriage is associated with higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy, especially among women in rural areas. The Special Marriage Act of 1954 and the Child Marriage Prohibition Act of 2006 also require that the minimum age of marriage be set at 18 and 21 years for women and men respectively. For the new age of marriage to be introduced, these laws would have to be amended.

According to a UNICEF report published in 2005-06, the rate of child marriage in India was estimated at around 47%. That number fell to 27 percent in 2015-16, according to a new UNICEF report. UNICEF also reported that child marriage was widespread in three Indian states (Rajasthan, Bihar and West Bengal) and that there was a 40% prevalence of child marriage in these states. [20] The proposal was also welcomed by hundreds of young girls who campaigned in the northern Indian state of Haryana to raise the age of marriage for women. With this decision, the government will put the age of marriage for men and women on an equal footing. The states with the highest marriage rates for girls under 18 in 2009, according to a report by India`s Registrar General, were Jharkhand (14.1%), West Bengal (13.6%), Bihar (9.3%), Uttar Pradesh (8.9%) and Assam (8.8%). [4] According to the report, despite the sharp decline in child marriage rates since 1991, 7% of 18-year-old women in India were still married in 2009. UNICEF India has played an important role in highlighting Indian data on the prevalence of child marriage rates from its study in the 1990s. Interestingly, in 2018, the Law Commission proposed that 18 should be the minimum legal age for marriage between men and women. The panel states: “If a universal age is recognized for a majority and it gives all citizens the right to choose their government, they must certainly also be able to choose their spouse.

The minimum age of marriage for women is currently 18. (Representative) Several studies show a link between a higher age of marriage (and therefore pregnancy) and better health outcomes for mother and child. Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Mothers aged 10 to 19 years have a higher risk of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis and systemic infections than women aged 20 to 24 years. Delay in marriage also benefits babies. If the mother is under 20 years of age, the risk of premature birth, low birth weight and severe neonatal disease is higher, adds WHO. The Committee also recommended that a broad awareness-raising campaign be conducted on raising the age of marriage and promoting social acceptance of the new legislation, which they believe would be much more effective than coercive measures. Child marriages were banned by Indian law in 1929. During the British colonial period, however, the minimum legal age of marriage was set at 14 for girls and 18 for boys. Under protests from Muslim organizations in undivided British India, Sharia law was passed in 1937, allowing child marriage with the consent of a girl`s guardian.

[6] After India`s independence in 1947, the law was revised twice. The legal age of marriage was raised to 15 for girls in 1949, 18 for women and 21 for men in 1978. [7] Child marriage prevention laws have been challenged in Indian courts,[6] with some Indian Muslim organisations not seeking to set a minimum age and leaving the issue of age to their personal rights. [8] [9] Child marriage is an active political issue as well as the subject of ongoing cases that are being heard by India`s highest courts. [8] In 2018, the Law Commission of India proposed lowering the legal age for men from 21 to 18 and recommended leaving the legal age for both sexes to marry at 18. According to 2019 government data, the average age of marriage for women is 22.1. This number has gradually increased over the years, showing that the change is voluntary. Much of the change has occurred as women`s education rates have improved. There is constant legal confusion regarding marital rape in child marriages prohibited in India.