Raising the age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years

 The government of India decided to increase the minimum legal age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21 years.

Though the intention may be good to protect girls from child marriage and forcefully becoming a mother in her early or late teenage, in my opinion, and ground realities, this wouldn’t change the scenario much.  

Maybe some girls can get to study till her graduation (considering she is not any year behind) if her family is supportive. She can have her lifelong responsibility delayed by a few years. 

• At present, the minimum legal age of marriage for girls is 18 years and for boys, it’s 21 years. 

• The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on 21st December 2021. But after protests from the opposition, it was sent to the parliamentary panel for further analysis. 

• Once it becomes a law, it will override all the religious personal laws. So, the legal age of marriage will be increased for all females irrespective of their religion. 

• In 1978, the Indian government increased the minimum legal age for marriage for girls from 15 to 18 years, and for boys from 18 to 21 years. 

child marriages still exist. Women are still forced into getting married below 18 and becoming mothers at quite a young age, where they may not be able to take responsibility of kid(s). In some places, girls are even sold to the groom’s family as a bride. And not just in India, but some parts of the world too. And there is no guarantee her family will let her study till graduation because of fear that they might get educated about her rights as a human at the first place (let’s not forget women are even treated worse than objects in many places,  not getting basic human rights).  

For this to actually work, we need to change the mindset of people,  especially of people in villages and remote areas. We need to teach them how women are empowered nowadays and about what feminism really stands for. Women are people of their own before whatever role she plays in society. Rather than teaching things in our education that would never be of any practical value- we need to teach people about feminism, mental health and age-appropriate sex education.  

Well, he is surely way behind the present times. Expecting a 16-year-old girl to get married and have kids at age of 16 where even some adults cannot handle such big responsibilities of life doesn’t make any sense.  And as for infertility, there are treatments for it now. Any person can decide when they wish to have kids if any. No other person gets to have a say in it. A woman has to go through intense pain for 9+ months,  so she gets to make an informed decision when she wishes to have kid if any. And a vote is for 5 years; marriage and kids are responsibilities of a  lifetime. So there is no comparison between voting at 18 and getting married & having a child at that age. These statements just voice the patriarchy we have in India (and worldwide) to police women’s bodies.  We need to educate people about feminism, relationships and age-appropriate sex education for giving them the power to take informed decisions for themselves which they want and suits them the most. And umm, to not try to control others’ bodies and decisions. 

~Meenakshi Sharma