Law to Raise Marital Age is not Enough as Enforcement is Poor, The Hindu Editorial Analysis

Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill proposes to raise the age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years. The Hindu editorial analysis discusses issues with raising legal age of marriage.

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Legal Age for Marriage in India in News

Recently, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking to increase the minimum age of marriage of women in India from 18 years to 21 years. The Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, noted that the power to amend the law lies with Parliament.

Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill 2021

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2021. The Bill proposes to raise the age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years.

It was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, after Opposition MPs demanded greater scrutiny of the Bill.
Key Concerns: MPs had raised questions about the-
- Enforceability of the law,
- Bill’s attack on personal laws, and
- Poor labour force participation of young women.

Pic Curtesy- The Hindu News Paper, Legal Marriage Age in India

Poor Implementation of Legal Age of Marriage

The caution exercised by the Supreme Court and the advice of the Opposition MPs to scrutinise the Bill before passing it is well grounded.

This is because, despite the legal age of marriage for women being 18 years, almost 23% of women who were aged between 20 and 24 years in 2019-21 married before their 18th birthday.
- In fact, in the eastern States of Bihar and West Bengal, the share was over 40%.
- In Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, the share was over 25%.
- The share was below 10% in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, among other States.
In India, over 60% of women who were aged between 25 and 29 in 2019-21 married before their 21st birthday.
- In the eastern States of Bihar and West Bengal, the share was over 70%.
- In Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura, it was more than 65%.
- Even in Goa, the State with the least share of such women, one in five women aged between 25 and 29 in 2019-21 married before turning 21.

Poor Reporting of Child Marriages

Despite such a high share of women marrying before turning 18 years, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, only 1,050 cases were registered under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2021.

Such a small number of cases shows that reportage of underage marriages is negligible, resulting in limited enforcement of the law.
These figures may go up in 2023 given the massive crackdown in Assam on child marriages leading to over 3,000 cases.
With the Bill proposing to raise the legal age from 18 to 21, the question of enforcement gets even bigger.

Way Forward

While laws can be changed, enforcement may remain weak as underage marriages are rarely reported. So, implementation must be focus of the government rather changing the legal age of marriage.

better-educated women have had more control over when they should get married for decades now.
Due to awareness and better negotiation powers, younger women have pushed up their median marriage age by many years compared to their mothers and grandmothers.
This progress can be seen as in all the States, except Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur, the share of women in the 20-24 age group marrying before 18 years of age was much lower than the share in the 45-49 age group.
This is a reflection of the increasing power of negotiation aided by better education levels among younger women.