Why don’t some girls want the age of marriage 21 years?

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The minimum age to marry in India is 21 for boys and 18 for girls. Under the Child Marriage Prevention Act 2006, marriage at a young age is illegal, for which there can be a two-year sentence and a fine of one lakh rupees.

Now the government is considering increasing this limit to 21 for girls. A task force of 10 members has been constituted under the chairmanship of MP Jaya Jaitley, who will soon give its suggestions to NITI Aayog.

Due to the changing thinking towards the education and career of girls in big cities of India, their marriage usually takes place only after the age of 21 years.

This means that the biggest impact of this decision will be in small cities, towns and villages, where there is less emphasis on boys teaching girls and getting jobs, less nutrition in the family, access to health services is difficult and they get married early. Is more popular

Child marriage cases are also found more in these areas.

Will increasing the minimum age of marriage make these girls happy?

Some social organizations formed the ‘Young Voices National Working Group’ to share the ground experience on these concerns with the Task Force and to express disagreement with the proposal.

Under this, in the month of July, with the help of 96 organizations working in 15 states on the health and education of women and children, 2,500 boys and girls aged 12 to 22 years were asked to know their opinion.

The answers to the direct questions turned very crooked. Opinion was not one, but showing the mirror to the government in many ways, the girls put forward some more demands.

Like Mamta Jangid of Ajmer in Rajasthan, who did not like this proposal to increase the minimum age, while she herself was a victim of child marriage.

Child marriage becomes at the age of eight

Mamta is now 19 years old, but when her sister was 8 years old and she was 11 years old, her family was forced to marry them both.

According to the dough-sata tradition prevalent in some sections of Rajasthan, the house where the boy of the family marries, that house has to marry a girl from the boy’s family.

Under this transaction, Mamta and her sister were demanded to be married, but their mother supported them and despite many taunts and scorn, the lives of the daughters were not ‘spoiled’.

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All this happened when under the age of 18, marriage under the law was illegal. According to Mamta, even changing this limit to 21 will not change anything.

He said, “The girl is not taught, nor does she earn, so when she grows up, she starts knocking at home, how will she challenge her marriage, parents don’t wait till 18 Pate, how will you be able to stop them by 21. “

Mamta wants the government to make it easier for girls to go to school and college, to create employment opportunities so that they can become stronger and stronger.

After all, they should be married to their will, their decision, not obeyed by any government rule.

That is, if a girl wants to get married at the age of 18, then she is an adult and there should not be any legal restrictions on her.

Child marriage not teenage marriage

In most countries of the world, the minimum marriage age for boys and girls is 18.

In India, under the 1929 Sharda Act, the minimum age of marriage was set at 18 for boys and 14 for girls.

After the 1978 amendment, this limit became 21 years for boys and 18 years for girls.

In the year 2006, the Child Marriage Prevention Act replaced these laws by adopting the same limits and incorporating some better provisions.

According to UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Fund), child marriage cases have been steadily decreasing worldwide, and the fastest decline in the last decade has been in South Asia.

The majority of marriages under 18 are in Sub-Saharan Africa (35%) and then in South Asia (30%).

According to UNICEF, marriage under the age of 18 is a violation of human rights.

This increases the risk of girls dropping out, domestic violence and death during childbirth.

It is in this environment that the task force of the government has to decide on increasing the age of marriage of the girls keeping in mind their education, health and employment.

‘Pre-marital sex’

In India, there has been a significant decline in the rate of death of the mother due to problems related to or during childbirth.

According to UNICEF, this figure fell from 1,03,000 in 2000 to 35,000 in 2017. Nevertheless, this is the biggest reason for the death of adolescent girls in the country.

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Will increasing the age of marriage help to overcome this challenge?

Divya Mukand of ‘Young Voices National Working Group’ believes that mother’s health does not depend only on the age of conception, “due to poor and low status of women in the family, they get less nutrition, and this The challenge will remain even if pregnant to some extent. “

The ground reality is also a little tricky.

Age of consent in India, that is, the age of consent to have sex is 18. If the age of marriage is increased, then sex between 18 and 21 will fall into the category of ‘pre-marital sex’.

Sexual relations before marriage is legal, but the society has not yet adopted it.

Kavita Ratna of ‘Young Voices National Working Group’ says, “In such a situation, women’s access to contraception and other health-related services will be reduced or they will be able to get this with a lot of scorn.”

Marriage should not be done according to age

Many girls are also in the right to raise the minimum age to 21 years in the opinion polls conducted from girls across the country, because they feel that due to the law, they will be able to stop their families from getting married.

At the same time, she also believes that nothing else has changed in her life and if she is not empowered, then this law will not stop child marriage, rather it will be done in secret.

Damini Singh lives in a small village in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh. Most people do farming in villages with around 70 families.

According to Damini, the marriage should be late, but not because of age. When the girl starts earning her money, becomes self-sufficient, then only she should have a relationship then whatever her age is.

Only five families work in their village outside. Two teach in school, two are Asha workers and one works in Anganwadi. Men are employed in 20 families against them.

Damini said, “The school is six kilometers away from our village, if it is two kilometers, then they go on foot, but for more than that, poor families do not want to spend money on girls by the way, then they miss their studies. And she could never make her existence. “

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According to Damini, the government should open training centers for girls so that they can stand on their feet and make their own decisions, and raise their voice if they have to fight for them.

Girls thinking as burdensome

Priyanka of Saraikela in Jharkhand is against the proposal of the Murmu government and like Damini and Mamta talks about the need for better education and health facilities.

According to him, the basic problem is the thinking of girls as a burden, and until they change, the fixed age is 18 or 21, the families will do what they want.

But if girls start earning, then the pressure of marriage on them will reduce.

Priyanka claims that there are still many child marriages in her area, “People are aware of the current law, but fear not, if strict action is taken in any case, some changes will happen, otherwise even after doing 21 years nothing Will change, because the voice of the girl in the house will remain suppressed. “

She wants girls to have equal rights as boys, so that they can decide better when they should get married.

Fear of misuse

There is also a fear associated with raising the minimum age of marriage, that instead of girls, their parents can misuse it for their own meaning.

According to Divya Mukand, “When 18-year-old adult girls want to marry a boy of their choice against the family, the parents will find a way under the guise of law to disobey them, the result is that the girl’s help Instead, it will reduce their will and will also pose a threat to them.

In this exercise, most of the girls emphasized that the government should give their preference before whatever decision is taken.

According to her, she is tired of making marriage the center of her life, she wants to decide the direction and direction of her life on more scales.

Kavita said, “She just wants the freedom and strength to do her mind. If the government helps, it is better.”

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