The Debate Around Legal Age Of Marriage And The Role Of Civil Society

The decision of the Government of India to raise the legal marriage age for girls from 18 to 21 has sparked a healthy debate on the issue, with both sides having women’s safety and welfare at the centre of their arguments. The rationale behind the GoI’s decision is two-fold:

1. To end disparity and bring legal marriage age for women at par with men, i.e. at 21.
2. To improve socio-economic and health indicators of women.

The proposed amendments to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 are based on the recommendations of the central task force headed by Jaya Jaitley. The task force was to examine the correlation between the age of motherhood and maternal mortality rate, anaemia levels among women, nutritional status, etc.

The Committee rightly held that marriage at an early age not only adversely impacts health and nutritional outcomes for women but also deprives them of higher education which is indispensable to their personal growth and economic empowerment.

Perhaps, the results of the National Family Health Survey (fifth edition) further forced the government to make immediate structural adjustments (by way of raising the minimum marriageable age for girls) to bring down anaemia levels, maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate and improve the nutritional outcomes among women.

However, various child and women rights activists have expressed apprehension over the proposed amendments in the existing child marriage law. While highlighting the myriads of instances of child marriage, they rightly argue that a mere law prohibiting child marriage cannot serve the purpose.

Instances of child marriage, despite its prohibition and criminalisation under the Act of 2006, have frequently surfaced in the past. According to UNICEF, each year, atleast 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India (the highest number of child marriages in the world).

Therefore, activists and many experts argue that instead, more work on economic empowerment and education of women needs to be done to prevent child marriages.

Therefore, it’s clear that in order to end child marriage, we cannot entirely rely on the law-abiding conscience of people. Instead, increasing women’s gross enrollment ratio at the graduate level and increasing women labour force participation rate in the country’s total workforce should become a national priority. That’s where the role of civil society organisations assumes great significance.

Already, as around the world, civil society has a solid network in the field of education in India. From huge multi-national not-for-profits like Teach For India to global leaders like UNICEF, civil society organisations play a crucial role in securing equal educational opportunities for all.

Their strong community-based networks and their reach and influence in their area of operations can be efficiently utilised to educate people and spread awareness among them against child marriage.

Civil society is a better instrument to counter child marriage than a law because a poor person is rarely aware of, let alone acknowledge and consciously comply with, the laws that deal with issues of the nature as that of child marriage. Also, civil society organisations have established a relationship of trust with these people, which will encourage them to trust and act on their advice.

In any case, a law backed by coercion cannot bring internal reforms in the minds and hearts of the people, but civil society’s techniques of persuasion and education can.

Further, the fight against child marriage in India is as old as the fight against colonialism. Social reformers of 19th century India campaigned against child marriage and raised the demand before the colonial government to increase the minimum legal age for marriage for girls.

However, it was only after more than 30 years of Independence that the age of marriage for women was increased from 15 to 18 years in 1978.

History can be a source of inspiration and learning for the people of the country and civil society is best placed to spread that learning and experience. Indeed, the work of the civil society in preventing child marriage is appreciable. However, more needs to be done because, without positive behavioural changes, the bane of child marriage will continue to devastate the lives of millions of girls every year in India.