The year 2020 is the year of change. That is true particularly in the case of an Indian female’s legal age to tie the knot, as the Government of India has dived deep into the possibility and need to increase the marital age of women from 18 to 21 years. The major reason for changing the marital age is the high risk of mortality rate amongst young mothers and their infants. In February 2020, the Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman had announced during the budget that this decision will be looked into again in the span of the following six months.[1]
Most marriages involving underage women occur amongst families having poor socio-economic conditions. Even though there are laws restraining child marriages in India, child marriages continue to happen . Rural rates of child marriages were three times higher than urban India rates in 2009.
The most recent incident took place on 1st July 2020 at Dombivli in Maharashtra, where police got a tip off about the marriage of a girl as young as 16 years of age to a man ten years older to her. The police arrested the groom, his family and the girl’s parents under the penal provisions of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006).[2]
The brides as young as 19 years of age have little or no knowledge about reproductive health, no physical or mental maturity to handle problems of married life. They are unaware of the use of birth control measures like Copper T I-UD[3], pills, condoms, abortion, etc. to avoid early pregnancy. The number of women and girls in India who died due to complications during pregnancy and childcare in the first two decades of the 21st century was as high as 35,000 , though it has significantly decreased from 1,03,000 deaths in the year 2000.
As far as the statistics in the 2020 report of UNICEF[4] are concerned, Niger, the Central African Republic and Chad topped the list of countries having child marriages with 76% , 68 % and 67% women getting married before their 18th birthday.[5] These women , when pregnant are not taken to hospitals , but deliver with help of midwives . Many lose a lot of blood during pregnancy and due to menstruation after delivery. Many suffer from anemia, post-partum depression and malnourishment. Many of them belong to BPL[6] Families. They do not get incubators and Neo-natal ICU[7] cares for their low birth weight and premature babies. The lack of skilled delivery, a nutritional diet, vitamin supplements, psychological counselling of young mothers and complete vaccination of the infants leads to mental trauma for the mothers as well as stunted growth of their children.
Following the announcement February 2020 , the Ministry of Women and Child Development released an official statement on 6th June 2020 stating , “The Government of India , in a gazette notification issued on 4th June 2020 has set up a task force to examine the age of motherhood , imperatives of lowering MMR[8] , improvement of nutritional levels and related issues.”
The said task force is expected to suggest ways and means to encourage higher education amongst the women, explore the impact of marital age on both IMR[9] and MMR, the psychological health of the mother and child . The task force shall also study the sex ratio at birth and the overall child sex ratio, which is skewed in India, having more number of boys than girls at birth, due to female foeticide and infanticide. The task force shall also suggest amendment in the existing laws in relevant spheres, in order to have smooth implementation of its recommendations. Moreover, it will be provided with secretarial assistance by NITI Ayog.
India is a land of paradoxes and ironies .On one hand women are getting trained to join the armed forces and also actively participate in space research, while on the other a young, illiterate child bride dies during an early pregnancy. The Government’s decision is welcome as both males and females in India will be legally eligible to marry only after completion of 21 years of age. Thus, bringing in gender parity in the true sense of the term.
Shraddha Pandit
Final Year LLB (3 Years Course)
New Law College, Mumbai
[1]“Indian Government may revise the Legal Age of Marriage for Women”, Shethepeople (12th June 2020) https://www.shethepeople.tv/news/india-revise-legal-marriage-age
[2]“Police step in to stop child marriage”, Hindustan Times (3rd July 2020) –https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/police-step-in-to-stop-child-marriage/story-j6CFm6oGUusUy2WFKyD42M.html
[3] Intra-Uterine Device
[4] United Nations International Children’s Fund formerly known as United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (1946)
[5] “Child Marriage around the World” , Statistics by UNICEF ( 11th March 2020) – https://www.unicef.org/stories/child-marriage-around-world
[6] Below Poverty Line Families
[7] Intensive Care Unit
[8] Maternal Mortality Rate
[9] Infant Mortality Rate