Legal Age of Marriage in India 2020 for Girl
An authoritative assembly constituted last year by honourable Prime Minister Of India Narendra Modi, formerly further led by Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly and NITI Aayog Member (Health) V.K. Paul assesses its proposal of increasing the Indian marriage age limit 2020 for girls, recommending an increase in the marriageable age from 18 to 21.
However, the recommendation is based on the condition of anonymity, meaning that the Indian states should be given sufficient space and time to conduct the groundwork for the stated legislation, since it cannot be executed overnight.”
New Marriage Law 2020 for Women in India
On the occasion of Independence Day 2020, PM Modi announced that the government could re-evaluate the age of marriage for women, in its bid to brawl malnutrition. “The government in its proposal has formed a committee to ensure that daughters are no longer suffering from malnutrition and they are married off at an appropriate age. Soon after the report is submitted, suitable decisions will be taken about the age of marriage of daughters.
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Image: girl marriage age in India 2020 set at 21years
Minimum Girl Marriage Age in India 2020
On the 74th Independence Day of India i.e. last year 2020, PM Narendra Modi specified that the government will consider the minimum age of the girl for marriage on the recommendation of a committee set up by the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development. The announcement is constricted to increasing the legal age of marriage for girls. Thus, women will be no longer owed to malnutrition/undernourishment and will be married off at the right age. However, discussion on the minimum age has been thriving hugely.
The current minimum age of marriage for girls is 21 and 18 for women and men, respectively in India, authorized by the amendment of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 in 1978. The same is suggested by the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
Promising Strategies for Marriage Age in India 2020
Rising the minimum legal age of marriage for women to 21 years is considered both feasible and promising considering a number of outcomes. It is also considered as one of the effective ways of empowering women that respect reproductive rights.
Over this decade, India has observed steep declines in both fertility and child marriage. These alterations have occurred not because of any legislation or incentives, but possibly due to more accessible schooling, skilling, wellness and other entitlements, that have, on their own, resulted in a radical shift in norms and goals for girls, and an eagerness to invest in them and delay their marriages.
Even the women in today’s era feel that one should not marry a girl until she is standing on her own feet or feels capable of starting or nurturing a new phase of life, say at 25 years or 26 years. She must have full approval mentally of the boy and his family. After all, the fact is that the girl only has to spend her whole life with him.”
Yet widespread inequities persist in our social system, and many remain untouched by opportunities in health, education and poverty mitigation.
Strategies that are inclusive and get the unreached and unprivileged out of poverty are much required. Such policies and programs are far more admiring of human rights than legislation, and will unquestionably assist in achieving the desired delays in marriage highlighted in high-level pronouncements.
Concept Behind Legal Marriage Age in India 2020
The major concern in India is not only the child marriage but early child delivery making both the mother and child deprived of necessary nutrition and standard of life. The announcement of raising the legal marriage age in India 2020 for girls from 18 to 21 years is also amended keeping in consideration the first child delivery should be at 21.
As per the sources, the task force in the PM committee has announced the age of a woman at the time of her first childbirth must be 21 years. The report claims that evidence reveals that delay in marriage has positive social, economical and health effects for women, children, families and the society at large.
In addition, the report debates that studies — based on proofs from 50-plus low and middle income countries to identify the relation of maternal age with infant mortality, diarrhea, anemia and child anthropometric failure for first births — reflect that the risk declines after age of 21years.
While the risk of poor child health consequences is the lowest for females who have their first births between 27 and 29, the wide range for an optimal age of motherhood is 21 to 35 years.
The key recommendation and the foremost mandate of the report was to examine the correlation of marriage age and motherhood with medical, health, well-being and nutritional status of mother and child as well as an understanding of mother during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.
FAQs on Legal Age of Marriage for Women
1. What are the Advantages of Legal Age for Marriage in India 2020?
Answer: Many will claim that those who marry at or after the age of 21 years are better off than those who marry younger. This is unquestionably true, many studies have revealed that those who marry later are more likely than others to attain a higher secondary or college education, take on skilling scope, exercise their voices and gain a better understanding of the world around them. But none of these consequences can be accredited to their age at marriage. Instead, they display the fundamental inequities that exist in our society.
However, the two groups are non-comparable. Those whose marriages occur later have grown up with multiple benefits compared to those whose marriages occur earlier – they appear from wealthier households and socially benefited castes and tribes, whose parents can afford to harbour them well, offer them educational opportunities and assure them a host of other benefits.
2. What are the Drawbacks of the Girl Marriage Age in India 2020?
Answer: The register marriage age limit 2020 in India for girls will be 21 from 18years. However, the irony is that PM Narendra Modi’s Independence Day call came when Covid-19 pandemic-linked poverty has led families to marry off daughters even below the age of 16 years. People specific stories of “one less mouth to feed” and minimalistic to NO dowry demands encouraging child marriage, reported in media articles, is widely disturbing. What is required, rather than revising the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, is to seek ways of allowing adherence to the current law.
