Following the approval of the proposal, the Union government will table an amendment to the Child Marriage Act, 2006, and also the Special Marriage Act and Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
Presenting the Union budget in February 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed a task force to recommend raising women’s minimum age of marriage from 18 to 21. Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the proposal was under review, in his Independence Day address the same year.
At present, the minimum age of marriage for men is 21 and for women is 18. Now, the government will bring amendments to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act and Hindu Marriage Act to give the new proposal a shape.
The proposal was recommended by the task force headed by Jaya Jaitley in Niti Aayog. Pediatrician VK Paul was also a part of the task force.
Besides them, the secretaries of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, Higher Education, School Education and Literacy Mission and the Ministry of Justice and Law were also a part of the task force.
The task force was constituted in June 2020 and gave its report in December the same year. The task force had said that the minimum age of women at the time of giving birth to their first child should be 21.
Jaitly told the media that the idea of deferring the legal marriage age of women was rooted not in population control but in women empowerment.
