The revolutionary proposed law to make the minimum age of marriage for girls equal to that of boys, i.e. 21 years, has been put on hold for the time being. With the end of the term of the 17th Lok Sabha, this pending bill has lapsed and there is no buzz in the government departments about bringing a new bill.

Two weeks ago, when the Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to the Ministry of Women and Child Development had hinted at a discussion on this, some hope was raised but sources reveal that during this period, no indication was given by the government about bringing a new bill.

If it had been passed, the law would have been applicable to all religions

The Child Marriage Prohibition Bill 2021, which lapsed due to the end of the Lok Sabha term, had a provision to increase the minimum age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21, equal to that of boys. Its biggest feature was that this law was equally applicable to all religions and classes. That is, no matter which religion the girl belongs to and whether the marriage is taking place between people following any religion, the minimum age of the girl was required to be 21 years.

Right now there are different ages for marriage in different religions

At present, the age of marriage is different in different religions. In the laws of Hindu, Christian etc. religions, the minimum age for marriage of a girl is 18 years and that of a boy is 21 years, but in Muslim law, there is no minimum age for marriage of a girl. Muslim law says that a girl can get married after she attains puberty.

In such a situation, many times the disputes regarding the marriage of a 15, 16 year old girl reached the court and the issue arose about it being considered a child marriage. Different courts of the country have given different verdicts on this issue. In such a situation, if the proposed bill had taken the form of a law, this dispute would have ended because the proposed law had a provision to override all laws.

Jaya Jaitley committee had recommended

Last time, the government had conducted a lot of studies on increasing the minimum age of marriage for girls and had also constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Jaya Jaitley which had supported increasing the marriage age for girls in its report. The Parliamentary Committee on Women, Education, Youth and Sports had called the officials of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to discuss this subject two weeks ago.

There is no indication of bringing a new bill

Sources reveal that the provisions of the lapsed bill were informed to the committee by the government but no indication was given about bringing a new bill. If we look at the child marriage law, the Child Marriage Prohibition Act was made in 1929 which was also called Sharda Act in which the minimum age of marriage was fixed at 14 years for girls and 18 years for boys.

Law made in 1978

In 1978, the law was amended and the marriage age was raised to 18 and 21 years respectively. In 2006, the law was amended again, although the age limit was not changed, but officers were appointed and the boy and girl who are victims of child marriage got the right to declare the marriage void within two years of attaining adulthood.