Chidambaram backs Centre move to raise marriage age of women to 21; adds a caveat

In a surprising twist, ex-Union Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday, came up in support of raising the age of marriage to 21 for girls and making it the same as it is for boys. But he added a caveat that the amended law should come into force on 1-1-2023 or later, batting for a massive educational campaign on the benefits in 2022. 
The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to increase the legal age of marriage for women to 21, matching men.

Chidambaram: 'Massive educational campaign in 2022'

Centre raises marriageable age; controversy rises

On Thursday, the Cabinet had cleared the move matching men and women's marriageable age to 21 years. The proposals have been made on the basis of the recommendations submitted to the Niti Aayog in December last year by the Centre-appointed task force headed by Jaya Jaitly. The bill in this regard is likely to be tabled in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament to amend the prohibition of the Child Marriage Act, 2006.

The Centre's task force was constituted to determine the matters concerning the age of motherhood and the imperatives of lowering the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), an improvement on nutritional levels, and other related issues.  Recently, the new  National Family Health Survey 2019-21 (NFHS-5)  revealed that the percentage of women who have married before 18 years has dropped from 26.8% in 2015-16 to 23.3% in 2019-21. In the urban population, 14.7% women below 18 years were married, while it is 27% in rural India. 

Opposing the move, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that both men and women should be allowed to get married at 18 as they are lawfully adults by then. "Modi government has decided to increase the age of marriage for women to 21. This is typical paternalism that we have come to expect from the government. 18-year-old men and women can sign contracts, start businesses, choose Prime Ministers and elect MPs & MLAs but not marry?" Owaisi asked.

Similarly, NCP MP Majeed Memon stated that raising the marriageable age of girl from 18 to 21 years needs thorough consideration and deliberation. He pointed out that inspite of  18 years being the minimum marriageable age, child marriages were rampant in rural India. Several other Muslim clerics have also come out against the move.