While raising the legal age for women to marry is a progressive step toward gender equality, focusing on the efficient execution of existing policy frameworks and legislation is more vital. Discuss. 150 WORDS
The Union Cabinet’s proposal to bring uniformity to men’s and women’s marriageable ages is undoubtedly a progressive step toward achieving Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which calls on nation-states to develop legislation to ensure gender equality.
Women and men must be 18 and 21 years old, respectively, to consent to marriage under the Special Marriage Act of 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006.
Arguments In Favor of the Decision :
Basic Rights Protection: Protecting women from early and child marriage is a basic rights protection, and this historic step will result in amendments to associated legislative frameworks to establish a comprehensive rights-based framework for the aadhi aabadi.
Bringing Gender Parity: Section 2(a) of the Special Marriage Act declares the legal marriageable age for women to be 18 and for men to be 21, a disparity that appears to defy logic.
If men and women can vote at the same age, and men and women can consensually, willingly, and legitimately enter into a contract at the same age, why not equalise the age requirements for marriage?
- Equality derives from equal laws: Equal laws produce equality, and social developments are both predecessors and outcomes of laws.
- In progressive civilizations, a change in the law is also more likely to result in changes in societal
- In progressive countries, a change in the law is more likely to lead to a shift in social
Facilitating Women’s Empowerment: There are several indications of female empowerment, particularly in the number of female students enrolled in higher education.
Facilitating Women’s Empowerment: There are a number of indications of women’s empowerment, particularly in the number of female students enrolled in higher education.
UJJAWALA, Mudra Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Yojana are just a few examples. Women are the biggest beneficiaries of government initiatives, according to the Jan-Dhan Yojana.
With equality in marriage age, women’s empowerment will be boosted even more.
Decision-making difficulties:
Financially disadvantaged women are unlikely to benefit: Though the goal appears to be worthwhile on paper, simply raising the marriage age without also raising social awareness and improving access to health care is unlikely to benefit the community it seeks to serve: young women who are not yet financially independent and who are unable to exercise their rights and freedoms while still bound by familial and societal pressures.
Despite the fact that the law barring marriage before the age of 18 has been in effect in some form since the 1900s, child marriage has persisted largely unabated until 2005, when nearly half of all women aged 20-24 had married under the legal minimum age.
There’s No Guarantee That Child Marriages Will Be Obsolete: With nearly 60% of women of marriageable age marrying before the age of 21, the population of women of marriageable age will be enormous.
The inability to prevent women from marrying before the age of 18 shows no proof that it would be prevented by raising the age to 21.
Way forward:
- Assuring Equality in Objectives: Any argument, biological, sociological, or data and research-based, cannot justify the age gap between men and women when it comes to
- Empowering Disadvantaged Women: To empower disadvantaged women, more effort must be made in addressing the inherent structural disadvantages that women who marry young
- Women’s Education and Awareness: Taking steps to counsel girls about early pregnancies and give them with a network to improve their health is an excellent, but difficult, strategy to attain the stated goal.
