Marriage age for men and women GS: 2 EMPOWER IAS

Marriage age for men and women

 

 

In news:

• Delhi High Court has issued a notice to the Centre and the Law Commission of India, seeking their response to the public interest litigation that sought a uniform age of marriage for men and women.

 

Important facts:

• The petitioner claims that more than 125 countries in the world have a uniform age of marriage for men and women
• The petitioner calls the distinction 'unscientific' and a patriarchal stereotype
• PIL also alleges that Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee the right to equality and the right to live with dignity, are violated by having different legal age for men and women to marry.
• The National Human Rights Commission recommended that India follow suit and bring uniformity in the minimum age limits.

 

Law commission recommendations in this regard:

• The Law Commission today suggested that 18 years should be the minimum legal age for men and women alike to get married, saying the insistence on recognising different ages of marriage between consenting adults must be abolished. 
• In its consultation paper on 'Reform of Family Law', the panel also said "if a universal age for majority is recognised, and that grants all citizens the right to choose their governments, surely, they must then be also considered capable of choosing their spouses". 
• The difference in age for husband and wife has no basis in law as spouses entering into a marriage are by all means equals and their partnership must also be of that between equals
• The age of majority, 18 years, must be recognised uniformly as the legal age for marriage for men and women alike as per Indian Majority Act, 1875. 
• The law panel was of the view that maintaining the difference of 18 years for women and 21 years for men "simply contributes to the stereotype that wives must be younger than their husbands". 

 

Present laws:

• Presently, the law prescribes that the minimum age of marriage is 21 and 18 years for men and women, respectively.
• The law prescribes a minimum age of marriage to essentially outlaw child marriages and prevent abuse of minors. Personal laws of various religions that deal with marriage have their own standards, often reflecting custom.
•  The minimum age of marriage is distinct from the age of majority, which is gender-neutral.
• An individual attains the age of majority at 18 as per the Indian Majority Act, 1875.
• For Hindus, Section 5(iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom. Child marriages are not illegal but can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage.
• In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid under personal law.
• The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.

 

Need for uniformity in the law:

• In a consultation paper of reform in family law in 2018, the Law Commission argued that having different legal standards “contributes to the stereotype that wives must be younger than their husbands”.
• Women’s rights activists too have argued that the law perpetuates the stereotype that women are more mature than men of the same age and therefore can be allowed to marry sooner.
• The Law Commission paper recommended that the minimum age of marriage for both genders be set at 18.For the difference in age for husband and wife has no basis in law as spouses entering into a marriage are by all means equals and their partnership must also be of that between equals.
• In 2014, in National Legal Services Authority of India v Union of India, the Supreme Court while recognising transgenders as the third gender said that justice is delivered with the “assumption that humans have equal value and should, therefore, be treated as equal, as well as by equal laws.”
• In 2019, in Joseph Shine v Union of India, the Supreme Court decriminalised adultery and said that “a law that treats women differently based on gender stereotypes is an affront to women’s dignity.”
• To deal the problem of Child marriage: The rate of child marriage is very high in India.   Child marriages in India are linked with socioeconomic factor, particularly lack of literacy. The national average of child marriage for females is down females is down from 47.4 per cent to 26.8 per cent and for males from 32.3 per cent to 20.3 per cent. 

 

Way ahead:

• Registration of marriages should be made compulsory .
• Law needs to be instituted to make the legal age for marriage  uniform.
• Measures for increasing education levels should be balanced with the creation of jobs, the development of responsible and sensitive workplaces, along with a positive change in the stereotypical gender roles.
• Only with constructive planning and comprehensive changes at various levels of society can the new emerging "women" be able to realize her complete potential in India.

 

Source)

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-is-age-of-marriage-different-for-men-and-women-the-law-the-debate-5925004/