ACTIVISTS AGAINST RAISING AGE OF MARRIAGE FOR WOMEN

Author: Chahat

The Activists on Monday are raising against the age of marriage from 18 to 21 for women. According to them it will lead to criminalisation of sexual activity and rise the parental repercussions against the young adults who marry against the parents wish.

In the report made by Dehli-based NGO Partners under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA),2006, it analysed 83 High Court and District Court judgements and orders between 2008 to 2017.Moreover 56 out of 83 cases has been filed by parents or relatives of girl and rest of 14% has been initiate by legal functionaries. They also found that 65% of the cases under (PCMA) was used to punish consenting older adolescents and remaining 35% of the cases was seek to dissolution of marriages that didn’t work and not to punish the parents for breaking the law.Under the Sexual Offences Act,2012 the minimum punishment for intense sexual assault is 20 years. However , marriages arranged by parents in violation of law has maximum punishment of 2 years.

In a conference Madhu Mehra (Executive director , Partners for Law in Development) said “ This is not a time to tinker with PCMA , but it is time to look at POSCO and age of consent, which should be revised to 16 years from 18 years at least in cases of non-coercive and non-exploitative relations among peers.Therefore according to Mary E John (Director in Centre for Women’s Development Studies ) said “In1978 when ages of marriage for boys was raised to 21 and for girls to 18 ,the reason was being to curb the population .Infact she laid down emphasis on schooling and job opportunities so that age for marriage can be delayed.