NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Monday wrote to Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu requesting him to ensure a more woman-inclusive panel to deliberate on the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which seeks to increase the age of marriage from 18 to 21 for women.
In the letter, Chaturvedi wrote: “I am writing this letter to you as a concerned Member of Parliament. In the winter session of the parliament, a crucial bill impacting the lives of women across the country was introduced - The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill. This bill seeks to raise the legal age of marriage from 18 to 21 for women.
“After being introduced in the Lok Sabha it was sent to the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports. However, the committee has only one female Member of Parliament as a member. This is disheartening to note that a bill so pertinent to women and the Indian society will be deliberated upon in a committee where the representation is highly skewed,” Chaturvedi said.
The Shiv Sena deputy leader requested the Vice-President Naidu, who is the ex-officio chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, to ensure that there should be more representation and participation of women in the discussion around the bill that concerns the issues faced by women in India. “It is of utmost importance that the interests of all stakeholders are taken into account and that voices of all, especially women, are heard and understood by the committee,” Chaturvedi said.
The bill proposes to raise the age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21 years and bring it at par with men. However, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev is the only woman member in the 31-member parliamentary standing committee which is led by senior BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
Sushmita Dev, on her part, has written to committee chairperson Sahasrabuddhe requesting him to invoke rule no 84(3) to allow all women MPs to testify before the committee.
After introducing the bill in the winter session of Parliament in the Lok Sabha amid protests from the opposition on December 21, women and child development minister Smriti Irani had sought that the bill be referred to a parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny and said that the government was open to further discussion on it.
