PATNA: All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) on Saturday opposed the Centre’s move to raise the age of marriage for women to 21 years, saying "When 18-year-olds can choose a government and decide the country’s future, why deny them the right to choose their life partner."
The woman rights organization further asked the Union Government to withdraw its proposal to raise the age of marriage for women to 21 years.
"The Union cabinet’s proposal to raise the age of marriage for women to 21 is ill-advised and should be withdrawn…. The age of marriage for all adults should be 18. Thus, the age for marriage of men too should be reduced to 18. If we hold 18-year-olds to be adults who can choose a government and decide the country’s future, we must accept that they are old enough to decide their own future, and choose if, when, or whom to marry," AIPWA national president Rati Rao, its national general secretary Meena Tiwari and its national secretary Kavita Krishnan said in a joint statement, issued here on Saturday.
"Early pregnancies indeed adversely affect the health of young women as well as children; they also interfere with the education of young women. Women also are forced by parents into early marriage against their will. But the answer to chronic anaemia, malnutrition, and women’s disrupted education does not lie in criminalizing marriages of those under 21, it lies in addressing chronic poverty," they argued.
"The fact is that the government is already failing to implement the law criminalizing child marriage. The answer to the issue of forced early marriage lies in cultivating respect and support for the autonomy of young women. In other words, the government should provide a helpline and support for young women being forced by parents into marriage against their will. It should invest in social campaigns supporting the right of women to control their own lives and take their own decisions. All adults above the age of 18, irrespective of gender, must have the right to decide whether, when, and whom to marry," the AIPWA leaders said.
"In FY 2013-14, a study by a leading newspaper found that 40% of rape cases in Delhi trial courts were not rape cases but cases of consensual elopement where young women were fleeing violence and coercion by their parents and communities to marry their lovers. In India, ‘Khap Panchayats’, community councils, as well as Sangh mobs are known to attack young inter-caste and inter-faith couples. In such cases, adult women are often wrongly termed "minors" and incarcerated in “shelter homes” from where they can secure freedom only when they agree to forsake their inter-caste or inter-faith relationships and agree to return to their parents’ home. Now such coercive parents and outfits will have a law that selectively denies women adulthood in the matter of marriage. The Union cabinet’s proposal will not empower women, it will only empower such forces that inflict such violence against women’s autonomy," they said.
"The AIPWA therefore demands that the Cabinet withdraw its proposal; and instead amend existing laws to respect the right of all adults - i.e all individuals above the age of 18 - to enjoy full autonomy in all spheres of their lives, including decisions about whom to love or marry," they said.
