The Age of Female Marriage: A Legal Conundrum

The issue of the marriageable age of women has always been controversial in India. Recently, PM Modi's speech on increasing the marriageable age of women from 18 to 21 has opened up a debate across the country. Even after seven decades of independent India, where the Right to Equality and prohibition of discrimination is one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, issues like gender discrimination, child sexual abuse, child marriage, female feoticide is rampant in India. As per the Global Gender Gap Index 2019-2020, India ranks at 112; in the marker of health and survival, it is ranked 150 out of the 153 countries. The question which arises after looking into such rankings is that what should be the pertinent issue which the government should look into rather than deciding at what age women should marry. The primary focus of this paper is to find out whether the decision to increase the marriageable age for reasons like bringing gender equality, reduction in the mortality rates, or progress in the nutritional value of women will be achieved in reality, or it is just a hollow initiative by the government. The authors also aim to highlight the prevalent child marriages in India, child pregnancies, and other relatable issues with a focus on the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006" (PCMA) and Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929.