It was the 74th year of Azaadi that took us to realize that “She” needs herself much before she needs “Him”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on Independence Day, the government will consider increasing the minimum age of marriage for girls on the recommendation of a committee set up by the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development. The institution of marriage has governed society for centuries on the estates of social security and reproductive rights. As the auspicious Navratri marks the beginning where the Mother Divine bestows on earth to kill the evils, it is the need of the hour to focus on building an Atmanirbhar Nari Shakti decluttering it from the shackles of age, caste, and class.

Crossing Checking: Existing laws


The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 states the minimum age as 18 and 21- female and male respectively for consenting marriage.

  • In the Hindu Marriage Act, Section 5(iii) sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom. However, child marriages are not illegal — though they 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.


  • Furthermore, sexual intercourse with a minor is rape, and the ‘consent’ of a minor is regarded as invalid since she is deemed incapable of giving consent at that age

  • The Child Marriage Restraint Act set 16 and 18 years respectively as the minimum age of marriage for female and males respectively.


Legally Illegal?


The Constitution of India in Articles 14 and 21 guarantees the Right to Equality and the Right to live with dignity respectively, it is a point worthy to critically question the systematic separation of two different ages for both the genders in the concept of marriages. Not long ago- in 2019 the Supreme Court of India in ‘Joseph Shine V Union of India’ stated “a law that treats women differently based on gender stereotypes is an affront to women’s dignity”- while decriminalizing adultery. 

Socio-Economic Empowerment of ageless growth:


In a society that is blindly obsessed with the narrative of marriages and reproduction, I am anxious to question the parameters of compulsive customs of normalizing un-marriage and singlehood. Age is a reflection of bodily growth while in no way replicates the mental strength or maturity to be glued in a pre-existing setup box. The instant a woman touches the age of 25 in both urban and rural India, the dialogs of her settlement drive from the lane of jewellery to wedding gown to perfect match!

The rubrics of social security lie much beyond the degrees of college and school. The advocate of Economic Empowerment of Women may put forth that being economically independent leaves a woman with better options to sustain than our mother and grandmothers who irrespective of educational values were patronized to believe in the cultural confusions of dependency on masculine figures even in cases of failed marriages or domestic violence.

Women Empowerment through NEP


The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right. On the other hand, the policy fails harshly in the field of ground implementation and the inclusivity of exclusive privileges. A girl from a better socio-economic ground tends to catch up faster in the traditional educational outline but a girl child from a below-average socio-economic family finds it difficult to catch up with the competitive traditional outline. She encounters the constant pressure of the family conditions and remains in the survival mode. A child from a migrant family is hard hit in the shifting situation where the family is in a constant motion for existence, in such a scenario is not doubtful to understand the psychological denial of trigonometry or Plato.

Hopeful with New Education Policy that asserts upon opening up the routes for skill-based education keeping in mind the sustainable empowerment. The shift will focus on making the education a dependable mode in which post the education, the girl would be left with options to experiment and explore for building an independent livelihood.

The age of sustainable Survival:

The challenges of Roti, Kapda, and Makkan remains a major hurdle on the alleyway of development irrespective of gender. The policy of women empowerment can not be merely imperiled to the age of marriage while we target lowering maternal mortality, increasing the nutrition level, wind-up child abuse, and domestic violence. The age of evolution and exposure is the founding stone for the expansion of a safe, secured, and sustainable eco-system.

(The author is a Research Associate at the Nehru Memorial and Museum (NMML))

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