Should the Legal Age for Women be Raised to 21?

It is important that girls are not pushed into marriage early; marriage should not be compulsory for them to gain social and economic status. Minimum age of marriage does not mean mandatory age. It only signifies that below that age there could be criminal prosecution under the child marriage law.An increase in age to 21 years would mean further persecution of girls right up till 21 years. We’ve seen this in the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court inthe Hadiya case, where an adult woman’s decision to marry was challenged by her parents. This is how it plays out in the Indian context.Madhya Pradesh CM, speaking on safety of women, said the minimum age for marriage of women should be raised to 21. He also said that the new system will be put in place, under which any woman moving out of her house for her work will register herself at the local police station, to be tracked for her own safety. Tracking women, instead of the men who stand to cause them harm in the first place?Hence, there are many pros and cons to this policy decision. Where on one hand it will lessen the number of girls who are married off early for three more years, on the other hand it will also mean that legally till they are 21, they do not have a say about their life.

— Aastha Bhatt