In Himachal Pradesh, it will now be a crime to marry or get a girl married before the age of 21. The Congress government here has increased the legal age of marriage for girls from 18 years to 21 years. Its bill has been passed in the assembly and now it has been sent to the governor. If it gets approval from the governor, then the legal age of marriage for girls here will become 21 years.
With this, Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country where the legal age of marriage of girls has been increased. Now in Himachal, marriage will be considered valid only when the age of the boy and the girl is 21 years or more.
4 big things about the bill
1. The age of majority has also increased: There is a law against child marriage in the country since 2006. Under this, an adult was considered to be someone whose age was 18 years or more. But if this law is made in Himachal, then a person will be considered an adult only after attaining the age of 21 years, whether he is a boy or a girl.
2. Will be applicable to all: If the Governor approves, this will be applicable to all the natives of the state, irrespective of their religion. Not only this, if there is a tradition of child marriage in any society, then this law will be applicable to that too. Overall, any person who is a native of Himachal Pradesh will come under the purview of this law.
3. It will be considered as child marriage: Till now the legal age for marriage was 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. But now it will be 21 years for both. That is, if a girl below 21 years of age gets married, it will be considered a child marriage. If the age of both the boy and the girl is below 21 years, then that will also be a child marriage.
4. The age for getting a document declared void has also increased: If there was a child marriage, then an application to declare such marriage void could be filed within two years. In the proposed bill, this period of two years has been increased to five years. That is, if a girl or boy gets married before the age of 21, then he or she can file an application to declare his or her marriage void within five years of attaining adulthood.
What will be its effect?
The biggest impact of this will be that now marriage will be considered valid only when the age of both the boy and the girl is 21 years or more. If the age of either of the two is less than 21 years, then it will be considered child marriage and doing so will be a crime.
The second major impact will be that this will apply to all people, irrespective of their caste or religion. Till now, the legal age of marriage was different in different religions and some tribal communities. For example, there is no legal age for marriage of a girl among Muslims. According to Muslim law, if a girl has reached puberty, she can be married. In such cases, the child marriage law was not applicable. But now the marriage of Muslim boys and girls will be considered valid only if the age is more than 21 years.
Not only this, till now if someone is married off as a child, then after attaining adulthood, an application had to be filed within two years to declare that marriage void. But now an application can be filed up to five years after attaining adulthood.
Also read: Laws have changed but the situation has not… still 86 rapes happen every day, know which state is the most ‘unsafe’ for women
What is the punishment if child marriage takes place?
The law making child marriage a crime was last amended in 2006. Under this, the legal age of marriage is fixed at 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. This law is applicable across the country. Preparations are underway to amend this law again, in which the age of girls for marriage can be made 21 years.
There is a provision in the law that any person or organization can get an order from the court to stop a child marriage if it is found to be taking place. If the child marriage still takes place, the person found guilty can be punished with two years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. In such cases, even if the marriage takes place, the court declares it ‘void’.
Under Section 3 of this law, in most cases child marriages are considered ‘void’, but in some cases it depends on the boy or the girl. That is, either of them can go to the court and file an application to declare such a marriage void. Not only this, if both the boy and the girl want, they can continue the child marriage and gain legitimacy after becoming adults.
Section 9 of this law says that if any adult male above 18 years of age marries a child, then if found guilty, he can be punished with a jail term of up to two years or a fine of Rs 1 lakh or both. Apart from this, if a person conducts a child marriage, then if found guilty, he will be punished with a jail term of up to two years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. This also includes parents and relatives.
Not only this, if the court declares the child marriage void, then it is the responsibility of the man to maintain the girl. If the boy is a minor, then his parents or guardian will give alimony to the girl. This alimony will be decided by the court.
Apart from this, if a child is born from a child marriage, then his maintenance will also be done by the man. In case the man is a minor, his parents or guardian will provide maintenance.
Also read: The woman who will fight the case of Kolkata case’s Sanjay Roy… Know why the accused gets a lawyer even after his confession
Strict law on child marriage, yet cases are increasing
Child marriage has been prevalent for centuries. Not only in India, but in many countries of the world. Child marriage is considered when both the boy and the girl are below the age set for marriage. In India, the legal age for marriage for boys is 21 years and for girls is 18 years. If anyone marries below this age, it will be considered a child marriage.
There is a law in India regarding child marriage since before independence. A law was brought for this in 1929. At that time, the age of boys for marriage was fixed at 18 years and that of girls at 14 years.
Later in 1978, this law was amended and the legal age of boys was made 21 years and that of girls 18 years. But these laws were not very strict and there was no provision for declaring child marriage void or for any concrete punishment. Therefore, the law was again amended in 2006. Under this, child marriage was made a cognizable and non-bailable offence.
However, despite this, cases of child marriage still come to the fore. According to the NCRB report, 3,861 cases of child marriage were reported between 2018 and 2022. More than one thousand cases have been registered in 2021 and 2022. 1,002 cases were registered in 2022 and 1,050 in 2021.
According to the latest report of the Sample Registrar Survey, in 2020, there were 1.9% girls across the country who got married before the age of 18. At the same time, about 28 percent of the girls got married when they were between 18 and 20 years of age.
UNICEF had given statistics related to child marriage in a report released four years ago. This report claimed that there are more than 65 crore women across the world who were married before the prescribed age. Out of these, 28.5 crore women are in South Asia. Out of this, more than 22.3 crore women are in India alone. That is, India is a big home of ‘child brides’.
In this case, India’s situation was worse than Pakistan and Sri Lanka. UNICEF’s report said that 27% of girls aged 20 to 24 in India were married before the age of 18. On the other hand, there are 21% such girls in Pakistan. Whereas, 26% girls in Bhutan and 10% girls in Sri Lanka were such. Bangladesh (59%), Nepal (40%) and Afghanistan (35%) were ahead of India.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)