Repurcussions of Increasing Minimum Age of Marriage

The proposal by the Centre to increase the minimum age for marriage of girls to 21 is an area of major concern for Hindus, especially the poor and marginalised  living in rural areas. The move is purportedly made to bring a parity in the minimum age for marriage of boys and girls, hitherto fixed at 21 and 18 respectively under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.  An equality in minimum age for marriage of both sexes could have been achieved by lowering the minimum age of marriage of boys to 18. It is ludicrous that when world over, the minimum age of marriage is being reduced due to an increase in out of wedlock teenage pregnancies, leaving both the mother and child without the safety net of the institution of marriage, India in its wokeness is proposing mindlessly to increase it to 21. This NGO-esque pea-brained law is a recipe for increasing entrapment in Sex-Jihad cases as a 16 year girl is free to have sex, but not marry till she is 21. It is also pertinent to ask here that when a person can vote in a government to rule at the age of 18, thereby deciding the nation’s fate, why cannot they decide their own fate by choosing their life partners at 18? This policy would have wide ramifications in rural areas, where the nature of occupation of people necessitates early marriage and parenthood. With farm labour becoming unaffordable in rural areas due to MGNREGA doles, farmers rely on their own families to provide extra hands in farm work to cut labour costs. Hence their families tend to marry early and also have children early. Lutyens Delhi NGO lobby behind this brainwave unfortunately has no connection with Bharat to know its realities.       

Although the proposed amendment in the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act is supposed to apply to all communities, in practice even the present  minimum age of 18 years for marriage of girls is implemented to harass only poor Hindus marrying off their daughters at 16 or 17 as there are several Muslim ghettos in India which are no-go zones for administration and police as they would hazard being lynched alive for trying to stop underage marriages of Muslim girls as soon as they attain puberty as per Sharia.