Context: The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006 allows different timeframes for men and women to seek annulment of a child marriage, which reinforces the patriarchal notions.
Relevance of the topic:
Prelims: MCQ based on Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
Mains: Detailed questions on lacunae in Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
Issue of Child Marriage
- Child marriage remains a significant social issue in India despite of legal prohibition. (102 million girls got married before age of 18 years: Census 2011)
- There are various reasons of Child Marriage;
- Patriarchy: The notion of patriarchy considers a girl child as a liability, leading to early marriage.
- Social taboos: Many Indian societies consider the premarital sex as a taboo, leading to marriage children before achievement of adolescence.
- Poverty and financial pressure: Poor families and ruralisation of poverty, especially in the agricultural societies, leads to dowry concerns often pushing parents to marry daughters at a younger age.
- Safety concerns: Fear of sexual violence and lack of security infrastructure for women leads to the early marriage of girls.
- Weak legal enforcement: Poor implementation of law and conflict with personal laws make it challenging to curb the issue of child marriage.
About Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006
- The Government has passed the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, making child marriage illegal and criminalises it.
- The Act allows any party who got married as a child to seek annulment of the marriage, as long as the petition is filed within two years of attaining majority.
- The ‘Child’ in PCMA means a girl below 18 years and a boy below 21 years of age.
- Women can annul marriage before attainment of 20 years of age, whereas, men can annul marriage before attainment of 23 years of age.
Issues in Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) 2006
- Limited scope: The Act only criminalises the child marriage but lacks the comprehensive approach to address roots causes like social customs, economic pressure and gender biases.
- Legal contradictions: Various personal laws challenge and contradict the PCMA Act 2006. Eg; Muslim Personal laws allows marriage with attainment of puberty
- Biased law: The Act itself is biased against women as it allows annulment of marriage by boys at the age of 23 years while marriage annulment age for girls is less, bringing girls to a stage of disadvantage.
- Inconsistencies of law: Law is inconsistent as it allows a different age of marriage for boys (21) and girls (18) reinforcing gender inequality.
Way Forward
Suggestions for attaining Substantive Equality in Marriage Laws:
- Uniform marriage age: The minimum age of women can be made at par with the males i.e., 21 years to address the deep rooted patriarchal conception in legal measures.
- Increasing annulment age: If minimum marriage age of males and females can not be equated then, age of annulment can be made equal to enhance rights.
Other measures to reduce Child Marriage:
- Strengthening law: Enforcing PCMA 2006 for stricter penalties and powers to override religious personal laws to avoid legal loopholes Eg; Karnataka (2017), the government amended laws to declare all child marriages void
- Education reforms: Higher studies for the girls should be motivated to reduce child marriage. Eg; KIRAN initiative to increase women in STEM higher education
- Enhancing security: Enhancing women safety and security should be enhanced to reduce early marriage. Eg; Prevention of Sexual Harassment at workplace act and safety infrastructure like CCTV.
- Rehabilitation: Providing immediate relief for the rehabilitation of child marriage. Eg; One Stop center to support child brides by offering shelter.
A substantive equality approach in reforming child marriage laws involves not only legal prohibition but also proactive measures to address the socio-economic factors that contribute to child marriage, thereby ensuring true equality and empowerment for young girls in India.