Everyone knows that the current minimum age of marriage for women in India is 18. From now on it will be 21. The proposal to raise the minimum age of marriage from 18 to 21 was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
It is well known Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Independence Day speech last year, had made a mention of the proposal. “This government is constantly concerned about the health of daughters and sisters. To save the daughters from malnutrition, they must be married at the right age,” the Prime Minister had said.
Currently, the minimum age for marriage for boys is 21 years and for girls, it is 18 years. However, the central government is focusing on making changes to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act, and the Hindu Marriage Act.
The NITI Aayog Task Force led by Jaya Jaitly backed the proposal of minimum marriage age for girls. The Task Force said women should be at least 21 years old at the time of their first pregnancy and made recommendations on the proposal in December.
Top government expert VK Paul, senior officials of the Health Ministry, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Law Ministry were among the members of the task force, which was set up in June last year.