WILL INDIA LEGALISE CHILD
MARRIAGE?
Sometime ago the RSS leader KS Sudarshan in typical RSS style exhorted the Hindus
to go forth and produce as many as they can, and in any case at least three per individual. His irrational argument was that the Hindu
population is on the decline and Hindus have to correct the demographical imbalance, as the Muslim population is growing fast.
The Hindus are now about 80 percent of the Indian population of 1.03 billion, and the Muslims are only about 13 percent. Women’s organizations in India condemned Sudarshan and asked are women reproductive machines. My own reasoning was in a democracy demographic comparisons between communal groups is invidious and the reproductive process is best left to the individuals, though the nation has already set the four-member family norm, that is, the spouses plus two children.
In any case, growth in population of two incomparable communal groups such as Muslims and Hindus is misleading. If the nation has to protect vanishing minorities such as Parsis (Zoroastrians) (There are only about 140,000 in India) it can make special efforts, and it is not for a Sudarshan to give reproductive blessings to the nation.
While the debate continues, here comes the disturbing news, as reported in The Times of India today, that the government is likely to reduce the legal age of
marriage for men from 21 to 18 and make it equal to men and women.
While, this should indirectly satisfy Sudarshan, it is disturbing news for India. India was notorious for child marriage till recently, and child marriages still take place in a number of places. The decision to reduce men’s marriageable to 18 will also strike at the roots of India’s family planning.
Sometime ago The India Today had asked its readers whether they think that at the age of 15, a girl is emotionally and physically ready for marriage. My answer was the following:
At age 15, girls are seldom emotionally and physically ready for marriage. When I say this I am aware of child marriage which still prevails in some areas. No girl can be expected to be ready for an informed marriage even at age 18. The age for marriage now being advocated elsewhere is 21 for girls and 24 for boys. This makes immense sense. Strange are the ways of the Indian judiciary where judges are passing such anti-social and adverse judgments.
My above observations hold good for men also. When the social trend is for late marriage, say between 24 and 28 in the case of women and 26 and 32 in the case of men, why should the government go against this trend. Marriage is not merely a nuptial affair. The crucial question is which is the most feasible age for marriage when the married couples would have completed their education (in India it is only by 22 anyone can normally get the first degree), and at what the men and women will be economically reliable as to support each other and their progenies. And that prompts me to ask whether the Congress, the ruling party at the Centre, is joining the BJP in the vote-bank politics, and will the Left parties – the only check against the Congress excesses - protest against the present irrational move?