Shouldn’t the legal age for marriage be the same for girls and boys both?
The different legal standards for the age of men and women to marry has been a subject of debate. Before starting the discussion, I would like to share why these minimal ages for marriage has emerged. In ancient days child marriage emerged as a great problem for girls. To abolish this, in 1927 the government passed Consent bill, which invalids the marriage of a girl under the age of 12. and in 1929, the child marriage restraint act set 16 and 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for a girl and boy respectively. Later in 1978 the amendment t of the Sarda Act prescribes the marital age of men and women should be 21 and respectively.
Now, lets get into the discussion. These laws are made on the basis of the custom and religious practices that are rooted in the patriarchy. These religious practices implement the male domination so as the laws. They indirectly insist that male should be the head and female should respect him because of the age difference. At the age of 18, a girl just completes her schooling and start to think about her career. Is this an age of marriage?
Although the government did not insist that every woman should get married at the age of 18. Because of the poverty, many parents force their daughters to get married earlier. This drastically affects not only her life but also her future generation. At that age, she not even knows much about the society, then how can able to manage her family.
at the same time, the marital age of boys is 21. At this age, he is graduated and mostly get employed in a company. When he is married to a woman who is younger than him as well as not much educated. He will dominate her and mostly insult her. In future, if she is willing to go for a work, he won’t allow her. His ego won’t accept that.
At last, I end up by saying that the marital age should be same. Woman is equal to man in all sakes of the life. This should be the same even at the minimum age of marriage.