Khandelwal was born in Lucknow, a city in the same state but a world far from the shravasti district. Growing up, she and her friends realized that child marriages were taking place in India, but not with someone they knew. But 120 miles away, along Nepal`s impoverished border, eight-year-old girls are married by their families. The Non-Muslim Act of 1929 was amended twice after India`s independence in 1947. In 1949, the minimum age for girls was raised to 15 years, and in 1978 the minimum age for both sexes was raised: to 18 years for women and to 21 years for men. [7] [12] The applicability and lawfulness of child marriage among Muslims under the 1937 Act, under the Indian Constitution passed in 1950, remains a controversial issue, with a number of Supreme Court cases and decisions. [6] In our country, the essential condition for the validity of any marriage is the celebration of religious ceremonies prescribed by the religion to which the parties belong. Thus, saptpadi is the necessary condition for Hindus and offers acceptance for Muslims, who, once concluded, make a marriage valid in the eyes of the law, provided that the parties are in their good spirit and do not fall into the forbidden degrees of relationship with each other. Customs have a preponderant effect on the law, otherwise Hindu law prescribes the minimum age for girls and boys as 18 and 21 respectively, while Muslim law prescribes the minimum age as the one attains puberty. This gives the parties to the marriage the status of husband and wife, and marriages are null and void but simply questionable. Thus, such marriages would be fully valid until one of the parties decides to annul them.
Minor wives have the option of refusing under section 13 (2) (iv) of the Hindu Marriage Act and section 2 (vii) of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, in which they may exercise the possibility of refusing marriage after reaching the age of 15 and before reaching the age of 18. Under section 3(3) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, a boy and girl have the right to withdraw from marriage up to two years after reaching the age of majority, i.e. up to the age of 20 for a girl and 23 for the boy. The message from all these callers: desperate parents, left dead in the middle of a pandemic, are rushing to marry their underage daughters. (In India, it is illegal for a girl under the age of 18 to marry. The legal age to marry is 21.) Since this marriage is a decision that has a huge impact on a person`s life, this change in the law simply did not have the power to ensure that children are able to make a real choice. It is therefore important that new laws do not follow this legislative model; at the very least, the Child Marriage Prohibition Act (2006) should be amended to nullify child marriage from the outset. Raising the legal age of marriage for women would be a step towards gender equality, with a particular focus on demographic health and well-being. The legal age of marriage has been reviewed by the current government for a variety of reasons, including gender neutrality and the health and well-being of the underage bride. Married girls are more likely to experience domestic violence in their marriage than older women.
A study conducted in India by the International Center for Research on Women showed that girls married before the age of 18 are twice as likely to be beaten, beaten or threatened by their husbands[43] and three times more likely to experience sexual violence. [47] Child brides often experience symptoms of sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress. [43] He is a child protection officer in the city of Solapur in south-central India. After India was put into lockdown by the coronavirus at the end of March, his phone rings unexpectedly. It hears from girls under the age of 18, village elders, social activists and childminders. And the numbers are already high: about 1.5 million underage girls in India and 12 million underage girls worldwide marry each year, according to the United Nations, which defines child marriage as “both formal marriages and informal unions in which a girl or boy lives with a partner as if they were married before the age of 18.” This figure is based on household surveys. In February this year, the Supreme Court of Punjab and Haryana granted protection to a Muslim couple (a 17-year-old girl married to a 36-year-old man) and concluded that it was a legal marriage under personal law. HC reviewed the provisions of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act, but noted that Muslim law will prevail because the special law does not take precedence over personal laws. Javier Aguilar, UNICEF`s child protection officer, explained that India has the highest number of child marriages in South Asia due to its size and population.
[22] However, it must be said that child marriage is illegal but null. As a general rule, they are considered questionable at the choice of the minor party. This flexibility is maintained to ensure that the rights of the minor, especially the girl, are not taken away later in marriage in matrimonial homes. .