Bill proposing marriage age change for women won't make it to Monsoon Session

A Bill to raise the legal age of marriage of women from 18 to 21 will not come up in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament with a Parliamentary Standing Committee examining the proposed legislation yet to complete its deliberations and getting its sixth extension for three months.

Now, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports will have time till October 24 for examination and presentation of report on 'The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021'.

On 21 December, 2021, the government informed the Lok Sabha that it intended to send the Bill to the Standing Committee, which was approved by the House.

The Standing Committee in January last year had sought views from public and stakeholders, amid a section of activists and experts opposing the Bill saying it was detrimental to the interests of women while the government insisted that it will check infant mortality rate (IMR) and mother's mortality rate (MMR).

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Around 90,000 of the 95,000 online responses received by the committee opposed the Bill, amid suspicion that it could be a concerted effort to derail the government's initiative, sources had earlier claimed.

Before the reconstitution of the panel last September, there was only one woman MP in the panel -- Trinamool Congress' Sushmita Deb. Now it has three more MPs -- Kanimozhi NVN Somu (DMK), Sangeeta Yadav (BJP) and Pratibha Singh (Congress).

One of the panel members TN Prathapan (Congress) had earlier demanded that all women MPs in Parliament should be consulted by the panel besides other experts and activists working in the field of women rights.