Why must Indians deal with multiple adulthoods?

Over the last eight years, as many as 1500 obsolete and irrelevant laws, many from the British era, have reportedly been scrapped. In some countries, there is a provision for an expiration date for a law, meaning that on that date, the law is reviewed. But such a system is not prevalent in India.

Similarly, a law for fixing a uniform age for declaring an individual to be an adult is not yet formulated, and there is utter confusion about when one is actually an adult in India. A person attains adulthood multiple times. Strange, but true.

For example, an individual is considered an adult at the age of 12 whenever he or she has to purchase an airline ticket, as those below the age of 12 are treated as minors. Why? Because the person concerned occupies an independent seat in an aircraft, whereas it is to be noted that a similar independent seat is occupied by even children below 12 years of age by just paying half the fare. Either the airfare in such cases should be full or a child under 12 years of age must share the seat with one of her parents. So, for the purpose of expending money for an airline ticket, a person over the age of 12 is considered an adult.

Now, the Censor Board thinks differently. In its certification of Indian movies, the board classifies movies as ‘A,’ ‘U,’ or ‘U/A” for the purpose of determining eligibility to view the film. Here, the age for being classified as an adult changes to 18 years. In the present society, it is common knowledge that teenagers are equally knowledgeable, if not more so, on many subjects considered “adult.” In fact, in the present secondary school curriculum, there are specific chapters
that cover topics dealing with adulthood.

There is more. Our criminal law states that if a child below the age of 16 commits a crime, he or she is covered or punished under the Juvenile Act and put in correctional homes or juvenile homes and not treated as an adult, even if the person concerned has committed some grievous crime. The age of 18 is considered the one at which a person gains control over their own actions and affairs and becomes responsible for the decisions they make.

This stands in little contrast to the age fixed for juveniles, whereby leniency is given even for grievous crimes committed by those under 16. Only the person with the age of legal majority, that is, 18 years and above, is treated as an adult when charged with crimes, and those who have not completed the age of 16 years in the case of a male, even after having committed an adult crime, are still not punished at the same level as a culprit who is 18. Furthermore, for the purpose of being covered under the juvenile category, the age for boys is 16, whereas it is 18 for girls.

What happens if, for example, a person under 16 commits some grievous crime while on board a flight? Will he be covered under juvenile jurisdiction or treated as an adult since he has purchased the air ticket as an adult? It is a point to ponder as to whether the same person should be taken as a juvenile for one purpose and as an adult for another. The legal age for marriage is 21 for males and 18 for females, again changing the definition of “adult.” Last but not least, for the purposes of banking transactions, anyone over the age of 18 is
considered an adult.

The issue of treating a person to be considered an adult and fixing a proper age regardless of whether it is for the purchase of an air ticket, for giving consent for marriage, for punishment to be meted out for committing a crime, or even for booking a movie ticket, or for transacting in banks, etc., needs to be uniformly addressed, and thus a change to the erstwhile system of age classification for consideration as an adult or a child requires amendment. A person should either be considered as falling in the category of minors (children) or as a major (adult).

There may hardly be any requirement for deviation in the fixation of an age limit for a particular person to be treated as an adult or as a child and to carry different age limits for different activities and accordingly modify as per varying situations. It would be useful if consideration were given to fixing a uniform age for treating any person as an adult. After all, a person can and should be treated as an adult only once for whatever purpose and not multiple times, ranging from the age of 12 years to 21 years.

(The writer is a freelance journalist.)