Shivani Thakur
Published on: April 14, 2022, at 18:40 IST
The Parliamentary Standing Committee tasked to take a look at the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill 2021, which proposes to raise the age of marriage for women to 21 from 18 years, held its second assembly.
According to resources, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports headed by BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe met with some of the participants of the Task Force appointed by way of the government in June 2020, which recommended elevating the age of marriage to enhance the nutritional fame of moms and newborns and decrease little one and maternal mortality quotes.
It turned into on the basis of this Task Force’s guidelines that the Ministry of Women and Child Development introduced the Bill in Parliament final December, which became mentioned the Standing Committee following requires greater scrutiny from the Opposition events.
It is learnt that the parliamentary panel received 95,000 emails out of which 90,000 opposed the Bill.
Congress MP T.N. Prathapan sent out a letter to Mr. Sahasrabudhe saying that “a hasty legislation may end up creating social confusion” and “it will harm many women in our society.”
Mr. Prathapan further said, “We need to travel all over the country, irrespective of urban and rural diversities, to meet women, girls — both adolescent and young, parents, activists, researchers on gender issues and other stakeholders. We need to have a first person consultation with them to understand their concerns.”
“Many of us have sent our submissions. Young people who are part of the Young Voices movement have also written to the committee directly. But the Standing Committee has not even acknowledged the messages we have sent, let alone call us for discussions,” said Kavita Ratna, Director Advocacy, The Concerned for Working Children.
The Standing Committee was assigned the mission of analysis the Bill in January 2022 and granted 3 months to accomplish that however it changed into granted a three-month extension until June 2022.
Also Read: Understanding the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill