Minimum Age for Girls’ Marriage

On the 74th Independence Day of ­India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi specified that the government will consider the minimum age of marriage for girls on the recommendation of a committee set up by the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development. The announcement is confined to increasing the legal age of marriage for girls. Thereby, girls will be no longer subjected to malnutrition/undernourishment and will be married off at an appropriate age. However, discussion on the minimum age has been flourishing widely.

The current minimum age of marriage is 21 and 18 for men and women, respectively in India, approved by the amend­ment of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 in 1978. The same is recommended by the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.