The proposal to increase the legal marriageable age of girls from 18 years to 21 years in India has sparked extensive debate. This move, first suggested by the Task Force on Marriage Age for Women (2020) headed by Jaya Jaitly, and later mentioned by the Indian government in Parliament, aims to bring gender equality, improve women’s health, and ensure social and economic empowerment.
Let’s examine this issue from multiple perspectives:
✅ 1. Health and Nutrition Benefits
- Early marriage often leads to early pregnancy, which poses serious health risks.
- Girls between 18–20 years are often physically and emotionally unprepared for motherhood.
- According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), India still has high levels of anaemia, malnutrition, and maternal mortality among young women.
- Increasing the age to 21 years would:
- Allow girls to complete education
- Reduce instances of low birth weight babies
- Lower infant and maternal mortality rates
✳️ Conclusion: Health experts support this move for improving maternal and child health outcomes.
✅ 2. Promotes Higher Education and Career Opportunities
- At 18, many girls are either in school or just entering college.
- Marriage at this stage interrupts education and limits their economic independence.
- With the age increased to 21:
- Girls will have more time to complete graduation or professional training
- They can enter the workforce, become financially stable, and contribute to GDP
✳️ Conclusion: This move supports the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao and Skill India missions.
✅ 3. Gender Equality
- Currently, the marriageable age for boys is 21, but for girls it is 18, which reflects a gender bias.
- Raising girls’ marriage age to 21 will ensure parity with boys, reinforcing the idea that both genders should have equal legal rights.
✳️ Conclusion: This is a step toward fulfilling the Constitutional right to equality (Article 14).
✅ 4. Helps Reduce Child Marriage
- In practice, many girls are still married off before 18, especially in rural areas.
- If the legal age is raised to 21:
- It will give families an excuse to delay marriage in the face of social pressure
- Girls will have more time to say no to early marriage
- Strict implementation of this law along with awareness campaigns can reduce child marriage.
✳️ Conclusion: The law can act as a protective shield for vulnerable girls.
✅ 5. Supports Population Stabilisation Goals
- Women who marry later tend to have fewer and healthier children.
- Delaying marriage means delaying childbirth, which contributes to lower fertility rates.
- This aligns with India’s goal of achieving population stabilisation, especially in states with high Total Fertility Rate (TFR).
✳️ Conclusion: It complements the vision of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being).
⚠️ Counterarguments and Concerns
While the intent of the proposal is positive, there are also valid concerns:
🔹 A. Lack of Social Readiness
- In many communities, marriage is a social expectation, and laws alone cannot change deep-rooted customs.
- People may continue to marry girls before 21 in secret, or forge documents.
🔹 B. Fear of Misuse
- Some activists worry that families may misuse the law to harass inter-caste or inter-faith couples where girls are over 18 but under 21.
- It could be used to deny women agency, rather than empower them.
🔹 C. Focus on Enforcement vs Empowerment
- Critics argue that instead of only changing the law, the government should focus on:
- Making girls stay in school
- Providing employment opportunities
- Improving health infrastructure
⚠️ Conclusion: Law alone is not enough. It must be supported by education, awareness, and systemic reforms.
✅ Way Forward
To make this law successful, the following steps are necessary:
- Massive awareness campaigns in rural and urban areas
- Improvement in school and college infrastructure, especially for girls
- Skill development programmes for young women
- Stronger penalties for forced or underage marriages
- Monitoring at the village level by Panchayats, women’s groups, and ASHA workers
📝 Final Opinion
In my view, increasing the marriage age for girls to 21 years is a progressive and necessary reform, especially in a country like India where early marriage leads to serious health, economic, and social challenges. However, laws should be backed by education, awareness, and ground-level implementation. Empowering girls to make informed life decisions is more important than just fixing a legal age.
✅ Marriage should be a choice made freely by an empowered adult woman, not a compulsory event dictated by age or tradition.