Pooja MalaniAIR 306 · CSE 2023 · 290 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a recent event
Jaya Jaitley Task force was set up to recommend over increasing minimum age of marriage for girls.
Body · points and prose
Need of increasing age
Discrepancy in minimum age of marriage of girls and boys defeat constitutional notion of equality (A-14)
Early-age of marriage perpetuate a vicious cycle along with high fertility rate.
Structural factors need to be addressed
Rational behind increasing age of marriage is to make women empowered. But empowerment depends on many factors as follows:-
(1) Women are confined to low paid informal jobs due to pink collarization and glass ceiling. [Karuna Ahmed]
This needs to be improved by skilling of women under PM Kaushal Yojana.
(2) Education of a girl child is neglected by parents due to onus of dowry. [Nivedita Menon]
This needs to be improved by strict implementation of Right to Education Act.
(3) Families still stress for male - breadwinner and glorify women's role as mother and wife - [Germaine Greer]
Need is to create symmetrical family [Young & Wilmott's] by raising awareness.
(4) Son-meta preference and patriarchal bargain are root causes of unwanted girl children and their exploitation. As explained by [Surinder S Jodhka]
This needs to be improved by strict penalties under PCPNDT Act, and behavioural change.
(5) Child marriages' prevalance at micro level (in villages) despite law at macro level (national level) cause hindrance to social change.
Close · a summary
This discrepancy between micro and macro was explained by [Yogendra Singh] in terms of resilience to change of a system.
Further, issues like domestic violence, marital rape need to be resolved in order to make institution of marriage more inclusive.
Hence, with cultural changes in accordance with progressive society, structural changes to yield positive results is also necessary as highlighted by [Ann Oakley].