The right age to marry? How lowering the legal marrying age could impact women

The Coach weighs the pros and cons of lowering the legal marrying age in the country and how it can impact women
Representative image
Representative image

Our honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi recently announced that the government shall soon decide the RIGHT AGE for girls/women to get married. This got me thinking on a slew of issues that might actually get solved, if the government DOES go ahead with this plan. One such issue is that of LOVE JIHAD, about which I had written about in detail earlier and which created quite a stir due to the Tanishq ad recently. 

Love Jihad or Jihadist Love?
The one thing that I’d like to clarify right here and not give room for any misunderstanding is that I’M NOT AGAINST MUSLIMS and have some amazing god brothers who belong to the community whom I LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY, but I am definitely against JIHADISTS, a handful of whom are responsible for bringing shame to the entire community. 
This practice of LOVE JIHAD makes me so depressed sometimes as it makes me realise how LOW we have STOOPED! There have been many cases wherein the parents have NO CLUE whatsoever and suddenly get a court notice demanding the division of property to their daughter after which the girl confesses to have gotten married. Imagine the devastation and horror that these parents might have experienced? This is definitely one issue that might get addressed.

Curbing Child Marriage
Though, we, as a nation have evolved, there are quite a few places where child marriage is practiced even to this day. Recently, CRY released a report that claimed that India has a staggering 17. 26 married children and adolescents! That’s devastating! It’s not just about bringing the practice of child marriage to a complete halt, there are a slew of other issues that can be addressed, which are a chain reaction of this practice.  

Divorce Rates, Abuse, Violence? 
From my clinical experience, in more than half of the marriage counselling sessions that I’ve taken up, women constantly complain that they were TOO YOUNG to think ahead and were married off by their parents. Whether it’s the actual reason for their current issues in the relationship or not, it’s definitely a valid point. Though girls are considered much more mature than boys doesn’t mean that they can fathom all the aspects of a marriage. Deciding the right age to marry and ensuring that strict measures are in place to those who break this rule will surely go a long way in enriching the lives of the women of our country.

What’s LEFT... 
All’s well that ends well, but if it isn’t all well, then it’s ALL IN THE WELL (pun intended). ONE MAJOR downside that I do foresee, if the government doesn’t do its homework properly, is that this rule will trample upon our right to freedom. Though this move will also ensure that girls aren’t married off young, how effectively it shall achieve it is what remains to be seen and I sincerely hope that the government will cover all the bases and protect the STREE of our country.

With Regards,
Adarsh Benakappa Basavaraj
The Coach

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