GUWAHATI: “The inconsistencies in different legal provisions, having a bearing on children and their marriage, need to be identified and synergized to end child marriage in India,” said Jyotika Kalra, Member, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Kalra was presiding over the first day of the two-day ‘National Conference on Child Marriage’ organised by the NHRC in collaboration with the South Asia Initiative to end violence against Children (SAIEVAC) at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on Wednesday, according to an NHRC communique.
In her presidential address, Kalra said that a law needed be put in place to make the age of marriage for both the boys and girls uniform in tune with the expressions to this effect at highest levels, including from the Supreme Court as well as the Law Commission of India. “It should not be 21 years for the boys and 18 years for the marriage of girls as there is no scientific data to support this difference in their ages,” she said.
The NHRC Member also said that the registration of marriages should be made compulsory. The Supreme Court as well as the Law Commission has already pointed out this, but it is not clear whether all the states have put in place the necessary rules to this effect. She pointed out that in India, the child marriage also has to do with the socio-economic factors and the lack of literacy, particularly, among the lower strata of society, wherein some celebrate the birth of a heifer more than that of a bull calf unlike the birth of a female and a male child.
Therefore, besides building awareness on the ills of child marriage, the priority should be given to bring uniformity in the legal provisions to end this menace by amending the inherent contradictions and inconsistencies in the provisions of various Acts including the Prohibition on Child Marriage Act, Hindu Marriage Act, The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, The Indian Penal Code provisions to end the inconsistencies and also build awareness.
For instance, Kalra said that as per Indian Penal Code, 12-year-old child bride can suffer “assault” on her by her 29 year old husband, in order to establish his marital rights. If wife is below 15, then the husband can be charged for the offence of rape. However, here also the law makes a distinction between a wife below 12 and a wife over 12. Under Section 376 when the wife is below 12, the penalty is imprisonment which shall not be less than seven years but which may be for life or for a term which may extend to 10 years and fine. If, however, the wife is above 12 but below 15, the punishment is milder i.e imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years or fine or both.
