New Delhi. The Parliamentary Standing Committee in its first meeting on April 13 will examine the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill in the Bill on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports.
The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha during the winter session this year. The committee headed by BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe will hear the members of the Jaya Jaitley committee in its first meeting, which is on Wednesday. The panel now has to submit its report by June 24.
Earlier, MP Sushmita Dev is the only woman member of the parliamentary panel that will examine the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, which raises the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years. Union Minister Smriti Irani introduced this bill in the Lok Sabha during the winter session of Parliament. It was then sent to a 31-member committee for investigation.
According to the list of members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by senior BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, available on the Rajya Sabha website, Sushmita Dev is the only woman among 31 members.
Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also wrote a letter to Upper House Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu urging him to reconsider the committee and include more women members in the committee to ensure a fair probe. The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 proposes to amend the existing law.
The Equality in Minimum Marriageable Age for Men and Women Bill proposes to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21.
It is noteworthy that there has been a long debate about the age of marriage of girls in the country. Before independence, different minimum age was fixed in the country to stop the practice of child marriage. In 1927, educationist, judge, politician and social reformer Rai Saheb Harbilas Sarda introduced a bill for the prevention of child marriage. The bill proposes to raise the age of marriage to 18 for boys and 14 for girls. After that the law which was made in 1929 is known as Saradha Act. Then in 1978 this law was amended to reduce the minimum age of marriage to 21 for boys and 18 for girls. Now once again this law is in the process of change.
—AnyTV News
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