New Delhi: Nearly 95 per cent of the email representations received by a parliamentary panel examining a bill to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 have opposed it, sources in the committee said on Wednesday, fearing it was part of a conspiracy. It is possible To defeat the historic government initiative.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, headed by BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, has received around 95,000 email representations on the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2021.
Sources told PTI that 90,000 of these emails that opposed the bill had similar content and appeared to have been generated by the same source.
Panel sources said that these emails appear to be part of a conspiracy to defeat the purpose of this landmark law.
The Standing Committee on Monday met some members of the task force headed by Jaya Jaitley, appointed by the government in June 2020, which recommended raising the age of marriage for girls.
Those who attended the meeting included Jaitley, the then Samata Party leader, NITI Aayog member VK Paul and Dr Deepti Shah. Members of the task force told the panel that along with raising the age of marriage for women, several other reforms such as better access to education and improving women’s safety should be undertaken.
Meanwhile, Congress MP TN Pratapan, who is a member of the parliamentary committee, has suggested that the panel should invite all religious bodies that are against the bill.
She further said that the panel should travel across the country to interact with women and NGOs regarding the bill and also hold discussions with women MPs from both the houses of Parliament, as the committee has only two women members. Huh.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani had introduced the bill on December 21 last year amid protests by the opposition. He had demanded that the bill be sent to a parliamentary standing committee for further examination and said the government was open to further discussion on it.
The committee that examined the bill was given a further extension of three months in March this year.
The proposed law will be applicable to all communities in the country and once implemented will replace existing marriage and personal laws.
Accordingly, the government will bring amendments to seven personal laws – the Indian Christian Marriage Act; Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act; Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act; Special Marriage Act; Hindu Marriage Act; and the Foreign Marriage Act.