- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE legislative assembly of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan on Friday (17) witnessed an uproar after the state government passed a legislation making registration of child marriages mandatory.
The Rajasthan Compulsory Registration of Marriages (Amendment) Bill, 2021, requires the child marriages to be registered within a period of 30 days.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in opposition in the state ruled by the Indian National Congress, protested the bill and accused the government of promoting child marriage. The party’s members of the assembly sought a division of votes but when the government refused, they staged a walkout.
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Leader of the opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said by seeking to register child marriages, the government was giving them legal recognition. Rajendra Rathod, another BJP leader, said child marriages are illegal under the Child Marriage Restraint Act, also called the Sharda Act.
Even some members who support the Congress government in the assembly condemned the bill. Sanyam Lodha, an independent legislator who supports the government, called it a “black law” for Rajasthan where still a large number of child marriages happen.
The government defended the bill saying it has no provision that validates child marriages. The state’s parliamentary affairs minister, Shanti Dhariwal, said the proposed legislation allows registration of marriages but doesn’t seek to validate child marriages. He said child marriages would continue to remain illegal under Rajasthan’s Child Marriage Act 2006.
According to Dhariwal, the purpose of the bill is to ensure that when such marriages are registered, they would come under the notice of the collector of the particular district and he would then be able to take necessary action against the families.
In India, the minimum age of marriage for women is 18 while for men, it is 21.
