Demographic Politics And Population Growth - 2

[G.Subramaniam]

More underbreeding by keralite hindus



Telegraphindia





Women panel seeks marriage age tweak

JOHN MARY



Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 16: The Kerala Women’s Commission has proposed raising the minimum marriage age for women from 18 to 25 years to check rising divorces.



Panel chairperson D. Sreedevi said in Kochi yesterday that those seeking to marry should reach a reasonable level of maturity and economic self-reliance to support a family. Otherwise, even the slightest setbacks to family life would lead to early break-ups.



Last year, the women’s commission received more than 10,000 applications for divorce while in the nine months of this year, the number was around 5,500.



Sreedevi said many relationships ended in marriages at a relatively young age, often when couples had not even completed their studies.



The decision to marry was emotional, not backed by any realistic appraisal of mutual compatibility and self-sufficiency, she added.



The current marriageable age is 18 for women and 21 for men. The commission wants this to be raised ideally to 25 for women and 28 for men but based on considerations of gender equality, it has suggested a common age of 25 years.



The views of the state unit will be placed before the National Women’s Commission at a meeting here on October 28.



Many of Kerala’s growing number of divorce applications are filed within months of the marriage.



The Catholic Church responded to this by insisting on compulsory pre-marital counselling besides catechism.



Couples who do not attend the counselling session face delays in marriage solemnisation but in rare cases, permission is granted on payment of a fine.



The commission’s proposal is, however, at odds with a recent Delhi High Court ruling that the marriage of a girl, aged less than 18 but above 15, cannot be annulled on grounds that she has not reached the mandatory minimum age. If the girl had the discretion to choose her partner, so be it, the bench had said.



The national commission, though, had disagreed with the court’s position and said that reducing the marriageable age would promote child marriage. It decided to challenge the verdict.