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Several khap leaders who gathered in Jind on Thursday said that the Centre should continue allowing parents to marry off their daughters at the age of 18 instead of the proposed 21. Interestingly, they favoured the age of 21 for girlsâ court marriages to avoid âelopement or love marriagesâ.
Dev Vert Dhanda, Dhanda khap president and organiser of the khap panchayat, said that representatives of nearly 100 khaps participated. âMost of the khap leaders were against the current format of the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday and seeks to raise the minimum legal age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21 years,â he said. After several objections from the Opposition, the Bill was sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. Dhanda said now they will present their point of view before the committee.
Todayâs panchayat was called to discuss the Bill and their apprehensions over it. Most of the khap leaders were of the opinion that the parents should be allowed to marry off their daughters at the age of 18 as per the current provisions. A khap leader said, âBecause of better diet in rural areas, 18 is considered the ideal age for the marriage of daughters as they turn legally adult at this age and enjoy all rights such as voting. We favour their age for court marriages at 21 so that nobody is able to misguide them for elopement. In some cases, we have seen that girls just wait for turning 18 so that they can seek police protection to move for court marriages. Girls are quite mature by 21 and they wonât make any foolish decision.â
A former DGP of Haryana said, âIn most cases of runaway couples, the age of the girl is found around 19-20 years. There are isolated cases in which the girl is just 18 and wants to marry going against their parents.â
Savita, an acitivist who is also the state secretary of All India Democratic Women Association, however, said that if the marriage registration age is fixed at 21, it might be a problem. âMan who marry going against her parents will get cases of kidnapping registered against him by the family of the girl. And in such scenarios, more cases of honour killings will take place. The draft proposal passed at the Jind khap panchayat has confirmed such apprehensions. The proposal of the central government is a direct attack on the right of choice to marry.â
She added that if the government is serious about the health and their education, it must strengthen the infrastructure for these facilities especially in the rural areas.
Data examined by The Indian Express had earlier revealed that 1,465 such couples were housed in protection homes in Haryana in 2014. The number was 1,221 in 2013, and just 366 in 2010, when these homes were first set up in each district on the HCâs order.
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