Sushmita Dev, the only women on panel to review Bill to enhance legal age of marriage

By: WE Staff | Monday, 3 January 2022

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports, tasked with reviewing and reporting on the Bill to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years, has only one female member.

The committee's composition, as published on the Rajya Sabha's website, displays Sushmita Dev of the TMC as the lone woman member.

Dev believes that more women should have been included in the committee tasked with reviewing the Bill, which has far-reaching implications for women's rights and choices.

During the winter session of Parliament, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani introduced The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, in the Lok Sabha, urging Speaker Om Birla to refer the bill to the standing committee for scrutiny after the Opposition demanded that all stakeholders be involved in the issue. The Bill aims to raise the age of marriage for girls in India to the same level as that of boys, which is 21 years old, and has sparked passionate debate across the political spectrum. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe of the BJP chairs the parliamentary committee that will study the Bill. It comprises 31 members, with Sushmita Dev being the only woman on the panel.

This panel is one of the Rajya Sabha's eight parliamentary standing committees, as opposed to the Lok Sabha's 16 department-related committees. Since the bill's introduction in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed it as a huge step toward gender justice, parity, and women's equality and empowerment in various public rallies.

The Bll aims to alter the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, based on the suggestions of a task force established by the government under former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly.

While submitting the report to the government in December 2020, Jaitly had stated, “The discussion on gender parity cannot be selective. When we speak of gender equality in every field, we cannot selectively leave out the field of marriage-related choices for girls and boys. If we retain the current legal age of marriage for women at 18 years and for boys at 21 years, we acknowledge that it is acceptable for boys to get more time to seek education and prepare for life while girls can cut down on those same choices and get married early.”