2 hours ago
1
The judgement successful Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action v. Union of India, delivered by the Supreme Court earlier this month, has moved the absorption successful cases of kid matrimony from penalising transgression actions to addressing the “harm meted retired to the victim”.
The judgement underlines that broad efforts to code kid matrimony should spell beyond prevention and prosecution, and indispensable see important measures to assistance those already successful kid marriages reclaim their agency.
According to National Family Health Survey data, the percent of women aged 20-24 who were joined earlier 18 declined from 47.4% successful 2005 to 26.8% successful 2016, and further to 23.3% successful 2021. Nonetheless, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of eliminating kid matrimony wholly by 2030 appears ambitious.
The organization effect has focused mostly connected prevention and, of late, prosecution — specified arsenic the wide arrests of men successful Assam whose wives were minors erstwhile they married.
What is the instrumentality connected kid marriage?
Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA), a “child marriage” is 1 successful which either the hubby is nether 21 years of age, oregon the woman is nether 18. Such a matrimony is “voidable”, that is, the enactment that was a kid astatine the clip of the matrimony has the enactment to annul it — until specified annulment occurs, the matrimony is valid and subsists.
In Karnataka and Haryana, arsenic state-specific amendments person made each kid marriages void from the beginning.
Is annulment the aforesaid arsenic divorce?
Annulment is antithetic from divorcement — erstwhile a matrimony is annulled, it is arsenic though it had ne'er occurred, and the individuals progressive are considered unmarried.
In contrast, divorcement acknowledges that a matrimony existed for a play earlier being dissolved, leaving the parties with the ineligible presumption of divorcees.
Divorce requires proving circumstantial grounds — specified arsenic cruelty oregon adultery — depending connected the idiosyncratic instrumentality applicable. For annulment nether the PCMA, the idiosyncratic needs to lone found that a kid matrimony took place, and that they were wrong the ineligible property bounds to use for nullification.
PCMA besides provides for different civilian remedies specified arsenic maintenance, residence orders, and instrumentality of gifts exchanged astatine the wedding.
Why are determination concerns astir utilizing transgression enactment to tackle kid marriage?
Although the kid matrimony itself subsists unless it is annulled, assorted activities related to kid matrimony are criminalised.
Under the PCMA, performing oregon promotion of kid marriage, and a antheral big marrying a insignificant are transgression offences. Sexual enactment with a minor, including wrong a kid marriage, is an offence nether the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS).
Applied together, the transgression provisions of PCMA, BNS, and POCSO make the anticipation of transgression enactment against the girl’s full household — her parents, husband, and in-laws — which could permission her successful a susceptible presumption without mentation oregon enactment to past independently. It whitethorn besides make barriers successful accessing intersexual and reproductive healthcare, arsenic seeking specified services could inadvertently trigger transgression enactment against her family.
A survey of 73 judgments from 2008 to 2017 by the Delhi-based ineligible assets radical Partners for Law successful Development recovered that the transgression provisions of PCMA were utilized doubly arsenic often successful cases of self-initiated marriages than arranged marriages.
A 2024 survey by Bengaluru-based Enfold Proactive Health Trust and Civic Data Lab based connected 174 PCMA judgments from Assam, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, showed 49.4% of these marriages were self-initiated.
These trends suggest that transgression enactment tin place complexities progressive successful the issue, and origin unintended harm to adolescents seeking autonomy.
In galore cases, underage individuals take to wed to flight hard situations specified arsenic neglect, abuse, oregon the imaginable of a forced marriage. These kid marriages impact young radical asserting their bureau successful a patriarchal society, utilizing elopement arsenic a mode to legitimise their relationships.
Why is the SC judgement significant?
Exiting a kid matrimony tin pull societal and economical sanctions. The SC judgement directs the instauration of a peculiar strategy for accomplishment development, vocational training, and economical stableness for women who permission kid marriages, rehabilitation services, monitoring and follow-up enactment to guarantee reintegration, and a telephone to see compensation for these women nether unfortunate compensation schemes.
Some women whitethorn not privation to exit the marriage, but whitethorn request assistance to assertion bureau wrong the marriage. They necessitate tools to fortify their quality to advocator for themselves successful decisions involving reproductive rights, employment, and education. The SC judgment’s accent connected enactment acquisition for adolescents tin empower those successful specified marriages with the skills and accusation to efficaciously navigate their relationships.
When implemented with an knowing of the evolving quality of kid matrimony — particularly trends involving young radical eloping — these measures connection a much holistic and agency-affirming attack to eliminating kid matrimony than an over-reliance connected transgression prosecution.
Anindita Pattanayak is simply a ineligible researcher astatine Enfold Proactive Health Trust
.png "indianexpress.")
.png "khaleejtimes")
.png "arabnews")
.png "gulfnews"){kind=logo}
English (US) · 
Hindi (IN) ·