Title: The prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021: an analytical perspective

Authors: Priyanka Ghai; Sandhya Prabhakaran; Lakshay Singh

Addresses: Amity Law School Noida, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India ' Amity Law School Noida, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India ' Amity Law School Noida, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract: Child marriage is a marriage between two individuals who are younger than the minimum legal age, albeit different laws have varying standards of what constitutes a child. Due to a variety of factors, child marriage has been widespread in India. In light of poverty, a want to avoid having a female child, or other factors including considering a girl child as a burden, most families marry off the girl child in the assumption of providing them with a secure life, yet they are commonly mistreated, and tortured instead. The existing laws forbid child marriage if the woman is under 18 and the man is under 21. But irrespective of religion, the Bill proposes to elevate the legal age of marriage for women to 21 years. The paper explores the challenges and opportunities in the development of abolishing the menace of child marriage from society, in accordance with the amendment.

Keywords: child marriage; right to equality; right to life; health and education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2024.139655

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2024 Vol.11 No.3, pp.292 - 304

Received: 29 Oct 2022
Accepted: 28 Feb 2023
Published online: 05 Jul 2024 *

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