New Delhi, December 3
Seeking to make child marriage a serious offence and declaration of it automatically null and void, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended amendment in the definition of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to cover any sexual relationship with a married woman below the age of 18 years as an offence within its meaning instead of 15 years.
Under the provision of the IPC, a girl aged 15 is considered to be mature enough to give her consent for a sexual relationship, but contrary to this, the 1929 Child Marriage Restraint Act, as amended in 1978, declares the marriage of a girl below the age of 18 as illegal, the committee said.
It said as per the existing law, the marriageable age for a woman and a man had been clearly defined at 18 and 21 years, respectively, and the provision of Section 375 of the IPC, therefore, ran contrary to the Prevention of Child Marriage Bill, 2004, which proposed to make child marriage a serious offence and declaration of it null and void.
“The definitions of the IPC and the present Bill cause confusion, ambiguity and doubt. While the IPC holds a girl of 16 years and a married girl of 15 years quite mature to give her consent to sexual relationship, the proposed legislation considers her yet a child at this stage. Moreover, there will be no parity between two legislations in this respect,” said the committee in its report placed before the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill was referred to the committee to have a deeper study of the issue with wide public consultation as the matter was quite sensitive.
The committee was of the view that any marital sexual relationship with a woman below the 18 years of age should be brought within the definition of rape to prevent child marriage, considering the fact that in India, the percentage of married women under the age of 18 years stood at 53.3, which was alarmingly high because the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, amended from time to time, had miserably failed to check the menace.
The existing law declared child marriage as illegal, yet such a marriage was not void and, as a result, child marriage remained valid in the eyes of the law.
This explained why child marriages still remained unabated, particularly in backward states like Madhya Pradesh (52.6 per cent), followed by Bihar (51), Uttar Pradesh (49.7), Andhra Pradesh (48.9) and Rajasthan (47.8).
The percentage was quite high in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and some other states, while it was not better in educated states like Kerala and Himachal Pradesh.
In view of the alarming situation, the committee said, “The government should consider to amend or delete the provision of Section 375 of the IPC to bring it in conformity with the legislation and the International Convention of Rights of Child.”
It further impressed upon the government to examine the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, to bring its provisions in parity with the proposed anti-child marriage law in the context of solemnisation of marriage.
Under the Hindu Marriage Act, if a child marriage is to be declared null and void, the couple have to wait to attain the age of 18 and 21, respectively.
The Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December, 2004, had proposed to make child marriage void at the option of the contracting party and to require the minor husband or his parents to pay maintenance to the minor wife.
