Union Cabinet approves the proposal: raise legal marriage age of women to 21 years

Today, the Union Cabinet passed a proposal to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years — the same as men. More than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mentioned the plan during his Independence Day speech of 2020, in which he said, "This government is constantly concerned about the health of daughters and sisters. To save the daughters from malnutrition, it is necessary that they're married at the right age".At present, the minimum age of marriage for men is 21 and for women is 18.Now, the government will bring amendments to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act and Hindu Marriage Act to give the new proposal a shape.

A NITI Aayog task force headed by Jaya Jaitly had backed the proposal, which was constituted to examine "matters pertaining to the age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate), improvement of nutritional levels and related issues".