Marriage Age bill: Women MPs seek more woman representation in parliamentary panel scrutiny

Mumbai: Women MPs on Monday sought greater participation in the scrutiny of a bill that seeks to increase the legal age of marriage for females from 18 to 21 years, expressing dismay over their inadequate representation in the parliamentary panel examining the proposed law.

Trinamool Congress MP Sushmita Dev, who is the only woman member of a parliamentary standing committee has written to its chairperson Vinay Sahasrabuddhe requesting him to invoke a rule that will allow all the women MPs to testify before the panel.

The parliamentary standing committee on education, women, children, youth and sports is currently in the process of examining the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which proposes to increase the legal age of marriage for women from 18 years to 21 years.

"These Standing Committees were reconstituted a few months ago, and presently, I am the sole woman member in a committee of 31 members.

"In reference to this, and under Rules 84(3) and 275 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), I wish to propose that any woman member of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha be empowered to testify either in writing or in person before the Committee on this issue," she said in the letter.

She pointed out that Rajya Sabha has 29 women members, and the Lok Sabha has 81 women members.

"I am sure all my female colleagues will have much to contribute to the discussion on this issue.

"I request you to use the powers of your office to open the meetings of the Committee on this issue to testimonials from any of the Honourable women members, and request you to allot time accordingly," she said

Earlier on Monday, in a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi had sought more representation of women in the parliamentary panel.

"This is disheartening to note that a bill so pertinent to women and the Indian society will be deliberated upon in a committee where the representation is highly skewed," Chaturvedi said in the letter.

DMK leader and Lok Sabha member Kanimozhi also expressed her displeasure over the inadequate representation of women in the panel.

"There are a total of 110 female MPs but the govt. chooses to assign a bill that affects every young woman in the country to a panel that has 30 men and only 1 woman. Men will continue to decide the rights of women. And women will be made mute spectators," she wrote on Twitter.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, which will have wider influence over society especially females, was introduced in the Lok Sabha during the winter session and referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports.

"The much-lauded change in the legal age of marriage for women glides through the rocks of underrepresentation, inadequate stakeholder consultation and ignoring expert opinion", Rajya Sabha member from NCP Fauzia Khan said

"We can keep making committees to ensure granularity in focus but if the democratic values are compromised, it's never really welfare", Khan said

The bill, piloted by the Women and Child Development Ministry, seeks to increase the legal age of marriage from 18 to 21

The bill will apply to all the communities and once enacted, supersede the existing marriage and personal laws.

The introduction of the bill in Parliament was opposed by some members, who had contended that the move infringed upon several personal laws in violation of the fundamental rights and demanded that it be referred to a parliamentary panel for greater scrutiny.

The bill seeks to amend seven personal laws -- the Indian Christian Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, the Special Marriage Act, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, the Hindu Marriage Act and the Foreign Marriage Act