New Delhi: The Central Government's latest move to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years has been opposed by the Muslim League, CPM and CPI. Their opposition comes at a time when the Central Government is planning to move a Bill amending the Child Marriage Restraint Act in Parliament next Monday.
The Muslim League is trying to garner the support of other political parties in opposing the Government's move. The Congress has not officially given a response till now. But the Congress sources said that the party MPs would hold a meeting on Monday to formulate the party's stand ahead of the tabling of the Bill in Parliament.
While CPM leaders maintained that raising the age was not the solution to prevent child marriages, the IUML and other Muslim outfits fear that the move was aimed at implementing the Uniform Civil Code.
IUML MPs from Kerala gave adjournment motion notices in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha over the issue. But the permission to move the motion was not yet granted. ET Mohammed Basheer, Abdussamad Samadani and K Navas Kani gave the notice in the Lok Sabha, while PV Abdul Wahab gave the notice in the Rajya Sabha.
The IUML alleged that it was an attempt to encroach on Muslim personal law. It demanded that the government desist from such moves aimed at encroaching the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
CPM politburo member Brinda Karat and CPI women's leader Annie Raja, while opposing the move to raise the legal age of marriage of women, said that the government would have reduced the legal age of marriage for men had they wanted to implement gender equality. What the government should do is to ensure proper education facilities and nutritious food for women instead of hiking the legal age of marriage.
The CPM's women's wing, All-India Democratic Women's Association, said that such a move was initiated by the Central Government with a communal agenda. The Bill is not meant to help women, but to torment them, it added.
