A DELICATE PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 25

A DELICATE PROBLEM

INDIAN CHILD MARRIAGES DIFFICULT LEGISLATION The decision of the Government of India to support in the Legislative Assembly a Bill on the lines of the Age of Consent Committee, the report of which has recentlv been presented, marks a stage in a long struggle towards social reform (states a correspondent of the London “Times”). The education of the Indian public in matters of domestic and social custom, which are often considered to carry a religious sanction, is necessarily a slow process, and the Government cannot take action to interfere with accepted practices until a substantial backing or advanced opinion is present to support a change. . . , The rule of child marriage is still widely prevalent in India. The census of 1921 revealed a quarter of a million wives and widows of an age not exceeding live years and 2.000.000 of 10 years or less; 40 per cent, of the girls between 10 and 15 years werg in the married state at that time. It is unnecessary to dwell on- the evils which arise from this lamentable state of affairs; sufficient attention has been drawn to them in Europe and America by recent literature, and the effect on opinion in India has been very striking. In addition to strong resentment of description.: which were declared to be biased or exaggerated, there has developed a notable movement in favour of a reform which would at the same time remove the evils themselves and also free India from the possible charge of being too backward for self-government. _ \ There has never been a minimium age for the marriage contract in India, and only the most radical section of opinion even now demands that a child marriage should be void. The reformers are usually content to prescribe an age below which the physical marriage shall be illegal, and to impose further penalties in respect of extra-marital relations, fixing in the latter case a higher minimum age. They have been steadily opposed by the orthodox school of Hindus and an unprogressive group of Moslems, who plead in the one case the sanctity of a custom. asserted (with little evidence) to be ancient and traditional, and in the other the impossibility of interfering in domestic matters. The Government of India, while always cordial towards the suggested re-, form, has naturally doubted the wisdom of a law which it would be impossible to enforce if a large determined body of citizens were hostile and defiant. The New Proposals. Despite the zeal of unofficial legislators, therefore, the Government was unwilling to approve a Bill, passed by the Assembly in 1924, raising the age of Marital relations to 14, and extra-marital to 16 years, and brought forward in place of it a milder measure, setting the ages at 13 and 14 years respectively. This became law in 1925, displacing the provisions of the Indian Penal Code under which the minimum age was 12 years. Pressure was continued, and the influence of American opinion was powerful on the side of the social reformers. The very bitterness with which alleged insults to India by well-known writers were repudiated exercised an educative’ effect, and liberal feeling became yearly stronger. Indian women, too, joined vigorously in the fray, asserting their right to natural growth and to a normal education, which were precluded by marriage'and child-bearing in early girlhood, and the Women’s Educational Conference of 1928 emphatically endorsed their claim. In reply, consequently, to new uuojicial Bills in 1927, the Government announced, its intention of appointing a committee to consider the Bills and sound the opinion of the. public. The, report of Sir Moropant Joshi’s Committee is in accordance with the more moderate party’s programme, and, in view of the publicity now won for the question by the committee’s .work, and the evidence taken .official approval has been given, to its recommendations, which will form a basi. for legislation. It is proposed to penalise the consummation of marriage with a girl between the ages of 12 and 15. That is, the major parties to the offeuce; including consenting relatives and guardians, will be liable to imprisonment and fine. The marriage contract is itself a punishable offence if the girl is below 14, but the contract will not be void. In the case of extra-marital relations the minimum is 16. Physical marriage with a girl below the age of 12 remains punishable with heavy imprisonment, and a prosecution for this offence may not be withdrawn with the girl’s consent, as is permitted at the 12 to 15 years stage. Further proposals cover exemption for specjai reasons (conscientious objection of a parent to the postponement of a marriage not to be accepted as adequate), and the removal of girls, against whom an offence has been committed, to suitable custody and their maintenance at the husband’s cost. Modest and cautious as these recommendations may appear to European observers, they will be fiercely resisted. The custom of child-marriage has not only resolute supporters in the higher castes, from whom also the reformers are largely i drawn, but the tendency to social imitation has also in the last generation led many of the lower castes to adopt practices of this nature for which they can plead no traditional sanction. Obstruction from the conservative elements and their would-be imitators will, however, be overborne in the end if the measure is explained to the electorate by careful propaganda and themisrepresentations ' of opponents are shown in their true light. Village Opinion. Hesitation for a different reason is better justified. The argument of the cautious party has always been that the law, if in advance of public opinion, cannot in practice be enforced, and there is still cause for anxiety on this account. Nine-tenths of the population of India live in villages, to which non-official legislators seldom resort. There is a tendency in legislative bodies to think, of the towns only, and to forget the realities of village life. Village opinion will not for some time to come regard child-marriage with such disfavour as to take steps against an offending person on other grounds than personal. The only effective measure, for which the Government perhaps considers that the public is not ready, would be to make marriages below a certain age actually void. . The law of inheritance being then concerned, no landowner will venture to risk the succession of his sons. Another efficacious policy would be to declare void, or at least voidable, all marriages which are not recorded in the registers now to be maintained in accordance with the plan of the committee. If lesser penalties than voidance of the marriage are imposed, the new law is unlikely to achieve its end and will remain as dead as its predecessor.