Increasing marriage age for girls may only strengthen patriarchy

BY INVITATION

Increasing marriage age for girls may only strengthen patriarchy

FLAVIA AGNES

19.12.2021

Several women’s organisations across the country have opposed the government’s move to increase the age of marriage of girls from 18 to 21 years, which has been ironically touted as a measure of women’s empowerment.

On August 15, 2020, during his Independence Day Speech, the Prime Minister had announced the government’s intention to raise marriage age, and that a committee had been formed and a task force to examine the situation had already been notified by the Centre. “The government is constantly concerned about the health of daughters and sisters” and “to save the daughters from malnutrition, it is necessary that they are married at the right age,” the PM had added. According to the government, this move will empower girls and young women, increase their access to education and reduce both infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality ratio (MMR).

Several grassroot women’s organisations in Gujarat had opposed this move, submitting a memorandum to the state government in September 2020. “When we think of a legal framework that builds towards women’s empowerment, marriage or age of marriage should not be its primary focus. This narrows the scope of change dramatically — making it about the act of marriage and not the disabling circumstances that early marriage is a symptom of,” stated the memorandum.

Similarly, ‘Young Voices: National Working Group’ formed in response to the task force, comprising 96 civil society organisations, in its report published on July 25, 2020, had also opposed this move. The report brought out after surveying about 2,500 adolescents across 15 states stated, “…Increasing the age of marriage will either harm or have no impact by itself unless the root causes of women’s disempowerment are addressed.”

As civil society organisations have pointed out, we cannot overlook the fact that this law will unfold within a society that is deeply entrenched in patriarchy and that it will be used primarily by parents to control the autonomy of young girls and to penalise them for their sexual choices, with the active collusion of state functionaries such as the police and welfare officers.

There is also a concern that if a girl married at 18 or 19 faces matrimonial problems, and approaches the court for redress, her husband may plead that the marriage is not valid, and she is devoid of rights. This is a cause of grave concern. To remedy this, it is necessary to have a clear direction within the statute that a woman in an under-age marriage will not lose her matrimonial rights or rights of inheritance, in the event she becomes a widow.

The age of marriage was increased from 16 to 18 in 1978 in order to provide better opportunities for women’s education and improve their health. However, the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5 2019–’21) has brought out the dismal fact that 40 years later, we still have an alarming rate of child marriages at 23%. This points to the failure on the part of the government to reach its target of providing opportunities for girls in backward and poverty-stricken areas or better access to healthcare. It has also not changed conservative and anti-women attitudes towards women. So, what is the basis on which the government claims that increasing the age of marriage from 18 to 21 will empower women? On the contrary, it may, in fact, increase the number of under-age marriages exponentially and expose many more young adults to criminal charges.

The task force itself had asked the government to increase access to schools and colleges for girls, including their transportation to these institutes from far-flung areas, skill and business training and sex education in schools. Unless they are implemented, the law will not be effective, the report of the task force states, indicating these measures ought to be the pre-conditions to increasing the marriage age of girls.

A large number of girls from poverty-stricken communities become school dropouts. In addition, there is a large segment of girls who have never been to school. Poverty is a major contributory factor here. The lockdown has only worsened the situation. These pressing problems stare us in the face. We need focussed programmes and necessary budgetary allocations to ensure that every child receives basic education. Only when a girl is in school, will under-age marriages reduce.

Enacting a statute does not impose a financial burden on the government. Creating the infrastructure to provide easy access to education and health care does. It appears that the government has paid only lip service to the cause of women’s empowerment by increasing the marriage age.

Flavia Agnes is an advocate and co-founder of Majlis, which offers legal services to women

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CANCELLING JOB TO LATE MLA’S SON Govt moves SC against HC order

CANCELLING JOB TO LATE MLA’S SON

Govt moves SC against HC order

Thiruvananthapuram: 19.12.2021

The state government has moved the Supreme Court against the high court’s order cancelling a government job given to the son of late CPM MLA K K Ramachandran Nair. The high court had earlier this month said that a “legislator is not a government servant” and cancelled the appointment.

The government petition says the high court got it wrong as the state government did this according to the rules and procedures and hence approached the apex court.

Nair, a first-time legislator after being elected from the Chenganoor assembly constituency in the 2016 Assembly polls, passed away in 2018 due to health issues.

Vijayan, in a surprise decision, decided to appoint Nair's son R Prasanth as an assistant engineer in the public works department, which led to a huge criticism from several quarters.

However, a petitioner from Palakkad, Ashok Kumar filed a plea in this regard at the high court and a division bench chaired by Chief Justice S Manikumar ruled that an “MLA is not a government servant” as they have an elected term of only five years, and hence a government job under dying in harness mode is not applicable and cancelled the appointment.

Incidentally, this legal battle comes at a time when a petition is before the Lokayukta after Vijayan sanctioned a substantial sum of money from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund to clear off the debts of Nair.

AGENCIES

The high court had earlier this month said that a “legislator is not a government servant” and cancelled the appointment

HC upholds reinstatement of aviation univ registrar

HC upholds reinstatement of aviation univ registrar

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow:19.12.2021

A division bench of the Allahabad hc has upheld the order of the single-judge bench reinstating the first registrar of Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University, Amethi, Jitendra Singh but with some modifications.

The judgement passed by Justices Ramesh Sinha and Vivek Varma of the Lucknow bench stated that the termination of the probation of Singh is illegal, being ex-facie stigmatic. The court has further remitted the matter to the University asking the authorities to proceed as per law and pass a fresh order within two months.

The judgment came following a special appeal by the Union civil aviation ministry challenging the single bench order that had quashed Singh’s termination.

The division bench order delivered on Friday states that Singh’s termination needs to be revisited. The court said that as far as the entitlement of back wages is concerned, it will be subject to the outcome of further action to be taken by the university.

The ministry of civil aviation had sacked Singh on January 8, 2020, and appointed Garima Singh as the officiating registrar. Singh’s termination order stated three grounds — obstructing an officer appointed by the government from discharging his duties, fabricating a complaint of sexual harassment by involving two girl students and defiance to official orders.

HC to decide fate of two sisters on death row for kids’ kidnap-murder

HC to decide fate of two sisters on death row for kids’ kidnap-murder

Swati.Deshpande@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:19.12.2021

The Bombay high court on Saturday concluded the hearing and will soon decide the fate of two death row convicts, both women, who in 2014 had filed a petition to commute their capital punishment to life imprisonment. They cited “unjustified delay” by authorities in dealing with their mercy petition, causing them much agony and violation of their fundamental right to life.

The women, sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit, were tried for the 1996 case of kidnapping 14 children and murdering five of them in Kolhapur and convicted in 2001. In 2004, the high court had confirmed their death sentence and in 2006 the Supreme Court too had upheld the noose for them.

They have been in custody since October 22, 1996. The sisters had in 2014 petitioned the high court to commute the death sentence to life term citing unreasonable delay by the state in dealing with their mercy petitions, which thus violated their right to life.

The counsel for the sisters, Aniket Vagal, on Saturday at the final hearing before a bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Sarang Kotwal said the sisters had in September 2006 submitted their mercy petition to the President but it was sent to the state since procedure prescribed it be first considered by the governor.

Public prosecutor Aruna Pai, opposing the petition, said death cannot be set aside looking at the gravity and heinousness of the offence. She said if the court is inclined to commute the sentence, it should be life imprisonment till remainder of their natural life.

The high court bench asked the public prosecutor to take instructions from the state government and clarify on Wednesday whether the government has powers to not commute the life imprisonment, which as per Supreme Court rulings means till the end of convict’s life.

In January 2008, Shinde said she filed another mercy petition before the President while her petition was pending before the governor and it was sent back to be placed before the governor. Gavit also sent a mercy plea in September 2008 and a follow-up request that October to the governor.

Vagal said that in August 2012 the governor rejected Shinde’s plea for mercy to commute death sentence to life imprisonment and a year later rejected Gavit’s plea.

On July 7, 2014, the President rejected their mercy petition and nine days later the Centre communicated it to the state, said their lawyer.

They were informed of the rejection on August 4, 2014, and they filed the petition before the high court saying they were “constantly living under fear of death for over 13 years”.

Centre’s counsel Sandesh Patil said there was no delay on part of the Centre. He said the 11-month gap from 2012 to 2013 was since the policy is to avoid conflicts and to send mercy petition of both the accused in same case together.

Poor showing in DNB exams leave doctors stunned

Poor showing in DNB exams leave doctors stunned

Only 18% Pass In Orthopaedics, 36% In Paediatrics

Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com

19.12.2021

Less than one in five doctors doing postgraduation in orthopaedics passed the final theory exam conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE). In ENT, almost two-thirds of them failed the exam. Similarly, just over 36% passed the exam in paediatrics. The results announced by the NBE on November 24 were a shock to many doctors pursuing diplomate of national board (DNB).

DNB is a postgraduate course considered equivalent to MD/MS, but conducted in private hospitals and institutions and administered by NBE.

Doctors had been assured that the hardship and disruption in studies due to Covid would be taken into consideration when conducting the exams and in marking them. However, students claimed that the pass percentages show that along with an unreasonably difficult paper, the evaluation must have been extremely harsh.

Senior officials in NBE blamed the poor results on poor preparation by doctors. Those specialising in orthopaedics pointed out that if Covid was the reason, the results ought to have been uniformly poor. However, among specialities in which over 50 students appeared, the pass percentage was almost 90% in obstetrics and gynaecology, and in dermatology, and well over 60% in several others, including general surgery, ophthalmology, radio diagnosis and psychiatry.

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‘80% ortho docs can’t be poor students’

DNB orthopaedics is quite high up in preference and so only people with a decent rank in the NEET-PG exam get the specialty. Hence, it can’t be that more than 80% of doctors specialising in orthopaedics are poor students. If the poor result is attributed to sub-standard training at the institute, NBE is to be held responsible for giving accreditation to poor quality institutions. However, this cannot be true because some of the institutes which have seen zero candidates passing are among the best,” said a resident doctor in orthopaedics. According to data that NBE shared with TOI, the pass percentage of DNB pediatrics has been consistently low over the last three exams, the highest being 43.4% in the June 2020 session.

The president of the Association of National Board Accredited Institutions (ANBAI) and the head of the department of orthopaedics and spine surgery in Ganga Hospital, Dr S Rajasekaran, said that ANBAI has written to the NBE to consider reevaluation before publication of results if there is an abnormally low pass percentage in any specialty. “We have also made a strong plea that at least 50% of the examiners must be from NBE institutions,” he added.

“Only those clearing the theory exam can appear for the practicals. So the final result of those who pass the practical exam could be even lower,” said an orthopaedic resident who had failed and is appearing for the next DNB exam being held from December 16 to 19. Many resident doctors pointed out that there was not even a month between the results of the last exam being announced and the next one being held. “It ensures that students have no time to challenge the results,” said a resident doctor specialising in paediatrics.