We need to create safe spaces for adolescents

The National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns has sought that investments should be made to improve educational access, quality of education, and infrastructural amenities such as toilets for girls

The recently tabled Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, in the Lok Sabha, which seeks to raise the legal age of marriage for women to 21 years, has now been referred to a parliamentary panel for further study. This is a wise move and will be crucial in ironing out certain worrying parts of the legislation. The aim of the bill is, in a large part, laudable in that it is meant to lower maternal and infant mortality rates, and improve nutrition and sex ratio at birth. But how well will the draft bill achieve these aims?

Laws like the one proposed can only work in conjunction with other enabling factors. A wider discussion on the legislation is vital to take into consideration, among other things, all the issues that adolescents face so that they are not discriminated against when the bill comes into force. (Sushil Kumar/HTPhoto)

One thing that the bill has brought attention to is the issue of adolescents (13-19 years at present), a largely overlooked cohort that falls uneasily between the girl child and adult women. When examining the bill, the panel must consider that many adolescents before the age of 21 are sexually active; and existing laws criminalise sexual contact with an underage wife or partner. If caught, the boy, if younger than 18 years, will enter the juvenile justice system and the girl will be put into a rehabilitation home.

Swagata Raha who is the head of research of Enfold, an NGO, says, “In many cases, young girls elope from their homes when the situation becomes untenable and they are subject to violence for having been found to be in a relationship with a boy, especially if he is from a different caste or religion. It is because of this that many prefer to stay in homes if they are caught. In these homes, however, they are likely to be stigmatised, have limited access to rehabilitative services and have violence visited on them.”

Most of them enter into relationships with little knowledge of contraception or reproductive health. Experts in adolescent health feel that maternal mortality or reproductive health have less to do with age of marriage than access to proper health and information. Changing the age of marriage does not always alter life circumstances. The increase in the age of marriage also brings with it the possibility of discrimination in accessing abortion services for more women. If a girl is considered legally underage, the doctors and other health service personnel are duty-bound to inform the police if she seeks an abortion. This fear could lead to unsafe abortions, a major deterrent to reproductive health. A 2015 study by Lancet showed that abortions in India took place in one-third of all pregnancies, 73% of which were outside a health facility.

We need to create safe spaces for adolescents who are marginalised in many places through the intersectionality of poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to medical health. Raha argues that if you can avail of other legal rights at 18, setting the limit of the marriage age should not be done in a manner that is blind to social and economic realities.

The National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns has sought that investments should be made to improve educational access, quality of education, and infrastructural amenities such as toilets for girls. It has also sought that the government takes measures for young people to access adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health information.

Laws like the one proposed can only work in conjunction with other enabling factors. A wider discussion on the legislation is vital to take into consideration, among other things, all the issues that adolescents face so that they are not discriminated against when the bill comes into force.

The views expressed are personal