21 is the new age of adulthood for women to marry

The New legal age of marriage for men and women will be 21 as the proposal to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 has been passed by the Union Cabinet.

Currently, the minimum age of marriage for men is 21 and 18 for women.

Apparently, the government decided to review the minimum age of marriage for girl child to empower women so that they can also access the right of education and livelihood as sometimes they are cut off due to early marriage.

The other reasons for re-examining the legal marriage age for women are to prevent early marriages & early pregnancies, which impacts the health of mothers and their children.

The new bill was cleared by cabinet after the Center's task force, headed by Jaya Jaitly submitted their report to Niti Aayog in December last year. In the report the committee recommended many things including gender-neutrality and women's overall health and mental wellbeing. The committee also asserted sex education to be formalised and introduced in the school curriculum.

Now to bring the plan into action the government is eyeing to make changes in the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act, and the Hindu Marriage Act.