‘Govt’s Plan To Raise Legal Age Of Marriage For Women Can Bring Enormous Gains’: Says SBI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to increase the legal age for marriage of women carry “enormous” economic and social gains for the world’s second-most populous nation, the State Bank of India (SBI) said in its report on October 22.

“The benefits range from lowering maternal deaths and improving nutrition levels in the near term to putting more girls in college and enabling women to achieve greater financial independence in the long-term,” Soumya Kanti Ghosh, an economist with SBI said.

“This is clear from the data,” Ghosh said. “The working-age population increases with high marriage age.”

According to SBI’s report released on Thursday, the mean female marriage age in India is already above 21 years, however, about 35% of are married before then, with the current legal limit at 18 years. It said that both men and women will gain economically and socially by marrying when they are above the legal age, but added that “the urge of the women is much higher as they always get a higher payoff by becoming financially empowered to take decisions”.