The recent introduction of an amendment bill by the Centre that seeks to bring about a gender age neutrality by making the legal marriageable age of women at par with the men has attracted quite a roar from those in the opposition and also amongst the masses. Raising the marriageable age of a woman making it equal to a man can be made appear as a progressive attempt towards women empowerment. Indeed, from the times when a baby girl, still sleeping in the cradle, used to be married off; to the times when an unmarried woman, already rocking her baby in the cradle and giving her second thought to getting married, appears as a progression and empowerment.

But sadly, in Indian society, the debates and the discussions around the marriageable age of a girl have always been extra-concerned or related to ‘religious affairs’ then the issue of women empowerment. Most religions and their scriptures explicitly or implicitly do speak about the age span in which a girl must get married and indulge herself in a sexual service towards her husband.

The proponents of the recently introduced bill argue that the amendment in the marriageable age of a woman will help in bridging the patriarchal age gap between the man and the woman and will also eventually help in improving women’s educational and financial standing. They further add that it will help in improving her reproductive health. The opponents, on the other hand, feel that gender parity can also be brought up by lowering the men’s marriageable age down to 18 from 21. Moreover, they also argue that, if an 18-year-old adult can cast a vote and chose a lawmaker then he/she (at 18) can also be considered capable enough to provide his/her consent to the sexual relations.

While the act of casting a vote (political consciousness) and an act of sexual intimacy (physical, mental and sexual consciousness) are two very different and incomparable acts, they do show some commonalities. Most of the time both the acts are performed largely under the influence of dominant forces and rarely under an individual’s conscious understanding.

The ongoing debate around this bill intrigues me to revisit and compare the similar chapter from modern Indian history and check the trajectory of the evolution of the arguments. These were the days, more than a century ago, when the age of consent for girls was decided to be raised to 12 from 10. This decision was highly influenced by an unfortunate incident of the death of a child bride (Phulmoni) in the process of sexual intercourse with her 35-year-old husband.

Many places of then British India, witnessed a strong protest and agitation against this decision of increasing the age of consent of the girls. This initiation had created factions among the people, some supported the change, while others strongly rejected it.  There were a series of arguments, sharply exchanged over the Age of Consent bill 1890(introduced in the then Governor General's legislative Council) by the reformists on one side and the orthodox on the other. Surprisingly, both sides took the help of religious scriptures to support their stands. Representing Hindu Orthodoxy, B.G Tilak expressed his wrath and opposition through his editorials in Maharatta, towards the changes (increase) in the marriageable age of girls, citing it as foreign interference in the Hindu religious affairs. The reformist Dr. R.G Bhandarkar, on the other hand, also took the support of Shastras that sanctioned the postponement of Garbhadhana (the ritual of conception) ceremony and argued that ‘age-increase’ is well within the rules of religion and hence will not cause any loss to the religion. He also penned down an article titled, ‘A Note on the Age of Marriage and its Consummation According to Hindu Religious Laws’, criticising to which Tilak responded again, “the common rule is for intercourse to take place on that very night when she has the first menstruation after having performed the human sacrifice. This custom has been practiced for at least two thousand five hundred years since the ancient era of the sutras. If you want the Shastra, then this is the true way. Take it or leave it, but please do not try to misinterpret the ancient authors.”

A much similar interpretation of Shastras, by Pandit Raghunandan Siromani, was presented by the orthodox in the region of the then Bengal, that said, garbhadhan must be performed immediately after the girls first menstruation or else the womb would turn impure and the children born out of an impure womb would lose their rights of offering Pinda (a ritual performed at the death of the parents).

It is evident that arguments from both sides were heavily based on the dictates of the Shastras, with one side interpreting them less rigidly than the other. A girls’ menarche, her puberty, her conception and the rituals around them took precedence over the aspects of her age, her psychological maturity and her own clarity of ‘being sexual’.

Even a century later, the arguments are still more focused on the relative outcomes such as women’s education, her employment, her reproductive health, her late or early embracement of motherhood, maternal mortalities rates that can be indirectly achieved through postponement of her marriage. But marriages in India have always been of religious concern and the reformers of all the times have tried to bring about the adjustments, related to the institution of marriage, well within the limits of their religious restrictions.

The arguments of the present times, while trying to appear as secular, liberal and non-interfering in religious affairs, very conveniently circumvent the discussion on the core issues of woman’s individualism, her sexual autonomy, her agency, ownership of her womb and above all her very own conscious understanding about the ‘concept of the consent’ itself. It is not surprising that her obliviousness or her ignorance about ‘her own consent’ has always remained in the interest of the society that is inherently casteist, patriarchal and the one that desires to remain so. A woman’s consent to sexual intercourse, in Indian society, is strictly regulated and guarded. This regulation remains vital for the maintenance of the purity of caste and the very existence of the caste itself. Within marriage, a bride (whether of the age 10, 12 ,18 or 21) is considered to be surrendering all her consents of lifetime sexual service, irrevocably, to her husband.

While the parliamentary process of making this Bill into Act goes on, one must definitely throw one’s glance over the ‘other parallel’ debates those vociferously criticised the‘Acts and policies’ which were/are enacted or employed, primarily as a ‘means’ for the achievement of certain numerical ‘ends’, related to women’s health, her labor force participation rates, her economic independence.

These debates rather directed the discussion towards the core issue of woman’s sexual subjugation under the pretense of religious sanctity. Here it would be very apposite to mention the approach of E V Ramasamy Naicker (Periyar), who criticised the perception of considering ‘contraception’ (Birth control) as a means to improve women’s health or for non-fragmentation of family’s property or to control country’s population and also to alleviate poverty. He rather, argued that contraception should be used, only and exclusively, for the reasons to generate consciousness amongst the women about exercising their sexual freedom against the patriarchal and sexual dominance and end their enslavement. He attacked the Brahminic and religious regulations that obligated women to surrender their sexuality.

In this pattern of argument, the issues of woman’s individualism, her right on her own body and her decision on the usage of her womb took precedence over the accomplishment of goals related to her health, maternal mortality rates or country’s population control.

Thus, any measure, if taken out of the desire of achieving women’s empowerment, must centrally be focused on her and rationally be independent of the notions of caste, religion, economic independence or poverty alleviation. The aim should be the liberation of women’s-controlled sexuality from the shackles of caste and patriarchy and help her gain the ownership of her own body that will help her to generate her own conscious decision on her consent to any her sexual relation, within or without marriage.

Age of marriage, being a numerical value, can be enumerated, and hence can be increased or decreased. But similar should not be the case with the age of Consent. Consent is a psychological decision to a sexual act, that cannot be arrested within an age bracket or sealed permanently within a marital union. As any person’s psychological decisions are always influenced and vary according to their past and present circumstances and experiences, they cannot be granted as unchangeable. Let the granter of the sexual consent be strong and aware enough to understand and exercise her sexual rights. There is a need to liberate a girl’s sexuality and help her own her body and exercise her sexual decisions, unapologetically.

Shruti Uke, Independent Research Scholar, MA Development Studies(TISS), Mumbai: Working at Renuka Charitable Trust, Gadchiroli (Maharashtra)

The recent introduction of an amendment bill by the Centre that seeks to bring about a gender age neutrality by making the legal marriageable age of women at par with the men has attracted quite a roar from those in the opposition and also amongst the masses. Raising the marriageable age of a woman making it equal to a man can be made appear as a progressive attempt towards women empowerment. Indeed, from the times when a baby girl, still sleeping in the cradle, used to be married off; to the times when an unmarried woman, already rocking her baby in the cradle and giving her second thought to getting married, appears as a progression and empowerment.

But sadly, in Indian society, the debates and the discussions around the marriageable age of a girl have always been extra-concerned or related to ‘religious affairs’ then the issue of women empowerment. Most religions and their scriptures explicitly or implicitly do speak about the age span in which a girl must get married and indulge herself in a sexual service towards her husband.

The proponents of the recently introduced bill argue that the amendment in the marriageable age of a woman will help in bridging the patriarchal age gap between the man and the woman and will also eventually help in improving women’s educational and financial standing. They further add that it will help in improving her reproductive health. The opponents, on the other hand, feel that gender parity can also be brought up by lowering the men’s marriageable age down to 18 from 21. Moreover, they also argue that, if an 18-year-old adult can cast a vote and chose a lawmaker then he/she (at 18) can also be considered capable enough to provide his/her consent to the sexual relations.

While the act of casting a vote (political consciousness) and an act of sexual intimacy (physical, mental and sexual consciousness) are two very different and incomparable acts, they do show some commonalities. Most of the time both the acts are performed largely under the influence of dominant forces and rarely under an individual’s conscious understanding.

The ongoing debate around this bill intrigues me to revisit and compare the similar chapter from modern Indian history and check the trajectory of the evolution of the arguments. These were the days, more than a century ago, when the age of consent for girls was decided to be raised to 12 from 10. This decision was highly influenced by an unfortunate incident of the death of a child bride (Phulmoni) in the process of sexual intercourse with her 35-year-old husband.

Many places of then British India, witnessed a strong protest and agitation against this decision of increasing the age of consent of the girls. This initiation had created factions among the people, some supported the change, while others strongly rejected it.  There were a series of arguments, sharply exchanged over the Age of Consent bill 1890(introduced in the then Governor General's legislative Council) by the reformists on one side and the orthodox on the other. Surprisingly, both sides took the help of religious scriptures to support their stands. Representing Hindu Orthodoxy, B.G Tilak expressed his wrath and opposition through his editorials in Maharatta, towards the changes (increase) in the marriageable age of girls, citing it as foreign interference in the Hindu religious affairs. The reformist Dr. R.G Bhandarkar, on the other hand, also took the support of Shastras that sanctioned the postponement of Garbhadhana (the ritual of conception) ceremony and argued that ‘age-increase’ is well within the rules of religion and hence will not cause any loss to the religion. He also penned down an article titled, ‘A Note on the Age of Marriage and its Consummation According to Hindu Religious Laws’, criticising to which Tilak responded again, “the common rule is for intercourse to take place on that very night when she has the first menstruation after having performed the human sacrifice. This custom has been practiced for at least two thousand five hundred years since the ancient era of the sutras. If you want the Shastra, then this is the true way. Take it or leave it, but please do not try to misinterpret the ancient authors.”

A much similar interpretation of Shastras, by Pandit Raghunandan Siromani, was presented by the orthodox in the region of the then Bengal, that said, garbhadhan must be performed immediately after the girls first menstruation or else the womb would turn impure and the children born out of an impure womb would lose their rights of offering Pinda (a ritual performed at the death of the parents).

It is evident that arguments from both sides were heavily based on the dictates of the Shastras, with one side interpreting them less rigidly than the other. A girls’ menarche, her puberty, her conception and the rituals around them took precedence over the aspects of her age, her psychological maturity and her own clarity of ‘being sexual’.

Even a century later, the arguments are still more focused on the relative outcomes such as women’s education, her employment, her reproductive health, her late or early embracement of motherhood, maternal mortalities rates that can be indirectly achieved through postponement of her marriage. But marriages in India have always been of religious concern and the reformers of all the times have tried to bring about the adjustments, related to the institution of marriage, well within the limits of their religious restrictions.

The arguments of the present times, while trying to appear as secular, liberal and non-interfering in religious affairs, very conveniently circumvent the discussion on the core issues of woman’s individualism, her sexual autonomy, her agency, ownership of her womb and above all her very own conscious understanding about the ‘concept of the consent’ itself. It is not surprising that her obliviousness or her ignorance about ‘her own consent’ has always remained in the interest of the society that is inherently casteist, patriarchal and the one that desires to remain so. A woman’s consent to sexual intercourse, in Indian society, is strictly regulated and guarded. This regulation remains vital for the maintenance of the purity of caste and the very existence of the caste itself. Within marriage, a bride (whether of the age 10, 12 ,18 or 21) is considered to be surrendering all her consents of lifetime sexual service, irrevocably, to her husband.

While the parliamentary process of making this Bill into Act goes on, one must definitely throw one’s glance over the ‘other parallel’ debates those vociferously criticised the‘Acts and policies’ which were/are enacted or employed, primarily as a ‘means’ for the achievement of certain numerical ‘ends’, related to women’s health, her labor force participation rates, her economic independence.

These debates rather directed the discussion towards the core issue of woman’s sexual subjugation under the pretense of religious sanctity. Here it would be very apposite to mention the approach of E V Ramasamy Naicker (Periyar), who criticised the perception of considering ‘contraception’ (Birth control) as a means to improve women’s health or for non-fragmentation of family’s property or to control country’s population and also to alleviate poverty. He rather, argued that contraception should be used, only and exclusively, for the reasons to generate consciousness amongst the women about exercising their sexual freedom against the patriarchal and sexual dominance and end their enslavement. He attacked the Brahminic and religious regulations that obligated women to surrender their sexuality.

In this pattern of argument, the issues of woman’s individualism, her right on her own body and her decision on the usage of her womb took precedence over the accomplishment of goals related to her health, maternal mortality rates or country’s population control.

Thus, any measure, if taken out of the desire of achieving women’s empowerment, must centrally be focused on her and rationally be independent of the notions of caste, religion, economic independence or poverty alleviation. The aim should be the liberation of women’s-controlled sexuality from the shackles of caste and patriarchy and help her gain the ownership of her own body that will help her to generate her own conscious decision on her consent to any her sexual relation, within or without marriage.

Age of marriage, being a numerical value, can be enumerated, and hence can be increased or decreased. But similar should not be the case with the age of Consent. Consent is a psychological decision to a sexual act, that cannot be arrested within an age bracket or sealed permanently within a marital union. As any person’s psychological decisions are always influenced and vary according to their past and present circumstances and experiences, they cannot be granted as unchangeable. Let the granter of the sexual consent be strong and aware enough to understand and exercise her sexual rights. There is a need to liberate a girl’s sexuality and help her own her body and exercise her sexual decisions, unapologetically.

Shruti Uke, Independent Research Scholar, MA Development Studies(TISS), Mumbai: Working at Renuka Charitable Trust, Gadchiroli (Maharashtra)