About 37 per cent of women in India continue to get married before the age of 21 years, a study has shown. In many states, the average marital age for women is much lower than 21, even as the Centre has proposed to increase the legal age for marriage for women to 21 from 18.

At present, the minimum legal age for women to get married is 18 while for men it is 21.

A State Bank of India (SBI) research has underlined the need to keep the minimum legal age for marriage for men and women at 21 to remove any stereotyping.

Also read: Ad praising Pune's braveheart Yogita Satav who saved a driver’s life goes viral

“With the increase in the legal marriage age, some of the states will be faced with a daunting task of altering the social and cultural behaviour of people,” the research said. It also said that the increase in the age limit would allow women to attend higher education, which will encourage them to join the labour force besides improving the maternal mortality rate (MMR)

“We believe increasing the legal age has the potential to reduce India’s MMR and will lead to more females doing graduation and hence coming into labour force,” it said.

A bill aimed at formalising 21 as the legal change was presented in the Lok Sabha in December. The bill is currently with a parliamentary panel. The Leaflet said, since the new minimum marital age for women shall prevail over all the personal laws, the legal age of marriage will be raised for all females regardless of their religion.

A professor who teaches sociology in a Delhi college said that in the rural areas, the marital age for women is even lower than 18.

“The thrust must be on educating the girl child, though people may take time in changing their mindset—as most such social issues do, we need to consistently reinforce this idea,” she said.