The law Commission is trying hard to bring the marriage age for boys to 18. (its 21 now for guys and 18 for girls). I am not sure why they are thinking about this change. But I would welcome it. When you can vote at 18 I guess you can marry as well. Moreover if the girls can marry at 18 I guess the guys should as well.But why was the age fixed at 21 for guys previously? I didn’t get any information on this.
Read this debate at indiatimes. Some believe that :
: 18 is not a mature age for a guy to be married Well then when will a guy be mature, after 3 more years? Are you sure? He can vote and he is treated as an adult under the law. So why can’t he go ahead and marry?
: Leads to population explosion What???? How do you clarify that?
I got married at an age where people consider it as too young for a guy to get married. There were relatives flocking to my house, to help me understand how immature I am and how inadequate are my possessions to get married. They wanted me to understand the responsibilities and the difficulties of married life.I think it’s a personal choice and it has nothing to do with age limit. In India we treat a guy as mature enough to get married when he a) owns a house b) has a huge bank balance c) is over 28 d)has a good salary.I would welcome this move by the law commission.
If a guy wants to get married at 18, let him. If a girl wants to get married to a guy who is 18, let her.
THE CRAPBOOK 
I heard somewhere that they were gonna reduce the marriageable age for girls to 16. That wouldn’t be such a welcome step I believe. 16 is too young. If I heard wrong though, then it’s okay. If a guy is not gonna mature till 18, there are hardly any chances that he’ll do that by 21.
@ish,
I am not sure about that (gals marriage age to 16)
If you have read the news on Hindu, I guess they meant sexual consent at 16 for gals regardless of marriage.
//If a guy is not gonna mature till 18, there are hardly any chances that he’ll do that by 21.//
exactly !!! 🙂
Ish is right. The change was going to be in combination, reduce the marriage age for boys to 18 and girls to 16. Boys and girls were not going to be equal here.
The logic was that in India people are doing it anyway! At least that is what I think. I don’t see anything wrong in guys getting married at 18 in theory but girls at 16 are not physically ready to have children. Their own growth gets affected. Also the earlier you marry the more kids you have, and though an individual should be given a choice as to when he or she should marry, it’s important for the lawmakers to take into account the scenario in our country as a whole. For example if you marry which is not the legal age, the law won’t care! But the law is there to catch those groups who make it a habit to marry their kids of at very young ages, often without taking their childrens’ consent. The latter is very common in India. It’a very complicated issue and I guess I have only touched the surface!
@Nita,
Oh I didn’t know about such a move(gals @16).
Yeah I agree, 16 would be very young for girls to have kids.
The law has to focus more on ‘forced marriages’ like you suggested.
But I guess times are changing at least in the middleclass families. The ‘forced marriages’ are more prevalent among the poor.
I agree with the move to make the “legal marriageable age” for boys 18 years since they are allowed to vote anyway. Having said that, I seriously dont think guys are “ready” to get married at that age. We are just not mature enough at that age nor do we become far more mature at 21.At that age I dont think guys will ever be ready for such a serious “commitment”. I feel its too early. As youve said it makes sense legally. But such a step should be discouraged not just for a guy but also a girl. But guys esp i feel take a lot more time to realize what they truly want in their life and such major decisions at 18 or 21 are nothing but a result of some hasty thinking 😛
We may see a lot more eloping though 😛
Wow thanks for breaking the news.. this means I can get married now! or wait for a month more when I turn 21! 😀
@Ulag,
Yeah but you can never say that they will be mature enough by say 28 or 30. (i know ppl who dont act mature for that age 🙂 )
I guess only we can just judge ourselves, like say I am 18 ( read i wish) and I feel that I can get married, then let me.
I dont think anyone else can rate me on how mature I will be.
@Balu,
No u can’t, the law is not passed yet. 🙂 wait for one month buddy.
(you got someone in mind? 😉 )
Someone in mind or should it be someone in heart?
lets keep that a secret shall we 😀
well if u are planning to get married, u got to think (in other words use ur mind) before u do it 😉
you know whats not fair? i waited all this while to get to the legal age….now that im 21 they’ve reduced it to 18!!! thats such a killjoy!!! i feel iv lost some 3 years somewhere suddenly!!! 😛
@ulag,
haha. 🙂 Dont waste time ! go ahead !
Nita: once a girl reaches menarche, she is sexually and physiologically ready to bear kids. Of course, we don’t think this is a brilliant practice, but still….
Rdoc, a girl may be capable of getting pregnant after menarche, but that doesn’t mean that it’s good for her. There are extra risks for a girl at 16 rather than at 20. Some links to support my point of view are here. and here.
If the marriage age for guys is going to be reduced to 18, then what about girls??
@rambodoc, Nita,
Thanks for your comments and links !
@prem,
For girls its already 18.
I had no idea that such a move (girls marriagable age to 16) was in wings. I am surprised how democracy is misused over and over again. Once we elect them, they make policies that certainly do not have consent of citizens. But we citizens are helpless about it.
Another thing, law was supposed to stop early marriage, now that they can not stop it, they are ready to change law! Strange logics our governance has!