‘Girls should be married when they reach the age of fertility’, SP MP criticises Centre’s move

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party MP ST Hasan said on Friday that girls should be married when they attain age of fertility, while talking about the Centre’s move to raise the minimum age of marriage for women to 21.

‘The fertility age of women ranges from 16-17 years to 30 years. Proposals for marriage start coming at the age of 16. If the marriage is delayed, there are two disadvantages: One is the possibility of infertility. The second is that children are not settled when one is ageing. When you are in your last decade or so of life, your children are still students. We are breaking the natural cycle’, The MP was quoted by ANI. ‘I believe that when a girl is mature and attains the age of fertility, she should get married. If a girl is mature at 16, she can get married at 16. If she can vote at 18, why can’t she get married?’ he added.

The MP further said that indiscipline increases in youngsters as they grow older when they watch pornographic videos and photos. ‘We have allowed live-in relationships which show that indiscipline has increased. Hormonal changes at this stage may lead to crimes’, he said. Another Samajwadi Party MP, Shafiqur Rahman Barq expressed similar view on this issue and said- ‘India is a poor country and everybody wants to marry off their daughter at an early age… I will not support this Bill in Parliament’.

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Later, responding to the statements, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi said that the law was progressive, so why should we make so much noise about it. ‘Let discussions be held. What are his apprehensions? It is a progressive law. We have said let there be a discussion. Why make so much noise?’ Joshi asked. However, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav distanced himself from his party MP’s statements and said his party is a progressive and had launched schemes for the development of girls and women. He also stated that the party has nothing to do with any such opinions made by its members.