Stop thinking of young people as children in perpetuity: Owaisi

Hyderabad:  AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has criticised the decision of Narendra Modi government to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21, terming it “ridiculous”.
The Hyderabad MP said both men and women should be allowed to legally marry at 18 as they are treated as adults by the law for all other purposes.
“This is typical paternalism that we have come to expect from the govt. 18-year-old men & women can sign contracts, start businesses, choose Prime Ministers & elect MPs & MLAs but not marry,” he said in a tweet.
“They can consent to sexual relationships and live-in partnerships but cannot choose their life partners? Just ridiculous”, he added.
The proposal to raise the minimum age of marriage for women was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. The government said the move was to save women from malnutrition.
Owaisi said: “If Modi was sincere, he would have focused on increasing economic opportunities for women. Yet India is the only country where women’s participation in the workforce is dwindling. It fell to 16 percent in 2020 from 26 percent in 2005.”