JAYA JAITLY COMMITTEE

About:

• In June 2020, the Ministry for Women and Child Development set up a task force to look into the correlation between the age of marriage with issues of women’s nutrition, prevalence of anemia, IMR, MMR and other social indices.
  
  
• The committee, headed by former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly, also had on board NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul and secretaries of several ministries.
  
  

Recommendations

• The committee has recommended the age of marriage be increased to 21 years.
  
  
• The committee also asked the government to look into increasing access to schools and colleges for girls, including their transportation to these institutes from far-flung areas.
  
  
• Skill and business training has also been recommended, as has sex education in schools.
  
  
• The committee said these deliveries must come first, as, unless they are implemented and women are empowered, the law will not be as effective.
  
  
• The committee has further recommended that an awareness campaign be undertaken on a massive scale on the increase in age of marriage, and to encourage social acceptance of the new legislation, which they have said would be far more effective than coercive measures.