Why has H.P. raised the marriageable age for women?

What are the key provisions of the Bill? Why is the assent of the President required? What are the concerns?

Introduction:

• On August 27, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly passed a Bill raising the minimum marriageable age for women from 18 to 21 years.
• The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Himachal Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2024, was passed.
• It seeks to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (2006 Act) to advance gender equality.

Himachal Pradesh Government’s view on the Bill:

• Early marriage obstructs girls’ education and limits their potential for progress in life.
• Proposed amendments to the 2006 Act aim to reduce instances of early pregnancies and motherhood, which adversely affect women’s health.

Key Provisions:

• 2006 Act defines a “child” as someone “who, if male, has not completed twenty-one years of age, and if female, has not completed eighteen years of age.”
• The Bill removes this distinction, redefining a “child” as “a male or female who has not completed twenty-one years of age.”
• The Bill also extends the time period for filing a petition to annul a marriage.
• Under the 2006 Act, an individual who was a minor at the time of marriage can file for annulment within two years of attaining majority – before turning 20 for women and 23 for men.
• The Bill extends this period to five years, allowing both women and men to file petitions before they turn 23, in accordance with the new minimum marriageable age of 21 years.
• A new provision has also been introduced to ensure that the Bill’s provisions take precedence over all other existing laws.

President’s assent:

• In this case, Governor’s assent would typically suffice to enact the Bill into law.
• However, since the Bill introduces a different minimum marriageable age for women, its provisions will be deemed inconsistent with the 2006 Act – a law enacted by Parliament.
• This potential conflict brings Article 254 of the Constitution into play.
• According to clause (1) of this provision, if a State legislature enacts a law on a subject covered by the Concurrent List [Entry 5 of the Concurrent list deals with the subject of marriage and divorce] that is “repugnant” to the provisions of an existing central law, then that repugnant or inconsistent portion of the state law will be considered “void”.
• To remedy this, the State legislation will have to be reserved for the President’s consideration and receive his or her assent in accordance with clause (2) of Article 254.
• With the President’s assent, the State law takes precedence over the central law, but solely within the jurisdiction of that State.

Experts view:

• Raising the minimum marriage age for women to 21 years could upend young lives in a web of criminal prosecutions.
• “A research looked at 10 years of use of the child marriage law. Overwhelmingly, the law was used by parents against eloping daughters. It has become a tool for parental control and for punishment of boys or men whom girls choose as their husbands. An increase in age to 21 years would mean persecution of girls right up till 21 years.”
• The 2008 Law Commission Report recommended setting a uniform age of marriage for both men and women at 18 years.
• The National Human Rights Commission in 2018 too proposed a similar reform.

What do we know about ANIIDCO?

Context:

• Why has the qualifications of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation come into question after it got permission to do a ₹72,000 crore mega infrastructure project in Great Nicobar?
• Does the company have a proper internal environmental governance system?

Introduction:

• The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO) is the project proponent for the NITI Aayog-promoted ₹72,000 crore mega infrastructure project in Great Nicobar, the southernmost island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
• The project entails the construction of a trans-shipment port, a greenfield airport, a tourism and township project and a solar and gas based power plant in Great Nicobar.
• ANIIDCO which has been granted permission for the mega project is a little known quasi-government agency based in Port Blair.

About ANIIDCO:

• ANIIDCO was incorporated in 1988 under the Companies Act.
• Its objective is “to develop and commercially exploit natural resources for the balanced and environment friendly development of the territory.”
• Its main activities include trading of petroleum products, Indian made foreign liquor and milk, managing tourism resorts and infrastructure development for tourism and fisheries.
• The corporation’s mandate, history, its structure and capabilities raise serious concerns about the process and possible outcomes of making them responsible for such a high profile, high investment and high risk project as the one in Great Nicobar.
• The 910 sq km island is not just a biodiversity hotspot but also home to indigenous communities with special rights and is also located in one of the most tectonically active zones.
• When the Andaman and Nicobar administration appointed ANIIDCO as project proponent in 2020, ANIIDCO neither had an environment policy nor an environment cell.
• It did not even have the human resources needed to oversee, let alone implement and monitor the project it was tasked to implement.
• It was only in late 2022 did it start a process for recruiting people with relevant expertise such as urban planners, environmental planners, architects, infrastructure specialists, and legal and financial experts.
• In 2021, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the Union environment ministry had asked ANIIDCO a number of important questions about its internal environmental governance system.
• The EAC asked if ANIIDCO had a corporate environment policy approved by its board of directors, an administrative system to ensure compliance with environmental clearance conditions and if there was a prescribed standard operating procedure to deal with environmental and forest violations.
• ANIIDCO admitted that it did not have an environment policy. The EAC, nevertheless, went ahead and granted environmental clearance to ANIIDCO in 2022.

Other conflicts of interests:

• In 2022, the Mumbai based Conservation Action Trust had filed a petition before the National Green Tribunal challenging the Stage 1 forest clearance granted by the Union Environment Ministry.
• It had pointed out that at the time forest clearance was granted to ANIIDCO, the corporation’s managing director was the same person who was also the Commissioner cum Secretary (Environment and Forests) of the island.
• It is clear, the petition noted, that this is “a case of the project proponent certifying itself.”
• This same pattern was repeated when the Chief Secretary of the islands, who is also the chairman of the board of directors of ANIIDCO, was made a key member of the high powered committee set up by the NGT to look into complaints against the project.
• ANIIDCO was being allowed to evaluate its own actions again.
• Numerous persons employed at ANIIDCO in various capacities are currently civil servants with the Andaman and Nicobar administration in charge of environmental and tribal welfare issues.

Past administrators’ views on the issue:

• Lt Gen A.K. Singh, Lieutenant Governor of the islands from 2013-16: He said that ANIIDCO would be better suited than any other department or organisation in the A&N administration to handle this mega project.
• Though a project of this dimension would require expert agencies from outside the islands to execute it.
• Sanat Kaul, chief secretary of the islands in the early 90s: He said “I don’t think ANIIDCO can at all manage a ₹72,000 crore project unless it’s upgraded vastly with much better quality staff.
• If the idea of the government is to use ANIIDCO because it is an existing company fully owned by the government, it will need a full revamp from what it was when I was there.”

Genocide Convention

Context:

• Ex-diplomats, activists move SC to halt India’s arms supply to Israel
• The petition said India was obligated under the Genocide Convention

About Genocide Convention:

• The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is the first human rights treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly.
• It came on the heels of the Second World War following the Holocaust, during which Nazi Germany systematically killed more than six million Jewish people.
• Known as the Genocide Convention, it indicates the international community’s commitment that the atrocities of genocide never be repeated.
• However, other cases have emerged, including in Rwanda in 1994 and in Srebrenica in 1995.
• Consisting of 19 articles, the instrument provides the first international legal definition of the term “genocide”.
• It also stipulates the duty of the 153 States that have ratified or acceded to the Convention to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. (41 UN Member States have yet to ratify or accede to the Convention)
• India signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 in 1949 and ratified it in 1959 and thereby recognized genocide as an international crime.

Genocide:

• According to article II of the Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:
• Killing members of the group
• Causing serious physical or mental harm to members of the group
• Intentionally subjecting the group to living conditions intended to cause its physical destruction, in whole or in part
• Imposing measures aimed at preventing the birth of children within the group
• Forcibly transferring children from the group to another group

Trials:

• Persons accused of acts of Genocide are tried before a competent court of the State on whose territory the act was committed.
• The accused can also be tried before an international criminal court that has jurisdiction over any of the contracting parties whose jurisdiction it has recognized.

International day to honour the victims of genocide:

• Every year on 9 December, the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect marks the Convention’s adoption, which represents a crucial global commitment made the day before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• That day became known as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.

Taiwan

Context:

• S. envoy to Taiwan says ties are ’rock solid’ amid China concerns

About Taiwan:

• The Republic of China (Taiwan) is situated in the West Pacific between Japan and the Philippines.
• Its jurisdiction extends to the archipelagoes of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, as well as numerous other islets.
• The Diaoyutai Islands, which lie northeast of Taiwan, and a number of islands in the South China Sea, including those in the Dongsha (Pratas), Nansha (Spratly), Xisha (Paracel) and Zhongsha (Macclesfield Bank) islands, are also part of the territory of the ROC according to Taiwan Government.
• While Taiwan may be described as a predominantly Han Chinese society, with more than 95 percent of the population claiming Han ancestry, its heritage is actually much more complex.

History:

• The ROC was founded in 1912 in China. At that time, Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule as a result of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, by which the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan.
• The ROC government began exercising jurisdiction over Taiwan in 1945 after Japan surrendered at the end of World War II.
• The ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949 while fighting a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party.
• Since then, the ROC has continued to exercise effective jurisdiction over the main island of Taiwan and a number of outlying islands, leaving Taiwan and China each under the rule of a different government.
• The authorities in Beijing have never exercised sovereignty over Taiwan or other islands administered by the ROC.

Political System:

• The ROC president and vice president are directly elected every four years.

Foreign Affairs:

• The ROC is a sovereign and independent state that maintains its own national defense and conducts its own foreign affairs (Disputed this claim by China).

Economy:

• Taiwan was the world’s 17th largest exporter of merchandise in 2022.
• Under the New Southbound Policy, Taiwan is deepening ties across the board with the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
• Taiwan is one of the world’s leading producers of information and communications technology (ICT) products.