All women MPs should be allowed to testify: Sushmita Dev to parliamentary panel on marriage age

The only woman member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports Sushmita Dev on Monday wrote to the Committee Chairperson Vinay Sahayabuddhe to invoke Rule 84 (1) to enable women MPs to testify before Committee examining the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

In her letter to the Committee Chairperson, the TMC MP said, "The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports is currently in the process of examining the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which proposes to raise the marriageable age for women to 21 years. These Standing Committees were reconstituted a few months ago, and presently, I am the sole woman member in a committee of 31 members."

"In reference to this, and under Rules 84(3) and 275 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), I wish to propose that any woman member of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha be empowered to testify either in writing or in person before the Committee on this issue," the letter stated.

"The Rajya Sabha has 29 women members, and the Lok Sabha has 81 women members, and I am sure all my honourable female colleagues will have much to contribute to the discussion on this issue. I request you to use the powers of your office to open the meetings of the Committee on this issue to testimonials from any of the honourable women members, and request you to allot time accordingly," it added.

The parliamentary panel headed by BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahastrabuddhe, to which the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill that seeks to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 has been referred to, will start its deliberations soon.

The 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports has lone woman Rajya Sabha MP from All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) Sushmita Dev.

A meeting has been scheduled on January 5 of the Parliamentary standing committee on 'Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports' to hear the views of Secretary, Ministry of Culture on the subject "Reforms in the Education of Performing and Fine Arts" and to decide the future course of action of the Committee.

( With inputs from ANI )