Union Budget 2020: Marriageable age for women to be revisited
In what shows the government's intent towards improving the lives of women, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government wants to revise the marriageable age of women, which is set at 18 currently. The idea is to bring down the mortality rate among pregnant women. A committee will be set up for the same, and it has to file its recommendations within six months.
As she spoke on the third theme of the Union Budget named "Building a Caring Society", Sitharaman announced the allocation of Rs. 35,600 crore to nutrition-related programs and Rs. 28,600 crore for women-linked programs. She said 6 lakh Anganwadi workers have been given smartphones to upload the nutrition status of 10 crore households. This unprecedented scale will bring down maternal mortality rates, she underlined.
Speaking in the Parliament, the FM said, "Girls are actually benefiting from this scheme ('Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao')." As the FM praised the government scheme, uproar erupted in the Parliament. The FM, however, continued to add that the enrolment ratio of girls is 94.32% in the elementary level of education, 81.32% in the secondary level, and 59.7% in the higher secondary level.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: 'Beti bachao, beti padhao' has yielded tremendous results, gross enrolment ratio of girls across all levels of education now higher than boys. #Budget2020 pic.twitter.com/xOFmeeq6Gx
— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2020
