Chennai: Tamil Nadu-based Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) released its Lok Sabha election manifesto Wednesday pitching for state autonomy and social justice, but it drew flak for the promise to make parental nod mandatory for marriages of couples under the age of 21.
The PMK will be contesting 10 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu under a seat sharing agreement with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
According to the PMK manifesto, countries such as Singapore, Philippines, Japan and Brazil have made parental consent mandatory to marry at a young age.
“In India, the Karnataka High Court has also emphasised the same. To prevent young women from falling for the staged love, to protect the family system and to protect the future of the teenagers, parents approval for marriages of people below the age of 21 would be made mandatory,” it read.
This is not the first time that the party is making such a poll promise, as it had floated the same suggestion in 2019. The idea of making parental approval mandatory for women aged below 21 while opting for a love marriage first figured in a resolution passed at a meeting of Anaithu Samuthaya Periyakkam (a confederation of 40 caste association) held in January 2014. Headed by the PMK, the state-level meeting of the confederation was attended by the representatives of 40 caste organisations across the State.
On Wednesday, PMK founder S. Ramadoss and his son Anbumani Ramadoss, who is leader of the party, released the manifesto.
“For a woman, 18 years is such a young age. It is just a year after she completes her schooling and enters college for higher education. I look at an 18-year-old also as a child and if they get married at 18, there is no future and her education is also stopped,” Anbumani said at a press conference.
“Soon, she will carry a baby at 18 and two at 20. I have seen many young mothers like this. They suffer nutrition deficiency and other issues,” he explained.
Even as Anbumani was answering, his father Ramadoss interrupted to assert that couples should have maturity and that they should have completed education before settling down.
Explaining that the parents’ approval for marriage of teenagers exists in various countries, Anbumani also opined that the legal age for marriage could be made as 21 years. “Until that is made, we can make this arrangement (mandatory approval of parents).”
Apart from this PMK’s manifesto pitched for equal state and centre rights. The party also promised to conduct caste-based census and provide reservation to the castes according to their population, apart from promising to stop building Mekedatu dam across the Cauvery river.
Founded in 1989, the PMK and its politics are centered around the Vanniyar caste in northern and western Tamil Nadu. The PMK has been seeking reservation for the Vanniyars within the 20 percent reservation for the Most Backward Classes (MBC).
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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