ABSTRACT
The committee the prime minister was referring to in his Independence Day speech was a task force (TF) that had first been mentioned in February by the finance minister on another important occasion, the annual budget speech. From the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort on Independence Day of 15 August 2020, with the pomp of the ceremony muted to accommodate pandemic norms of physical distancing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that his government was considering raising the minimum age at marriage for girls. The report spoke of a 17-year-old girl who travelled 11 km from her home to the nearest Block Development Officer in Murshidabad district to report that she was being forced into a marriage she did not want. Young women, across different communities and castes, have been actively involved in taking on the government in their presentations – whether to the TF or in press conferences against raising the age of marriage to 21 years.
