The Ministry of Women and Child Development Ministry has set up a taskforce, headed by Jaya Jaitly, to examine the matters related to age of motherhood and lowering maternal mortality rate (MMR).
Jaitly will lead a 10-member task force and will submit the report on the 'right age for women to become mothers' by 31 July, reported PTI.
The move comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman indicated the plan to roll out similar measures in her budget speech in 2020.
In her speech, Sitharaman noted that the age of marriage had been amended from 15 to 18 for women in 1978.
She linked the lowering of MMR and improving nutrition levels to the progress of our country, and urged that the “issue about the age of a girl entering motherhood needs to be seen in this light”.
The committee is expected to suggest suitable legislations or amendments in the existing laws to support its recommendations, along with a timeline of implementation of such plans. They will also suggest measures to promote higher education among women.
India has been reducing its MMR in recent years, with a 77 percent dip between 1990 and 2016. The latest figures, released in 2019, showed a further decline to 122 deaths per live births.
(With inputs from PTI)
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