What Muslim Women Want: Overwhelming majority in favour of 21 years as legal age for marriage

Amid the row over the Uniform Civil Code, News18 recently conducted India's largest exclusive UCC survey. A total of 8,035 Muslim women residing in 25 states and Union Territories across the country were interviewed. The purpose of this survey was to understand their opinions on the specific issues that the UCC is expected to address, focusing solely on these topics rather than the proposed bill as a whole.

The seven key questions asked in this survey did not make any mention of the UCC and were strictly limited to the themes the UCC is likely to cover.

KEY FINDINGS

1. 67.2 per cent of Indian Muslim women said yes when asked if they support a common law for marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance.

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2. 6,320 of the 8,035 Muslim women surveyed said 21 years should be the legal age for marriage both men and women.

3. 5,403 of the 8,035 Muslim women surveyed support a common law for marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance.

4. 82.04 per cent of the graduate plus respondents agreed that the legal age of the marriage should be 21 years. More than 80 per cent of the people belonging to age group 18-44 agreed for the same. 73.06 per cent of people who are above 44 years of age agreed for the same.

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India Speaks on UCC: Majority Muslim women in favour of common laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance

The survey was conducted in the following states - Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Languages

The response languages were - Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, among others.

Age group

Of the surveyed women, 18.8 per cent were in the 18-24 age group, 32.9 per cent were aged 25-34, 26.6 per cent were aged 35-44, 14.4 per cent were aged 45-54, 5.4 per cent were aged 55-64 and 1.9 per cent were 65 plus.

While 70.3 per cent were married, 24.1 per cent were unmarried, 2.9 per cent were widowed and 2.9 per cent divorced. A total of 73.1 per cent of the respondents were Sunni, 13.3% Shia and 13.6 per cent others.

Among the women surveyed, 10.8 per cent were post-graduates, 27 per cent graduates, 20.8 per cent had studied up to Class 12+, 13.8 per cent were Class 10+, 12.9 per cent had studied till Class 5-10, 4.4 per cent up to Class 5, 4.2 per cent were illiterate and 4.2 per cent had basic literacy, with 1.9 per cent others.