DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 29
that this principle of polygamy exists. If we had monogamy, I do not think that women would have been abducted, married off or other things would have happened to them. This is a very wholesome principle and I hope the House will accept it.
But with regard to some of the conditions of marriage there are one or two points that I would like to suggest. With regard to the marriage of the sapindas and the definition of sapinda, that requires a little revision; we are not quite satisfied with the definition that is given in the Code. Then again, we would like the age of marriage also to be a condition of a valid marriage. We have got the Sarda Act but that is not satisfactory; that has not satisfied the people because it has not been able to prevent child marriages; it is not effective. For that reason we would like the law to be more drastic. If we want sixteen to be the age of marriage, then it is very necessary that it should be included as one of the conditions of valid marriage and I would like the Select Committee to make that change.
Then with regard to divorce, even that from the point of view of some does not go far enough. There is, however, one thing that I would like to bring to the notice of the members of the Select Committee and that is, the time given for desertion. If a man or a woman deserts his or her spouse, it has been provided, he or she can divorce her or him after five years. Five years is the period given in the Code. Even in “ Narad Smriti” it is given that a childless woman should wait for three years. After three years she can marry again. So why not also bring that particular provision here that if a woman is childless, she need not wait till five years, but can divorce her husband after three years? If a woman has got children, then five years would be the right period, but for a childless woman three years would be a reasonable period.
With regard to guardianship, here also the Code has not made any changes in the present law. Father is the natural guardian of the children. The mother does not come in. We would like the mother also to be a co-guardian of the children with the father.
With regard to adoption, I think the whole chapter should be scrapped. We are a secular State. We want to be a secular State. Adoption in Hindu law is for religious purposes. Why should a secular State have anything to do with a religious custom? What we are