Originally posted by: ..RamKiJanaki..
I honestly have no interest in getting into this arguments because I already know where fans of this show stand on child marriage, but someone made the point that child marriage is legal in the US, and I have no idea where that's come from. I live in the US, and no, child marriage is certainly not legal here and if it ever happens, strict action is taken against the people involved.
In the United States, all but one state requires that a couple be 18 in order to marry without parental permission. Nebraska sets the age of majority at 19. Although a few states will waive this requirement if there is a pregnancy, teenage couples may still have to have court approval.
The only exception is in cases of teenage pregnancy, in which both partners are teenagers over the age of 14 (not one adult, one teenager), and if they both want to get married and both have the consent of their parents, they can file for court approval, and only if the court approves their appeal (each situation is different) do they have permission to marry.
Otherwise, anything else is considered child marriage, which is also considered a form of child abuse, and punishable by law.
Even in India, the legal age for women to marry is 18 and for men 21. As this show takes place in India, this is the age that must be respected and followed.
There is no opinion, no personal belief that goes into account regarding this. India is a democracy. It's ruled under one law, and yeah loopholes are there and people take advantage of the law when they can, but the law is there, and the law must be followed. It doesn't matter whether you believe child marriage is evil or not. It doesn't matter if your parents or grandparents had a child marriage and turned out 'fine'. It doesn't matter that you think child marriage is not a social evil. According to the law, it is. There is no two opinions about it. Believe it or not, I don't care, but people had better follow it because otherwise, they are considered criminal under law.
It's weird that divorce is being brought into this. Divorce isn't a social evil, whatever your opinion may be about it. Two consenting adults are free to marry whomever they wish, and they can divorce whomever they wish if they feel the marriage isn't working. That's not illegal because the law has given them the freedom to live the life they want.
As for teenage pregnancy, it's an unfortunate phenomenon and I agree it's a social evil that's becoming more common in our society. However, if the pregnancy occurs between two minors (under the age of 18), it's not illegal unless it's a case of rape. Two minors are allowed to have consensual sex. However, if an adult over the age of 18 has sex with a child under the age of 18, that is considered rape whether the sex was consensual or not, because an adult under law cannot under any circumstance have sex with a minor, consensual or not. That is the law, no matter what people believe.
Now, I don't know why the concept of sex has come up since PPK hasn't gone that far, thank God, but people here seem to have difficulty grasping the concept of child marriage. Fans of PPK keep saying the show doesn't have child marriage, but it does.
Did not an 18 year old woman marry a 9-year old boy? Did that or did that not happen?
I understand that the reason why it happened may have been 'innocent', but it did happen. That is something no one can argue against. A marriage did happen between them, and since one of the partners is a child, it's by definition called a child marriage, and thus, the show has child marriage.
This is a fact no one who's seen the show can deny.
Also, from where comes the believe that people who are condemning the show haven't seen it? Why would people criticize something without seeing it? Why would they even care? I've seen the show, and I know many people who have also, and nothing I've seen disproves my view that this show is promoting child marriage. If Ratan had been shown as a victim even once, if he'd been shown angry or confused for being in a marriage so young, or if Diya had been shown unhappy and guilty that she married a child, I might have changed my opinion, but nothing like that has happened.
I know there are many other regressive shows on TV, I'm not saying they're not, but we're discussing this show, and this show certainly has controversial content. No one can deny that. If it was up to me, I would wish for all other regressive shows to be banned too, but it's not that easy, and there are certainly people protesting other shows too, but I feel it's a step in the right direction that a channel has actually taken people's protests seriously. Perhaps from now on, directors and producers will think twice before coming up with a regressive concept again. Shows don't need to be super progressive if people aren't ready for it, but if they're at least not regressive, it would be tolerable.
