Smriti Irani’s quick retort to fellow MP

Why did Smriti Irani ask an NCP MP to retract her position on a question pertaining to child marriage?

Transcript

00:00So I would like to ask the Honourable Minister, how do we ensure that girls are kept occupied

00:06in some product of work, something which occupies their mind, till they reach a marriageable

00:12age?

00:13The country, marry because they are unoccupied, I think is an anomaly which needs to be corrected.

00:30Sir, when we actually go into a village, we see that people, you know, when we talk about

00:43child marriage, they tell us that keeping a girl doing nothing till the age of, say

00:4918 or 21 or whatever, we wouldn't want to do that because my daughter is not secure,

00:56the girl herself wants to get married.

00:59So I would like to ask the Honourable Minister, as Dr. Ami Ajnik has raised the point, how

01:05do we ensure that girls are kept occupied in some product of work, skill development,

01:12education, something which occupies their mind, till they reach a marriageable age?

01:18The country, marry because they are unoccupied, I think is an anomaly which needs to be corrected

01:24and specifically young girls who choose marriage because they have nothing better to do.

01:29I hope that the Member would retract that position.

01:31However, in terms of safety and security, I must here elicit a response from my department

01:37which has successfully implemented the One Stop Crisis Centre programme of the Honourable

01:41Prime Minister.

01:42Over 704 such crisis centres are currently operational in the country across all these

01:48districts.

01:49An additional 300 centres have been pronounced in the Union Budget recently and I must here

01:54highlight to the Honourable Member that in collaboration with over 30 women helplines

01:58in the country, 7 million women have been provided safety and security, especially when

02:03they have been victims of violence.

02:04The Government is committed to protect women and especially young girls from violence or

02:10for that matter insecure means in society that they are confronted with.