Smriti Irani’s quick retort to fellow MP

So, I would like to ask the honourable minister... How do we ensure that girls are kept occupied in some productive work? Something which occupies their mind till they reach marriageable age. To say that, "women in the country marry because they are unoccupied," I think is an anomaly which needs to be corrected. Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani offered a strong rebuttal to NCP MP Dr. Fauzia Khan's on the issue of child marriages in the country. Child marriages doubled in India from 326 cases in 2016 to 785 in 2020. Sir, when we actually go into a village, we see that people, you know, when we talk about child marriage, they tell us that, "keeping a girl doing nothing till the age of, say 18 or 21, or whatever, we wouldn't want to do that because, my daughter is not secure. The girl herself wants to get married." honourable minister, as Dr. Amee Yajnik has raised the point, how do we ensure that girls Skill development, education, something which occupies a marriageable age. “women in the country And specifically young girls, who choose marriage because they have nothing better to do." Thope that the member would retract that position. However, in terms of safety and security, I must here elicit a response from my department, which has successfully implemented the one-stop crisis centre programme of the honourable Prime Minister. Over 704 such crisis centres are currently operational in the country across all these districts. And additional 300 centres have been pronounced in the Union Budget recently. And I must here highlight to the honourable member that in collaboration with over 30 women helplines in the country, seven million women have been provided safety, security, especially when they have been victims of violence. The government is committed to protect women and especially young girls from violence or for that matter insecure means in society that they are confronted with. Journalist Tushar Swarup Video Editor Ajith Paithody