Date:04/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/04/stories/2008060457830100.htm

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Women’s panel moots age bar for nunhood

Special Correspondent

Commission for appropriate legislative measures
Wants the choice to be left to girls themselves

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Women’s Commission (SWC) has asked the government to take appropriate legal measures to ensure that girls aged below 18 are not forcibly enrolled as nuns.

Commission chairperson D. Sreedevi and member P.K. Sainaba told a news conference here on Tuesday that the commission had asked the government to fix the age at which a girl could become a nun and to create mechanisms for the rehabilitation of women who opt out of the vocation later in life. No girl should be compelled to become a nun and there must be legislative provisions to ensure that the share of family wealth of the girls who became nuns remained in their name, they said.

The commission, they said, was not interested in tampering with matters of faith, but wanted the right of choice to be left to the girls themselves. The commission had gone into the issue on the basis of a petition received by it.

It recommended to the government to go by the verdicts of the Supreme Court and the High Court while determining the caste status of children of inter-caste couples. Caste should be decided after ascertaining which community’s customary laws were followed when the inter-caste couple brought up their children. It must issue orders to the effect that there would be no prospective effect for the court verdicts and that the verdict would apply to the children only when the community certificate is issued to a child.

The commission wanted the government to ask Kerala Agricultural University and the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) to chalk out schemes specifically targeted at widows. The State Planning Board, KSWDC and local self-government institutions must earmark necessary funds for the purpose. The agricultural university must give scientific training to women aged between 25 and 40 in coconut plucking using gadgets that had already been developed.

The government must explore the possibility of granting relaxation in the maximum age up to which unmarried women could apply for jobs in the State service through the Public Service Commission.