Just recently I was having a phone call conversation with one of my friends back home. We were discussing the happenings in our daily lives, I was updating her about my life in Mumbai, how I have adjusted, managing and surviving in a never sleeping hectic and chaotic city which is totally contrary to our daily slow and timid life back home and she was also updating me about news, happenings, her daily schedules et al. In the course of our conversation, she added saying that one of our other casual friend and a girl much younger to us in terms of age has got married and is already boring a child. The girl we spoke about is just 17 and she is already accepting or should I rather say compelled to fulfill her forthcoming responsibility as a Mother when she herself is still in her teenage years. We ended our conversation by laughing it off saying that rise in marriage at such a young age is making us look older at the age of 23 or even a spinster already.

We ended the conversation, but I got stuck thinking about this rise in premature or untimely marriage especially in our society in today’s time. People who look at us and our dressing styles when we stay in cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc. say that we are very hi-fi or westernized. I agree, we do get influenced by the Western culture and till late, the rise in Korean series, movies also contributes to our dressing and fashion style being a replica of theirs. Then I realized, is this influence taking us to the next level where we are more concern and interested in casual, careless relationship and not a true, innocent and cute teenage love story? I mean, we all know Americans are too advanced in terms of everything and there are so many teenagers who get married or bear child during their high school life. For them relationship is just another way of life but does this holds true for us as well that we started accepting and being overconfident(for teenagers) for agreeing to marriage at such an early age?

By the way, why are we influenced by only the negative things from western culture? Why are we not influenced by their commitment to their work/duty, their determination and will to do and be something different, their confidence in themselves when doing something, their passion for what they love and their honesty in what they are? Even if we speak about the Koreans, why are we not influenced by their caring, committing and loving personality to their relationships? I am in no way against the concept of replication or being influenced by dressing and fashion style but what I wanted to convey in this regard is that as much as we can get influenced by their fashion, dressing and even hair styles, we should also learn to look at the positive features or characters/attributes that we can learn and imbibed in our self instead of turning a blind eye to it.

I have learned that many of us, ignoring the actual data, have married off at an early age and its spreading and rising tremendously as if it is an infective disease. I am in no way against those marriages due to inevitable family problems because that is supposedly one of the most common reasons for marrying off girls at a young age. But among us younger generation, some have seemed to consider relationship and marriage so casually as if it’s just a cool and hip thing. And for those youngsters, let me tell you upfront –Marriage is not a way to show your friends or peers that you are cool and superior or it isn’t either a mistake/event that you can run away from when you get bored or sick of it in future. To add to this, this early marriage with or without the consent of parents is actually spoiling the true significance, the purity and sanctity of the Marriage Institution.

Whom and what could be the reason for this rise in untimely marriage? Is it due to lack of jobs, poverty or lack of facilities? Is it due to peer pressure, fight or disagreement with family and elders? Should we blame the poor governing system of our state or country? Is it the pathetic political system or the economic conditions? Or do we have to really blame it to something or somebody at all?

We all know the old adage that goes, “Youths are the future of our society, community and nation” but where will there be a future if all the youths end up getting married at a young age, tied up willingly or unwillingly with the responsibility of being a married person/A Father/A Mother when they are actually suppose to take the responsibility and duty of bringing about a positive changes and advancement in the society. This is indeed a serious hindrance which will truly affect our development and our attitude towards hoping and wishing for a better and more advancing society and community. Thus, if we want to march towards a more brighter, rising and successful community and society, we should start with discouraging and opposing to early untimely Marriage. The youths are the pillar of any developing/developed community and if we are wanting and are more focus on social changes and development, we should start taking initiatives in making them realize their responsibilities and aware them about the need for their contribution for a change in our overall development.