Social and Educational Reforms — Key Changes

Entry	Year	Description	Impact
Act X of 1891	1891	Act X of 1891, commonly called the Age of Consent Act, amended the Indian Penal Code’s age threshold from ten to twelve. The Law Commission’s historical table records twelve both for the consent provision and for the age specified in the marital exception after this amendment. This was a change in criminal law concerning sexual intercourse; it did not itself establish twelve as a statutory minimum age for marriage. The figures describe historical law, not today’s legal position.	For social-reform history, identify the legal mechanism before evaluating its reach. A criminal-law threshold and a restriction on solemnising a marriage address different acts. Conflating them makes the reform seem broader than it was. In an answer on colonial social and educational reforms, place this example under social legislation and examine the distinction between a legal change, its enforcement and wider social practice. It supplies no evidence that an education policy changed in the same year.