"Won't Rest Until...": Himanta Sarma Says Teenage Pregnancies Have Come Down

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday claimed that teenage pregnancies in the state have come down drastically to 40,012 this year from the previous year's 1,05942 following action taken against child marriage.

''Our relentless pursuit against child marriage and teenage pregnancy is yielding positive results'', the chief minister posted in 'X'.

''Registered teenage pregnancies in the state has come down drastically from 1,05,942 in 2022-23 to 40,012 in 2023-24. We won't rest until we bring this figure to zero'', he said.

According to data presented by the chief minister, the twin districts of Dhubri and South Salmara had the highest teen pregnancies at 14,769 the previous year and this came down to 5,482 this year followed by the districts of Nagaon and Hojai where it declined from 12,107 to 4.578 and in the districts of Barpeta and Bajali it decreased from 11,449 to 4,000.

The districts with the highest cases of child marriage and teen pregnancies have a pre-dominant minority population of migrant origin from Bangladesh.

The state government had launched a two-phased crackdown against child marriage in February and October this year, leading to nearly 5500 arrests mostly in minority-dominated districts.

The chief minister had asserted that the social menace would be completely eliminated by 2026 and all gram panchayat secretaries will be designated as child marriage prevention officers.

Mr Sarma had earlier claimed that maternal deaths have decreased by over 33 percent and child deaths by nearly 15 per cent in the state since the launch of the crackdown.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)