Assam will launch a major crackdown on child marriages in the state from Friday, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said, announcing that the police are investigating more than 4,000 such cases.
"Thousands of people engaged in child marriage will be arrested from tomorrow. In the next six or seven days, thousands of youth or men who have married girls under 18 years will be arrested. Whoever has married a minor previously or has married now will be held," Mr Sarma told reporters in Nagaon.
The announcement comes after the Assam cabinet resolved to double down on legal action against men marrying underage girls under the tough laws to protect children from sexual abuse and child marriages.
Mr Sarma said the Assam cabinet has decided to charge men who marry girls below 14 years of age under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences or POCSO Act.
The Chief Minister also the "war" against child marriage will be "secular" and no single community will be targeted. He said those who facilitate such marriages, like clerics and priests, will also face action.
Mr Sarma blamed child marriages for Assam's health stats. "The main reason for the high infant mortality rate and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is child marriage. The state has an average of 31 per cent of marriages in the prohibited age," he said.
According to data shared by the Chief Minister, most child marriage cases were registered in the Dhubri district (370) and the least in Hailakandi (1).
"In the last 20 years, no discussion on the subject of child marriage. I have attended many internal and external meetings but no discussion had happened on this particular subject," Mr Sarma said.
A total of 123 cases were registered in Bongaigaon, 35 in Cachar, 125 in Darang, 75 in Dibrugarh, 157 in Goalpara, 255 in Hojai, 80 in Kamrup, 204 in Kokrajhar, 113 in Nagaon, 224 in Morigaon, and 110 in Tamilpur, he said.
