By Editor
Claiming that the Assam authorities’s fortnight-long crackdown on child marriage had a “optimistic” influence within the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday mentioned a number of households had cancelled scheduled weddings of underage folks as a fallout of the continued drive.
The operation began on February 3 and three,031 folks have been apprehended towards registration of 4,225 circumstances until Tuesday.
“Experiences are coming from numerous components of Assam that a number of households have cancelled pre-scheduled marriages between underage kids after our drive towards such unlawful practices,” Sarma wrote on Twitter.
Experiences are coming from numerous components of Assam that a number of households have cancelled pre-scheduled marriages between unde age kids after our drive towards such unlawful practices. That is positively a optimistic influence of our two-week lengthy crackdown towards youngster marriage.
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 17, 2023
“That is positively a optimistic influence of our two-week lengthy crackdown towards youngster marriage,” he added on the micro-blogging web site.
Opposition events have criticised the style by which the drive is being carried out, terming the arrests of teenage husbands and members of the family as an “abuse of legislation” for political achieve, and equating the police motion with “terrorising folks”.
The Gauhati High Court had also come down heavily on the state government for slapping stringent legal guidelines just like the Safety of Kids from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) and rape costs on youngster marriage accused, and acknowledged that these are “completely bizarre” allegations.
Observing that arresting numerous folks within the crackdown has created “havoc within the non-public life of individuals”, Justice Suman Shyam had on February 14 mentioned there isn’t any want for custodial interrogation of the accused in such circumstances.
Coming beneath criticism for failing to safe the way forward for the affected girls and their kids, the federal government had on February 9 fashioned a cupboard sub-committee for rehabilitation of the “victims”.
Radha Rani Mondal, 50, exhibits the {photograph} of her son, who was arrested by police in Morigaon district of Indian northeastern state of Assam, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. Mondal’s 20-year-old son was arrested on 4 February and her 17-year-old daughter-in-law is pregnant. (AP)
Asserting that the drive will proceed until the 2026 Meeting election, Sarma had justified the measures and mentioned practically 17 per cent of over 6.2 lakh pregnant girls in Assam final 12 months have been youngsters, in accordance with the Reproductive and Youngster Well being (RCH) portal.
The state cupboard had not too long ago permitted a proposal to e-book males who’ve married women under 14 years of age beneath the POCSO.
Circumstances beneath the Prohibition of Youngster Marriage Act, 2006 might be registered towards those that have married women within the 14-18 age group, the cupboard had determined.
The offenders might be arrested and the marriages declared unlawful. If the groom is under 14 years of age, he might be despatched to a reform home.
Assam has a excessive price of maternal and toddler mortality, with youngster marriage being the first trigger, in accordance with reviews by the Nationwide Household Well being Survey (NFHS).
