Guwahati: This weekend is not going to be fun for the “Illegal husbands” of Assam, as the state police have decided to go all guns blazing against those who have married minor girls in the state. On Friday, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the state police to launch its ‘war against child marriage’ from Friday.
Sarma said, “Assam probably will be amongst the first states to declare war against the child marriage system. During the last nine days, over 4000 cases were registered in the state. I assume more than 50,000 child marriages are happening in the state annually and it’s very disturbing. It needs to be stopped right away and from tomorrow police will start making the arrests.”
Earlier during the day, Sarma tweeted that some 4004 cases of child marriages were registered in the state with Dhubri district having the highest number of child marriage cases (370).
The chief minister hinted that the state government was contemplating preparing a special scheme for child marriage victims in future also.
He said, “The problem will not stop by arresting the grooms or husbands. A backup plan for the victim girls’ rehabilitation is also under consideration and our target is to wipe off the child marriage culture in the state by the end of my first tenure in 2026.”
Sarma also stretched on the need for strict action against the Qazis, Mullas or Pundits who perform such marriages and those who encourage the guardians of such minor girls to marry their daughters off.
“Our aim is to break the entire modus operandi that leads to child marriage. We want the girls to return to schools and the government would try to accommodate under some scheme or policy,” he added.
According to the official statistics, the total number of cases against child marriage registered in the police districts were-Bajali 132, Baksa 153, Barpeta 81, Biswanath 98, Bongaigaon 123, Cachar 35, Charaideo 78, Chirrang 54, Guwahati Commissionerate 192, Darrang 125, Dhemaji 101, Dhubri 370, Dibrugarh 75, Dima Hasao 24, Goalpara 157, Golaghat 62, Hailakandi 1, Hamren 15, Hojai 255, Jorhat 25, Kamrup 80, Karbi-Anglong 126, Karimganj 92, Kokrajhar 204, Lakhimpur 32, Majuli 44, Morigaon 224, Nagaon 113, Nalbari 171, Sadiya 85, Sivsagar 54, Sonitpur 60, South Salmara 145, Tamulpur 110, Tinsukia 73 and Udalguri 235.
