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Journalism of Courage
Announcing that the state Cabinet has decided to launch a “massive state-wide drive” against child marriage, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that among the decisions taken is to prosecute men marrying girls below the age of 14 under POCSO Act.
Besides, he said, all gram panchayat secretaries will be made responsible for lodging FIRs against child marriage incidents in their villages.
“It will be a priority in our governance so that within five years our state will be free of child marriage,” Sarma said. “It will be a neutral and secular action — it will not be targeted towards any community. However, Dhubri and South Salmara [districts] have higher numbers, so it [action taken] might be more there. But otherwise it’s an action across the state.”
Dhubri and South Salmara are both Muslim-majority districts.
Sarma said this punitive drive is aimed at addressing the high maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR) in the state. Assam has the highest MMR in the country, with 195 deaths per 1 lakh live births recorded between 2018 and 2020, according to data released by the Registrar General of India in 2022.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5, Assam has the third-highest IMR among states and UTs — at 32 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Citing data from NFHS-5 on women between 15 and 19 years “who were already mothers or pregnant at the time of the survey”, Sarma said, “The number of girls getting pregnant at a young age in Assam is 11.7%. This means child marriage is occurring in an unprecedented way in Assam. When we look a little closer, in Dhubri 22.4% girls are not just getting married but are having to become mothers at a young age.”
Listing percentage of young mothers between 15 and 19 in some other districts, Sarma said it is 22% in South Salmara, 16.1% in Darrang, 15.7% in Kamrup, 15.6% in Hojai, 15.4% in Bongaigaon, 15% in Nagaon, and 14.2% in Barpeta.
He said, “In Dhubri, 50% marriages are taking place before the legal age, in South Salmara 44.7%… Assam’s average [of child marriage] is 31%. Even in Jorhat and Sivasagar, which we consider considerably progressive districts, 24.9% girls are getting married at a prohibited age.“
Sarma said the Cabinet has decided that in cases where men marry girls below 14 years, they will be booked under POCSO, and the proceedings will be initiated under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, in cases where the girl is between 14 and 18.
Under POCSO, penetrative sexual assault against a minor is punishable by imprisonment of not less than 10 years, which can extend to imprisonment for life. In addition, implementing provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, all 2,197 gram panchayat secretaries across the state will be made “Child Marriage Prevention Officers” and will be “duty-bound” to register an FIR in case of any child marriage within the gram panchayat’s jurisdiction.
“We have given police the responsibility of a massive action within 15 days,” Sarma said. “I have not given a time or date of marriages against which action will start. I just know that if there have been 1 lakh child marriages so far, 1 lakh [people] can’t be put in jail, so we leave something up to the police to decide.”
All-Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), which has been campaigning against child marriage for years, said it would support the state government in its efforts.
“We are of the view that there should be harsh action against child marriage,” AAMSU general secretary, Imtiaz Hussain, said. “We have been working against it for long…we will support the state government in such efforts.”
