Assam cracks down on child marriages, over 2,000 arrested across the state

Police said they were still tabulating the profiles of those arrested. Officials of at least two districts told The Indian Express that only men above 18 have been arrested so far.

The police action follows an announcement by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on January 23 that the state government would launch a state-wide drive against child marriages. He said that while men who married girls below 14 would be booked under the POCSO Act, those marrying girls between 14 and 18 years would be booked under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. Since then, police have registered 4,074 cases across the state.

“Around two months ago, the Assam Police received a directive from the Chief Minister that there is information about rampant child marriage in various parts of the state. He had directed us to carry out an inquiry in this regard,” said DGP Singh. District SPs, he said, were asked to get in touch with local leaders, government functionaries and village heads to support the drive.

“Initially, we collected data for 2022, 2021 and 2020. On the basis of specific inputs where cognizable cases were made out, over the last two days, we registered 4,074 cases across districts of Assam,” he said.

The 4,074 FIRs together name around 8,000 people as accused. DGP Singh said that as of 3 pm on Friday, 2,044 people were arrested, including 52 religious heads accused of solemnising these marriages.

On Thursday, a day before launching the drive, CM Sarma had said, “Our main targets will be the mullahs, kazis and pujaris who encourage these marriages.” He also said that women whose husbands are arrested would be enrolled under the government’s Orunodoi scheme for financial assistance to vulnerable women.

On Friday, speaking to the media, DGP Singh said that the police teams who fanned out across the state met with no resistance on the ground. He also said that some people had moved out of their homes.

“The information being received is that since the arrests have started, people are now not being found in their homes. We will take some time to arrest them,” said Singh.

Supriya Das, SP, Udalguri, where 213 FIRs have been registered, with 58 arrests carried out on Friday, said, “We are not seeing any resistance. Ahead of this action, we had taken people into confidence and they have been supportive because this is a social initiative.”

In Bongaigaon district, where 123 FIRs have been registered and 87 people have been arrested, SP Swapnaneel Deka said they carried out awareness camps in areas near police stations. “People were aware of this issue and of the action. We were not met with any opposition,” Deka said.

A senior Congress leader said that while there could be some pushback from individual families, there is “not likely to be any organised opposition” to the drive because “nobody wants to be seen encouraging child marriages”.

Imtiaz Hussain, General Secretary of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union, which has been campaigning against child marriage for years, said that while he feels there are some “technical issues” with the action, “no social or political group will oppose this”.

“If someone married years ago and they have children now, I don’t know whether arresting them will address anything. It will end up harassing the woman and her children. So in that sense, this could end up being a gimmick. These issues have to be looked into but overall, we support the government’s steps,” he said.