Assam’s chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said in a statement that the state is continuing its fight against child marriage, adding that raids have been carried out overnight and that those arrested will be produced in court on Sunday.
Assam state had already arrested thousands in previous abolition drives that began in February 2023, including parents of married couples and registrars who signed off on underage betrothals.
A crackdown on illegal child marriages in the northeastern region of India has resulted in nearly 5,000 arrests, after 416 people were detained in the most recent police sweep, a minister said Sunday.
It brings the overall number of arrests to over 4,800 persons. Sarma has run on a platform of fully eliminating child marriages in his state by 2026. Although the legal marriage age in India is 18, millions of children are compelled to marry at a young age, particularly in disadvantaged rural communities.
Many parents marry off their children with the goal of enhancing their financial security. The consequences may be disastrous, with girls dropping out of school to cook and clean for their husbands and developing health issues as a result of giving birth at an early age. In a landmark 2017 decision, India’s Supreme Court ruled that intercourse with an underage wife constituted rape, a decision welcomed by activists.
