According to a minister on Sunday, a crackdown on unlawful child weddings in northeastern India has led to nearly 5,000 arrests, with 416 people being taken into custody in the most recent police sweep.
The Assam state chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, declared in a statement that “we will continue to take bold steps to end this social evil.”
He continued by stating that raids had been conducted overnight and that those detained will appear in court on Sunday, adding, “Assam continues its fight against child marriage. According to the UN, there are over 220 million child brides in India, although this century has seen a sharp decline in the number of child weddings.
In previous abolition drives that started in February 2023, Assam state has already detained thousands of people, including registrars who approved of minor marriages and parents of married couples.
This brings the number of persons arrested to above 4,800.
The goal of Sarma’s program was to eradicate child marriage entirely in his state by 2026.
Millions of youngsters are compelled to marry early, especially in impoverished rural communities, even though the legal marriage age in India is 18.
In an attempt to increase their financial stability, many parents marry off their children. The outcomes can be disastrous, with females quitting school to help their husbands with cooking and cleaning and experiencing health issues as a result of early childbirth.
India’s top court ruled in a historic 2017 decision that sex with an underage wife was rape, a decision that activists applauded.
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