Child Marriage, On February 3, just after midnight, cops arrived at the home of a vegetable merchant to imprison his elder brother for reportedly marrying a minor. They indicted the parents after they were unable to track down the elder brother.
The mother, who is nearly 50 years old, is one of 22 women detained by police in Assam’s Baksa district as part of a clampdown on child marriages. According to the reports, 3,040 persons, which include 94 women, have already been apprehended since the police action emerged on February 3.
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The mother of the vegetable vendor is being held at the Matia Transit Camp in the Goalpara district. The camp, Assam’s first “detention facility” built solely to house “illegal foreign nationals,” has been momentarily declared a jail to hold those detained in connection with child marriage instances.
What did the vendor have to say ?
“My brother was not present at home when the police turned up, so they detained our parents,” the vegetable vendor explained. We assumed that if he agreed to surrender, they would consider releasing him, so he headed to the police station to turn himself in. He was taken into custody, but our parents remain imprisoned.”
With half his family in prison and his sister-in-law returning to her parents ’ house, he is now responsible for his two young siblings.
Is such an arrest frequent in Assam?
In some other neighbourhood in the same district, a woman in her 50s was imprisoned from her house during the early hours of February 3 after officers were unable to track down their son. This lady is also staying at the Matia Transit Camp.
While women are rarely taken into custody, fathers, as well as brothers of men accused of getting married to minors, have been jailed across the country in their absence.
According to local cops, the family members are being held for being “promoters” of child marriages.
Such kinds of apprehensions of close relatives or intermediaries have not been executed in all situations, Assam Inspector specifically explained. They were carried out in cases where actual proof of them assisting it (child marriages) emerged during the investigation.”
Over 8,000 people were labelled as accused in FIRs in the 4,000 cases registered by police at the start of this crackdown. Family members of people who reportedly married minors say the uncertainty of who might be charged in connection with a case has caused widespread distress.
Similarly, a woman and her three-month-old child started protesting in front of a police precinct after her husband was taken into custody from their home in the Morigaon district after officers failed to locate his younger brother. In fact, both of the accused’s elder brothers were apprehended as his mobile was turned off.
There are approximately 600 million women in the world presently who were forced to marry as children. Figures indicate that more than 1 million girls marry before turning legally adults in India, which holds the unfortunate consequence of having the highest number of child brides. According to a national survey, more than 40% of women in Assam married before reaching the legal marriage age.
A measure to combat the issue by the Chief Minister:
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma officially confirmed that his government will introduce a statewide campaign against child marriage, prosecuting men who marry girls under the age of 14 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and those who marry girls between the ages of 14 and 18 under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
