Indian police crack down on illegal child marriages, over 2,000 arrested – National | 24CA News
Indian police have arrested greater than 2,000 males in a crackdown on unlawful baby marriages involving ladies below the age of 18 in a northeastern state, officers mentioned Saturday.
Those arrested this week included greater than 50 Hindu monks and Muslim clerics for allegedly performing marriages for underage ladies in Assam, state police chief Gyanendra Pratap Singh mentioned.
“We have so far arrested 2,169 men based on 4,074 registered police cases involving a total of about 8,000 men,” mentioned Singh.
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Many circumstances of kid marriage in Assam, a state of 35 million folks, go unreported.
Only 155 circumstances of kid marriages within the state had been registered in 2021, and 138 in 2020, based on the National Crime Records Bureau.
In India, the authorized marriageable age is 21 for males and 18 for ladies. Poverty, lack of training, and social norms and practices, notably in rural areas, are thought-about causes for baby marriages throughout the nation.
Television pictures on Friday confirmed some younger ladies with infants of their arms, crying and protesting the sudden arrests of their husbands.
“We were struggling and somehow making ends meet. But we were happy together. Who will provide for our livelihood now that my husband has been arrested?” requested a younger girl.
Singh mentioned baby marriages had been one motive for the state’s excessive toddler mortality and maternal mortality charges.
“I have asked the Assam police to act with a spirit of zero tolerance against the unpardonable and heinous crime on women,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state’s high elected official, tweeted.
India’s Parliament is contemplating laws to lift the age for marriage for ladies to 21 from 18, to convey it consistent with males and promote gender equality.
India’s Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani advised Parliament on Friday that the transfer would allow ladies to finish their training and obtain financial independence aside from reaching bodily and psychological maturity.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
