Guwahati: Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi on Friday criticised Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for launching a campaign against child marriage and claimed that girls under the age of 18 who are pregnant prefer to give birth at home rather than go to hospitals out of fear of having their fathers and husbands arrested.
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Gaurav Gogoi remarked that the crackdown on child weddings in Assam was a stupid move that resulted in the death of a teenage girl in the Bongaigaon district as she was travelling to the hospital.
Taking to twitter, the congress leader said “Today, we got to know a teenage mother died because she bled to death due to complications during childbirth in the absence of community & ASHA workers. Even ordinary families feel that ASHA workers will report the matter to govt & local police”
The Assam government established a cabinet subcommittee earlier on February 9 in response to the state’s campaign against child marriage, with the goal of finalising a rehabilitation policy for child marriage within 15 days.
The sub-committee comprises Health Minister Keshab Mahanta, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu, and Finance Minister Ajanta Neog.
Speaking on the subject, Pegu stated that the committee will research various strategies for rehabilitating the girls who had young marriages.
Besides this, the cabinet also made other decisions and took other actions, one of which was to borrow money from the World Bank to build 10 new district hospitals.
”The process of getting the sum from the World Bank has been completed. Another 25 rural hospitals will be renovated in the state,” Mahanta informed.
According to the Mahanta, the cabinet has resolved to provide out Rs 150 crore for the seven cancer care hospitals’ current building projects.
The cabinet has also resolved to pay back the money that state officers and employees spend for COVID treatment.