Guwahati: The Assam government will soon establish a rehabilitation strategy for people who were married as children, particularly for those women whose husbands were arrested during the recent crackdown.
As part of its statewide campaign against child marriages, Assam police have so far arrested 2278 people and filed 4074 cases in connection with cases involving child marriages across the state.
“The idea is not to keep them in jail. The idea is to show a demonstrative action that society is against child marriage. We have started a crackdown on child marriage and will continue it,” said chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as saying. “If in a case of murder, if the only breadwinner becomes an accused, will the police not arrest him? In our law, the word ‘sympathy’ can’t be exercised by the police. ‘Sympathy’ can be exercised only by a court of law,” he added.
Meanwhile, the opposition criticised the current crackdown while poking fun at the government.
Addressing a press conference earlier this week, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said the crackdown will continue till the state elections in 2026.
“For the past six years, there has been a BJP Government in Assam. What have you been doing during the past six years? This is your failure for the past six years. You are sending them to jails. Now who will take care of those girls? CM (Himanta Biswa Sarma) will? It is a failure of the state and on top of that you are pushing them into misery,” the chief minister said.
It should be noted that the Assam police have reportedly made 139 arrests in cases involving child marriage in the districts of Biswanath, 126 in Dhubri, 120 in Baksa, 114 in Barpeta, 97 in Nagaon, 94 in Kokrajhar, 87 in Bongaigaon, 76 in Hailakandi, 72 in Cachar, and 72 in Goalpara.
“These persons were involved in child marriage, and booked under terms of the Child Marriage Act,” claims Karimganj SP Padmanabh Baruah.