After crackdown, Assam sees 81% dip in child marriages

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, July 17

Owing to the Assam Government’s stringent action against child marriages under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, and the POCSO Act, 2012, there has been a reduction in such cases by 81 per cent since 2022, says a report released on Wednesday.

In 2023, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma launched a state-wide drive against child marriages under the PCMA and the POCSO Act, stating that marrying a minor girl was not only against the law, but it also breached the fundamental rights of a girl child and was dangerous to her health. This brought down child marriage cases in 20 districts of Assam from 3,225 in 2021–22 to 627 in 2023–24.

In 2023, 3,015 arrests were made in cases involving child marriages in Assam.

“The drive against child marriage has resulted in registration of 5,225 FIRs under the PCMA and the POCSO Act. The CM announced that the police will retrospectively arrest those involved in child marriage in the past seven years,” says report titled ‘Towards Justice Ending Child Marriage’ by a team of the India Child Protection. The report was released by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Wednesday.

Early this year, the Assam Cabinet repealed the age-old Assam Muslim Marriages & Divorces Registration Act. This Act contained provisions allowing marriage registration even if the bride and groom had not reached the legal ages of 18 and 21, respectively, as required by the law. “Across India, civil society organisations have successfully prevented 14,137 child marriages in 2023-24 by using legal interventions,” it says.