Many families are being broken...
The government of Assam started a massive anti child marriage drive since Friday and announced that arrests will be made on more than 4000 cases registered in the last 9 days for child marriage in the state. He said the police will retrospectively book people who participated in child marriage in the last seven years and the focus will especially be on “Mullahs, Qazis and Pujaris” conducting these marriages.
Almost 1800 people were booked by 11am yesterday. Of the 4000 plus cafés registered the highest number — 370 — were registered in Dhubri district. This is followed by 255 in Hojai, 224 in Morigaon, 204 in Kokrajhar and 171 in Nalbari.
The arrests were made under the POSCO act and the prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2007. This would mean that anyone marrying a girl below or under the age of 18 will be arrested.
However this drive is also breaking down marriages and families since apart from the cases recently registered, cases have been allegedly registered against husbands who are more than a decade into their marriage and also have children. Many husbands who have long been married were also being taken away by police and in seniors where the husbands were the only breadwinners, it left the families helpless and crying.
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