On February 3, the Assam government launched a ferocious campaign against child marriages throughout the state, registering over 4,000 cases. 3,145 people had been arrested as of Tuesday.
Assam’s Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said on Tuesday that not a single instance of a child marriage had occurred in the state in the previous month to support the state’s crackdown on the practise.
On February 3, the Assam government launched a ferocious campaign against child marriages throughout the state, registering over 4,000 cases. 3,145 people had been detained as of Tuesday.
“In Assam, not a single child marriage has occurred in the past month.” This is a significant accomplishment. “Everyone has praised our efforts to combat this social threat,” Sarma remarked during a press conference in this city.
He claimed that out of all those detained, the courts had granted bail to about 900 people.
“I believed they would be let out of the jails in seven to eight days. But after 14–15 days, the majority of them received bail. The judiciary also praised our action, according to Sarma.
On February 14, the Gauhati High Court said that there was no reason to keep the accused in jail and question them. The court said that the widespread arrests made as part of the campaign against child marriage caused “chaos in people’s private lives.”
The state administration was harshly criticised by Judge Suman Shyam of the high court for applying strict laws, such as those concerning rape, to those detained in child marriage cases.