Child marriage crackdown leaves families in anguish

MORIGAON — Standing outside the local police station in her village in northeast India, 19-year-old Nureja Khatun is anxious. Cradling her six-month-old baby in her arms, she has been waiting to catch a glimpse of her husband before the police take him away to court.

Nearly an hour later, she sees her husband, Akbar Ali, for just a few seconds when he is shuffled into a police van. An officer slams the door in her face before she is able to get any answers.

“Please release my husband. Otherwise take me into custody as well,” she pleaded.

Khatun’s husband is one of more than 3,000 men, including Hindu and Muslim priests, who were arrested nearly two weeks ago in the northeastern state of Assam under a wide crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18.

The action has left her — and hundreds of other women like her who got married under 18 — in anguish. Many of the women, who are now adults, say their families have been torn apart, leaving them angry and helpless.

Khatun relied on Ali, with whom she eloped in 2021 when she was 17, to take care of her. Earning 400 rupees ($5) a day as a laborer, Ali was the sole breadwinner in their family, and the couple had a baby girl six months ago.

“Now there is no one to feed us. I don’t know if my family can survive,” Khatun said.

The stringent measures are being carried out in a state, home to 35 million people, where many cases of child marriage go unreported. Only 155 cases of child marriages in Assam were registered in 2021, and 138 in 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

In India, the legal marriageable age is 21 for men and 18 for women. Poverty, lack of education, and social norms and practices, particularly in rural areas, are considered reasons for child marriages across the country.

1.5 million

Unicef estimates that at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India every year, making it home to the largest number of child brides in the world — accounting for a third of the global total. India’s National Health Family Survey data shows that more than 31 percent of marriages registered in Assam involve the prohibited age group.

The state government passed a resolution last month to completely eradicate the practice of child marriage by 2026.

In some districts, teenage pregnancies are as high as 26 percent, said Assam’s additional director general of police AVY Krishna. “These child marriages have become a social evil and as a result the mortality rates have been quite high,” he said.

But others said the government should raise awareness through education and social campaigns instead of arrests. “According to Supreme Court guidelines, arrests should be the last resort,” said senior advocate Anshuman Bora. “Out of the blue, they decide to start making mass arrests to tackle the problem. Instead, they should focus on social reforms to stop it.” (AP)