With teenage pregnancy at 16.8%, why the child marriage crackdown in Assam is necessary

A report in Assam said that there is a high rate of infant and maternal mortality in Assam. Child marriages have been described as the main cause for this

New Delhi, Feb 07: There have been widespread protests following the crackdown by the Assam police on child marriages. The crackdown comes at a time when concerns have been expressed on the alarming rate at which teenage pregnancy is rising in the state.

Taking to Twitter, Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the teenage pregnancy rate in 2022 was at 16.8 per cent. According to the report of the total 620,867 total pregnancies reported in 2022, 104,264 were teenage mothers.

Sarma wrote, "our drive against child marriage is for public health and public welfare as teenage pregnancy rate in Assam is quite alarming-16.8%."

The drive to eradicate this social menace will go on till the next assembly elections, he said.

Sarma said that Barpeta tops the kist with 28.7 per cent followed b Dhubri and South Samara (27.9 per cent and Goalpara (24.1 per cent). At 8.4 per cent, Tinsukia registered the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy.

Sarma also informed that the state police have so far arrested 2,441 individuals in three days. "Total arrests so far-2441. Crackdown against child marriage continues in Assam," Sarma write.

He also appealed to the people of the state to cooperate with the government in controlling this problem.

We are resolved to continue this drive until we fulfil our objective. I urge the people to cooperate with us in controlling this harmful trend, he also said.

The police said that most of the cases have been registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POSCO) 2021.

While the crackdown continues, there have been protests and condemnation from leaders of opposition parties.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, Ripun Bora said that the law was being abused by the chief minister on the pretext of the crackdown. He also sought the intervention of the Gauhati High Court, while claiming that the police was acting as a puppet of the Chief Minister.

Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Assam Jatiya Parishad said that the government went ahead with the crackdown without even asserting its impact on the people.

The Congress on the other hand said that government is targeting one community with this drive.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi called the action as biased against Muslims.

CM Sarma however revealed on Monday that around 42 per cent of the arrested were Hindus while 58 per cent are Muslims.

According to the report of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), Assam has a high rate of maternal and infant mortality and child marriage is the primary cause for this.

The crackdown was undertaken after the state cabinet approved a proposal to book men who have married girls below the age of 14 under POSCO.