Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he put the drive on hold as he was awaiting for the G20 Summit to end and now the campaign will be relaunched to eradicate the menace of child marriage from the state.
New Delhi: The Assam government will soon re-launch it’s campaign against child marriages in the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Sunday, adding that that state police will arrest around 3,000 men in the coming days.
“Last time, I arrested 5,000 people in our drive against child marriage in the state. We will relaunch the drive against the abuse in the next 10 days. I will arrest 2,000-3,000 people for child marriage in the coming days, we have to eradicate this menace,” Sarma said while speaking at the concluding session of the national executive meeting of BJP’s women’s wing.
The Assam chief minister said that he put the drive on hold as he was awaiting for the G20 Summit to end and now the campaign will be relaunched to eradicate the menace of child marriage from the state.
Subtly hinting at the minority community, Sarma claimed that “daughters from a particular group will not progress” if child marriages keep taking place. “They will keep getting exploited unless we end this practice once and for all. The law strictly says child marriages are illegal, yet they keep happening, this should end,” he said.
Sarma claimed that the amount of work BJP government has done, and is doing for Muslims, far outweighs anything that any previous Congress government did before. “I believe that by ending (triple) talaq, child marriage, and polygamy, the amount of work that we are doing for the Muslims, no Congress government has done before,” the chief minister said.
Over 2,600 people were arrested by the state police during its crackdown against child marriages in the state earlier in February this year.
The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 prohibits child marriage in India and also protects and provides assistance to the victims of child marriages.