On Monday, January 23, the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam Government announced that strict measures will be implemented across the state to keep a check on the spike in child marriages in the state. The Assam government said that legal action against men who marry girls below 14 years of age would be initiated under the POCSO Act and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting that was held on January 23, where the CM said that the move was based on a thorough discussion of the National Family Health Survey (NHFS) 5 by the state government.
In today’s #AssamCabinet, we took a slew of decisions pertaining to curbing child marriage, reduction of IMR & MMR, promoting police personnel permanently injured in the line of duty, recognition to services of contractual teachers, creating centres for sporting excellence, etc. pic.twitter.com/BsRRYcCd3H
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) January 23, 2023
“We have directed the police to launch within 15 days a massive crackdown against those marrying underage girls. It will be a priority in our governance, to take sustained steps against child marriage so that our state can become free from child marriage within five years,” the chief minister said. The move was apparently inspired by similar rule in Karnataka.
“The Karnataka government is doing this. So we are taking a bit of inspiration from Karnataka,” the Assam Chief Minister said.
Assam CM explained how the Centre’s survey, conducted between 2019 and 2020, revealed an “alarming” 11.7 percent of underage mothers or pregnant girls in the state, much higher than the national average of 6.8 percent. The CM said that the figures reflected “rampant” child marriage, a root cause of high maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in Assam.
Under the actions that the Assam government has planned, it said, “FIR would be lodged under POCSO Act in situations where the girl’s age is under 14 years and under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 in cases where the girl’s age is between 14 years and 18 years.”
The POCSO Act of 2012 defines a child as anyone under the age of 18, and it criminalises sex between an underage child and an adult. The statute defines ‘sexual crime’ as when the husband engages in sexual activity with his wife who is under the age of 14. According to POCSO, a violation of the regulation results in a life sentence for the male partner, CM Sarma said.
If both partners are under the age of 14, the marriage will be deemed illegal, and the boy will be taken to juvenile court because minors cannot be tried in court. Furthermore, under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006, action will be taken against those who marry girls between 14 and 18 years of age.
According to Sarma, the police have been asked to conduct a huge anti-child marriage campaign, as well as take action against persons who violate the rules and warn people against the malice. “Every village will have a Child Protection Officer designated, and the Gram Panchayat Secretary would be responsible for reporting any child marriages that occur there,” the CM added.
High courts rule that the marriage of Muslim girls after attaining puberty is valid as per Muslim personal law
While Assam has launched a massive crackdown against child marriage, it should be recalled how recently, the Delhi High Court justified child marriage by upholding the legality of a 15-year-old minor girl’s marriage, stating that she is of ‘Marriageable Age’ under Islamic Sharia Law.
Interestingly, this is not the first case where a court has held the marriage of a minor Muslim girl legal. Recently, Punjab And Haryana High Court also justified child marriage by granting protection to a 16-year-old Muslim Girl who married a 21-year-old Muslim boy while noting that she is of marriageable age under Muslim Personal Law.
Kerala and Karnataka HC ruled child marriages as illegal
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court declared that a marriage under Muslim personal law is not exempt from the POCSO Act and that if one of the parties to such a marriage is a juvenile, the criminal offence under POCSO would be attracted, regardless of the legitimacy of the marriage under the personal law. Karnakata High Court had also ruled that POCSO Act overrides Personal Law as it is a special act, and therefore the marriage of minor Muslim girls is invalid even if it is allowed under the personal law.
