More than 2,000 men arrested in crackdown on illegal child marriages in India
Among those arrested were more than 50 Hindu priests and Muslim clerics for allegedly performing marriages for girls under the age of 18.
Saturday 4 February 2023 23:27, UK
A seven-year-old child bride sits in the back of a truck as she waits for the rest of her family members after being wed. File pic: AP
Image:
Many cases of child marriage in India go unreported. File pic: AP
Why you can trust Sky News
Police in India have arrested more than 2,000 men in a crackdown on illegal child marriages.
Among those arrested were more than 50 Hindu priests and Muslim clerics for allegedly performing marriages for girls under the age of 18 in the northeastern state of Assam, police said.
Sponsored link
Recommended byWhat is Outbrain
Many cases of child marriage in Assam go unreported.
In India, men are legally allowed to marry aged 21 and women at 18.
TV footage showed some young women with infants in their arms crying and protesting against the sudden arrests of their husbands.
One woman asked: “We were struggling and somehow making ends meet. But we were happy together. Who will provide for our livelihood now that my husband has been arrested?”
State police chief Gyanendra Pratap Singh said child marriages were one reason behind the state’s high infant mortality and maternal mortality rates.
MORE ON INDIA
Gautam Adani in Bangalore in 2016. Pic: AP
India’s richest man Gautam Adani loses $100bn in less than a week
Police detain Students Federation of India activists outside the Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Tensions escalated in the university after a student group said it planned to screen a banned documentary that examines Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots, prompting dozens of police equipped with tear gas and riot gear to gather outside campus gates. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
India: Police and students clash as tensions rise over banned BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi
Cough syrup being poured into a spoon
Cough syrup deaths: WHO urges ‘immediate action’ after 300 child deaths last year
Related Topics:
India
Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state’s top elected official, said: “I have asked the Assam police to act with a spirit of zero tolerance against the unpardonable and heinous crime on women.”
India’s parliament is considering raising the age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 in order to bring it in line with men and promote gender equality.
Poverty, lack of education and social norms and practices, particularly in rural areas, are considered to be the reasons behind child marriages across the country.
