CM Assam:In child marriages crackdown 2,789 being held so far

Guwahati: Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma said 2,789 people have been held so far in the ongoing crackdown on child marriage, which completed a week on Friday.

The government has also initiated a process to take steps to rehabilitate “victims” of child marriage.
“Now, total arrest 2789. The crackdown continues,” Tweet by Mr.Sarma.
Although there have been reports of protests by the families of those arrested at various places in the last few days, Assam Police spokesperson Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan said on Thursday that no such incident has taken place anywhere in the state in the last 24 hours.
The Assam Police launched a crackdown on child marriages on February 3, arresting more than 2,000 people in the first two days, including Hindu and Muslim priests, who performed the marriages.
These arrests are being made on the basis of 4,135 FIRs registered across the state.

The state government has set up a cabinet sub-committee on rehabilitation of “victims” of child marriage, and Sarma’s cabinet colleagues Ranoj Pegu, Keshab Mahanta and Ajanta Neog have been named as members of the panel.
Opposition parties have criticized the way the campaign was conducted, calling the arrests of teenage husbands and family members a “misuse of the law” for political gain, and the police action as tantamount to “terrorizing people”.

Sarma earlier this week justified the crackdown, saying that of the more than 6.2 lakh pregnant women in Assam last year, about 17 percent were teenagers.