Assam Drive Against Child Marriages Is Unjustified
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2023-02-08 08:56:45
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
The Assam government has started prosecuting men who married their spouses when they were below marriageable age. More than 2500 arrests have been made, sparking protests from women. The drive is underway across the state.
While it is a noble initiative to stop child marriage and prosecute people for marrying under-aged girls (the age of marriage for girls in India is 18 and 21 years for boys but as per Muslim personal law, girls can be married on attaining puberty which in India could be as early as 11 years) or parents for marrying them off, the Assam drive is wrong for many reasons.
The first is the fact that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 provides that a child marriage can only be nullified if either of the spouses files a nullity petition in the district court proving that he or she was a child when the marriage took place. But Assam is now moving ahead with the PMCA and using it with retrospective effect despite the fact that without the petition from the spouse, the marriages cannot be nullified.
This is something that should not, and cannot, be done. It will break families as those now being prosecuted have children. What will happen to them if the marriage if forcefully nullified? The Assam government can take all steps it can to prevent child marriages henceforth but nullifying old marriages and prosecuting people retrospectively is bad in law and against due process.
Even if the fact that this is a targeted drive, or 'anti-Muslim' as Asasuddin Owaisi has termed it, is ignored, such mass arrests and breaking of families cannot be justified. The Assam chief minister's assertion that 'one generation will have to suffer' does not hold water if the suffering results in breaking of families and uncertain future for the women and their children. The Assam government must reconsider its decision, stop the drive and release those who have been arrested. Instead, it must educate people and initiate a social drive to stop child marriages.
