Child Marriage Rears Ugly Head in Assam, 14-Yr-Old Married Off to Adult

Dhubri, March 21, 2020:

Child Marriage -- a concept that should have embraced its death way back in the olden days, is still going strong in India and a shocking report of an Assam Advocate illegally approving the marriage of a 14-year-old to a 29-year-old has surfaced.

Advocate Saiful Islam of Dhubri issued a Deed of Marriage Agreement on March 11, declaring the marriage of the two. The Agreement, however, hid the actual age of the child bride and referred to her as a 19-year-old.

This was revealed on accessing a copy of the School, in which she studied. The School had issued a certificate stating the age of the girl as seven in year 2013.

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"That, both the parties hereby have performed their marriage today as per Muslim Law and Sariat Act and from today they become husband and wife," stated the Deed of Marriage Agreement issued on March 11, 2020. It further stated that the groom's side has settled the union with an initial payment of Rs. 1,000 out of Rs. 1, 50,000 as  Mahr.

The Deed has also mentioned that the marriage took place with witnesses from both the families. "That both the parties will lead a happy and peaceful conjugal life as husband and wife at the residence of the 1st party according to Shariat and customs and perform marital obligations towards each other honestly and sincerely, maintaining good relation with the other family members of the parties," stated the Deed.

Illias Rahman Sarkar is a social activist from Dhubri, who works for the welfare of women and protection of child rights. He has rescued nearly a hundred child brides from getting married to older men in the past years. He learnt about the case of the 14-year-old child bride through a secret source.

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"My secret source informed about the child marriage here. After accessing the information from her school and others, I informed the Dhubri Child Welfare Committee, DSP Trinayan Bhuyan, Assam State Child Rights (ASPC) and child rights activists," said Illias.

According to Illias, the ASPC, Bar Council and CWC will be taking the necessary actions after the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown in the state on March 31.

Child marriage has continued to exist despite the countless social campaigns condemning such archaic practices that pose as a developmental block in the country.

On Friday, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani revealed that Assam topped the list having the highest number of child marriage cases in India.

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Irani said that Assam has recorded the maximum cases of underage marriage. Assam reported 88 child marriages, followed by Karnataka and Kolkata with 73 and 70 cases respectively.

Irani, in a written reply to a query on child marriage incidents over the years, said that the percentage of women (in the age-group of 20-24 years) who were married before attaining the age of 18, has reduced from 47.4% in 2005-6 to 26.8% in 2015-16 as per the National Family Health Survey.

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data of 2016 and 2018, 326 child marriages were reported while 395 and 501 child marriages were reported in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

It may be mentioned here that Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep did not witness any child marriage in recent years.

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