Assam: 17-year-old girl kills self in Cachar district over child marriage crackdown in state

A 17-year-old girl committed suicide in Assam's Cachar district, on February 5, after her parents turned away from their promise and didn't give consent to tie the knot with a boy with whom she was in love.

The girl, who was a resident of Khaspur village of Rajnagar Gaon Panchayat under Dhalai police station Cachar, fell in love with a young man and her parents promised to marry her.

However, after the Assam government launched a drive against child marriage and imposed legal restrictions, the girl's parents did not give their consent for the marriage. Following this, the girl committed suicide. 

It is worth mentioning that ever since the Assam government launched a drive against child marriage in the state, as many as 4074 cases have been registered and a total of 2258 persons have been arrested in the last two days. 

Biswanath district has the highest number of arrested persons which stands at 139 and 97 cases have been registered in the district. On the other hand, Barpeta district has the second-highest number of arrests made which stands at 128 and the total number of cases registered is 81. 

Besides this, Dhubri has the third highest number of arrested persons which stands at 127 and 374 cases have been registered against child marriage in the district. 

It is to be noted that the arrests have been made from the districts which have the highest number of the minority population.

Interestingly, arrests have also been made in the Majuli district which has around 592 Muslim population. A total of 43 cases of child marriage have been registered in the district and 24 arrests have been made so far.

Also read: Assam: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi takes dig at state government over crackdown on child marriage, calls it a PR exercise