416 arrested across Assam in child marriage cases'

Assam continues its fight against child marriage. We will continue to take bold steps to end this social evil HIMANTA BISWA SARMA, Assam chief minister

- Biswa Kalyan Purkayastha

SILCHAR: Assam police have arrested 416 people across the state and registered 345 cases in the third phase of a campaign against child marriages, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.

The drive started late on Saturday night, the chief minister said, further promising to take "bold steps" against the "social evil".

"Assam continues its fight against child marriage. In Phase 3 operations launched on the night of Dec 21-22, 416 arrests were made and 335 cases registered. The arrested individuals will be produced in court today. We will continue to take bold steps to end this social evil!," the chief minister said in a post on X.

The Assam director general of police, Gyanendra Pratap Singh, said further arrests were likely with the state government aiming to eradicate child marriages by the end of 2025.

"The drive against child marriages in Assam continues with vigour. After two rounds of positive action in February and October 2023, the third round is being carried out since December 21, 2024. The action has resulted in positive impact on IMR, MMR and Assam's rankings in the SDG indices," he said on X.

Sharing some statistics on infant mortality rates (IMR) and maternal mortality rates, Singh said that the IMR was 9,472 in 2020-21, which dropped to 4,790 in 2023-24. The MMR was 984 in 2020-21 and reduced to 372 in 2023-24, Singh said.

Separately addressing a press conference, additional director general of police (ADGP) MP Gupta said, "Among those arrested are men who had married underage girls, family members and also two kazis, one each in Sonitpur and South Salmara districts."

Gupta said that in the first phase of the drive in February 2023, 3,425 arrests were made and 4,387 cases registered. In the second in October 2023, 913 accused were held and 682 cases registered.