Crackdown on child marriage 100 weddings put off and 2,278 held in Assam

More than 100 weddings were either cancelled or postponed in the Barak Valley districts of southern Assam, while 2,278 people have been arrested and 4,074 cases registered till Sunday in a massive police crackdown on child marriage across the state.

The sweeping action followed an Assam cabinet decision on January 23 that directed police to arrest and punish men who have married girls below 18, the legal minimum age at which women can marry in India. Police were told to round up men who have married girls below 14 under the Pocso Act, and arrest those who wedded girls in the 14 to 18 age group under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.