Days after the Gauhati observed that the crackdown on child marriages in Assam created “havoc in the private life of people”, a cross-section of Society on Sunday appealed to the State Government to look at it from a humane angle and focus more on creating awareness to end the social evil. With the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government stating that the ongoing drive against child marriages will be intensified, the opposition termed the exercise as a “political stunt” with a “communal design”.
The state cabinet recently approved a proposal to book men who have married girls below 14 years of age under the POCSO Act, 2012. Cases under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 will be registered against those who have married girls in the age group of 14-18, the cabinet had decided.