Karbi Anglong police swings into action on child marriages

Following the directive of Assam police, the Karbi Anglong police on Friday filed cases against 126 persons for allegedly marrying minor girls from various parts of the district.

Addressing a press conference on Friday evening, Superintendent of Police, Karbi Anglong, Sanjib Kumar Saikia, said the hunt against marrying minor girls was to check child marriage due to high rates of infant and maternal mortalities in the country.

“In the last SP meeting convened by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, he was concerned about the high rate of child marriage in the state. The CM has directed us to find the number of child marriages in respective districts. Accordingly, we have started hunting for those involved in marrying minor girls,” the SP said.

 “Till yesterday we registered 126 cases relating to the marriage of minor girls and out of these, 53 persons including husbands, middlemen and kajis have been arrested,” Saikia disclosed.

Related: Massive crackdown against child marriages in Assam

He also stated that due to the high rate of child marriage, there is high rate of child and maternal mortality.

The only way out is to stop child marriage and the central and state governments have taken initiative in this regard, he added.

Diphu, Feb. 3 (EMN)