On February 3, Assam’s chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched what he called “war against child marriage.” The state police has now arrested more than 3000 people who allegedly facilitated child marriages and said that about 5000 more people are still at large. Pranjal Baruah reported for this episode from Assam. This is the first podcast in the two part series on this subject.

In this episode we try to understand if this kind of crackdown benefits those who the state government wants to rescue- the women and girls who were married when they were children. We hear the stories of women who are protesting against this move, as well as child rights activists Miguel Das Queah and Bharati Ali from Haq: Centre for Child Rights.

References

THE PROHIBITION OF CHILD MARRIAGE ACT, 2006
National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5)
Status of IMR and MMR in India
SAMPLE REGISTRATION SYSTEM (SRS)-SPECIAL BULLETIN ON MATERNAL MORTALITY IN INDIA 2018-20

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