Gram Panchayat Secretaries to be designated as Child Marriage Prohibition Officers in Assam

The crackdown on child marriage in Assam is on it’s sixth day. As per Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s Twitter update, a total of 2,666 people have been arrested by the Police for being involved in child marriage. The arrests have been met with state wide protests by women as well as civil society.

In the latest development, a notification issued by the Governor of Assam has designated Gram Panchayat Secretaries as Child Marriage Prohibition Officers in the state.

The notification states “In pursuance of the approval of the Hon’ble Cabinet in its Meeting held on 23.01.2023, the Governor of Assam is pleased to designate Gram Panchayat Secretaries as Child Marriage Prohibition Officers in the State of Assam as per the provisions of Section 16 of “The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006”. The Child Marriage Prohibition Officer will lodge FIR under “The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012” (as amended in 2019) or under “The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006”, as the case may be.”

It is worth mentioning here that the Police force in the state is finding it difficult to accommodate individuals accused of child marriage in jails. Hence a temporary jail facility has been created in Goalpara’s Transit Camp to house people accused of child marriage. The Transit Camp was originally built to accommodate illegal immigrants in the state. A similar facility has also been created at Cachar district’s National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) to accommodate inmates accused of child marriage from all three districts of Barak Valley.