Women gather in Silchar protesting against "arbitrary arrests" in the guise of "child marriage crackdown"

The crackdown on child marriage in Assam has gained further momentum. On the fourth day as per Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma’s Twitter update, a total of 2,528 people have been arrested by the Police for being involved in child marriage. The arrests have been met with statewide protests by women of the arrested husbands in Assam as well as by the civil society.

On Tuesday, a gathering of women belonging to civil society staged a protest in front of Khudiram statue in Silchar demanding to stop the alleged police atrocities on people arrested due to child marriage. The protestors held placards with slogans like “Niriho jonosadharoner upor policer julumbaji bondho koro”, “Ballo bibaho bondhe jothajotho sochetonota gore tulte hobe”, “Otite ghota ballo bibahor jonno niriho jonosadharonke greftar kora cholbe na.”

Addressing the gathering one of the protestors said, “Child marriage is a socio- economic issue. Who has the responsibility to look after the socio-economic issues? Who has the responsibility to make people self-sufficient, educated and conscious? It is the duty of the government and they have failed to perform their responsibility. Instead, they are putting the blame on common people. A 12-year-old girl who should have been studying in a school is instead married off to a man. Isn’t that a matter of investigation by the government? As per a report by the education minister, 6000 government schools have been closed in the state. Where will the students of these schools go?”

Later the police headed by Silchar Sadar OC arrived at the spot and dispersed the gathering deploying force. They detained the protestors. Among the detained four of them were Snighdha Nath, Dulali Ganguly, Sima Ghosh, Ator Jan Majumdar.