MORIGAON, India (AP) — Nureja Khatun, 19, looks worried outside the local police station in her village in northeastern India. She holds her six-month-old baby in her arms and waits for a quick glance at her husband before the police take him to court.
Almost an hour later she saw her husband Akbar Ali being pushed into a police car in mere seconds. Before she can get her answer, the cop slams the door in her face.
“Please release her husband. If you don’t, you’ll be detaining me too,” she asked.
Nureja Katun, 19, holds her 6-month-old baby to release her husband Akbor Ali, who was sitting in a police van, Morigaon district, Assam, northeastern India, Saturday, 11 February 2023. calls the police. she takes to court. Hatun’s husband, including a Hindu and Muslim priest, was arrested almost two weeks ago in the northeastern state of Assam as part of a sweeping crackdown on illegal child marriages to girls under the age of 18.
Nureja Khatun, 19, is asking police to release her after carrying her six-month-old baby while taking her husband, Akbor Ali, to court in the Morigaon district of Assam, northeastern India.
This behavior terrorized her and hundreds of other women like her who were married before the age of 18. Many of the women who grew up felt angry and helpless as their families were torn apart.
Khatun was left in the care of her Ali, who in 2021 eloped when she was 17. As a laborer she earns 400 rupees (US$5) a day Ali is the sole breadwinner in her family and her couple had a baby girl when she was six months old. “There is no one to feed us now. I don’t know if my family will survive,” Khatun said.
Strict measures are in place in 35 million states where many cases of child marriage go unreported. According to the National Crime Records Service, he had only 155 child marriages recorded in Assam in 2021, compared with 138 in 2020.
In India, the legal age of marriage is 21 for a man and 18 for a woman. Poverty, lack of education, and social norms and practices, especially in rural areas, are recognized reasons for child marriage across the country.
UNICEF estimates that 1.5 million girls under the age of 18 get married each year in India, making India the country with the highest number of child brides in the world, accounting for one-third of the world’s total. increase. According to data from India’s National Health and Family Survey, more than 31% of her marriages registered in Assam are in the forbidden age group.
Activists and political opponents in the state believe that Assam’s ruling party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has attacked the majority of Bengali-speaking Muslim neighborhoods and neighborhoods in the state. accused of making arrests.
Ahmed said the arrests have done more harm than good to the Assamese community. Most of the wives affected were uneducated, unemployed, and came from poor families where the husband was the sole breadwinner.
