Guwahati, July 19: In a decisive move to combat child marriage and promote gender justice, the Assam government is all set to introduce the Assam Repealing Bill 2024 which aims to annul the Assam Muslims Marriages and Divorce Registration Act of 1935 and the accompanying rules.

“We have taken a significant step to ensure justice for our daughters and sisters by putting additional safeguards against child marriage,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on X (formerly Twitter). The new bill seeks to standardize marriage and divorce registration across communities, ensuring no loopholes that allow child marriages to persist.

The Bill will be tabled in the upcoming monsoon session of the Assam Legislative Assembly. In tandem with this, the cabinet has called for the introduction of new legislation for the registration of Muslim marriages under government authority.

Sarma emphasized that The Assam Muslim Marriage Act allowed child marriage. “We have scrapped it and promulgated an ordinance. Now, we make it a bill that will enable Muslim marriage registration under the government authority.” he said.

Sarma highlighted the pervasive nature of child marriage, noting that while it predominantly affects minority communities, it is not confined to them. “Child marriage is not like this. 80% of child marriage happens in minority communities, but 20% also happens in the majority. We shouldn’t see child marriage from the prism of religion,” he stated. He also hinted at another round of arrests in November and December to further curb this practice.

The government’s efforts have already yielded results, with a significant drop in teenage pregnancies from 9,330 in April 2022 to 3,401 in June 2024. Alongside these measures, the Assam government is also planning to declare polygamy “unconstitutional” and “illegal” through state legislation.

Sarma previously disclosed on the second anniversary of his government that banning polygamy would be part of the broader Uniform Civil Code (UCC) likely to be introduced by the Centre. During the crackdown on child marriage, it was revealed that many elderly men had married multiple young girls, highlighting the urgent need to address polygamy. The state government aims to introduce a bill to ban polygamy in the upcoming budget session of the Assam Legislative Assembly.

“We are lining up an act to ban polygamy in the state during the budget session of the assembly. It is with the Law Department for vetting,” Sarma said. An expert committee has already submitted a report on the assembly’s competence to end polygamy, and the government has received 150 suggestions regarding the proposed bill.

As Assam gears up for these legislative changes, the government remains committed to examining and implementing measures to eradicate these social menaces, ensuring justice and equality for all its citizens.

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