Land of migrants

Nearly 2500 husbands of alleged ‘minor’ wives have been arrested in Assam while over 4000 FIRs have been lodged against those suspected of having child marriages as the BJP-led coalition government under Himanta Biswa Sarma is on top gear against child marriages. Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congress politician who switched sides after being hounded by the ED over alleged involvement in the Saradhha Scam, has become converted into a hard core Hindutvawadi under the tutelage of the Modi-Shah reign. Himanta is an unabashed enforcer of majoritarianism in Assam, a state that has given birth to all states in the north east. Besides demolition of ‘encroached areas’ or coming down hard on mardrasas since 2021 when several were bulldozed on charges that they were imparting anti-India feelings and promoting extreme Islamic terrorism. Himanta has also closed down several of those mardrasas which were not following the state government guidelines on education. Himanta’s recent mission against child marriages is mainly directed at muslims which was driven by the National Family Health Survey(NFHS) report that Assam’s Total Fertility Rate(TFR) or average number of children born per woman- is 1.9 per cent, well below the national average of 2.However the TFR among muslims in Assam was at 2.4, billed as the highest in the country. The NFHS-5 showed that 50.8 per cent of all women in Dhubri between 20 and 24 years got married before they turned 18. South Salmara, another Muslim-dominated district, at 44.7 per cent recorded the second-highest number of child marriages. This triggered a reaction on January 23,2023, when the Himanta cabinet issued instructions to police to carry out massive crackdown and arrest and initiate legal action against those found to be involved in child marriage. Those who had married girls below 14 years of age have been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, while cases under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 have been registered against those who married girls in the 14-18 age group. On February 3, a young widow and mother of two committed suicide in Assam’s South Salmara-Mankachar district because she feared her father would soon be arrested. As chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has launched a massive crackdown on child marriages, the young woman assumed that her father, who had allegedly married her off when she was a minor, would now face legal action.On February 5, a 17-year-old girl committed suicide in Cachar district because her parents had refused to allow her to tie the knot with the man she loved. In Assam, agitation against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had led to the violent Assam agitation in the mid-70s. The statistics indicated that between 1971 and 1991, Muslims in Assam grew at 77.42 per cent while Hindus grew at 41.89 per cent. The Muslim growth rate during this period was higher than the national average of 55.04 per cent. At the same time, the Hindu growth rate is lower than the national average of 48.38 per cent.The fear of demographic change can be explained by the population growth rates in two adjacent districts—Dhubri and Kokrajhar. In Dhubri, where nearly 80 per cent of the inhabitants are Muslims, the decadal growth rate between 2001 and 2011 was 24 per cent. In neighbouring Kokrajhar, mostly dominated by the Bodo tribe, it is 5 per cent. Whatever be the justification, it is hoped the process of rule of law will be applied.