Crackdown on child marriage in Assam: Treating symptom, but not the diseases

The BJP considers the Bengali-speaking Muslims as 'infiltrators' from neighbouring Bangladesh and child marriage is rampant among them

“Can you please make it sail it a bit faster?” Rumisa Khatoon requested the boatman, who was steering the ‘bhutbhuti’ (speedboat) through the Brahmaputra. It was already 9-45 a.m. and she was worried that the boat might not be able to ferry her across the river on time and she would be late for her school again.

The bhutbhuti is the only means for Rumisa and a few other girls of Fakirpara – an island in the middle of Brahmaputra in the Dhubri district of Assam – to go to their school in Bilasipara on the other bank of the mighty river. “Our parents don’t allow us to go to school during the monsoon flood. It is very risky to take a boat ride across the river then,” the Class VII student told DH. “It would have been better if we had a high school and a college in our village”. Neither Fakirpara, nor any other neighbouring chars (riverine islands) has any secondary school.

Also Read: Underage marriages being cancelled due to 'positive' crackdown: Assam CM Sarma

Rumisa, 13, loses at least one of the friends she makes on the boats or in the school. “The girls drop out as their parents do not want them to go to school so far away from home.” As they remain confined at home, their parents, mostly small farmers or daily wagers, start looking for grooms and eventually marry them off, often before they even turn 15 or 16. Rumisa's elder sister, Ahima, was married off to a mason a couple of years back. She was 15 and in Class VIII. She is now a mother of a one-year-old. “She wanted to be a graduate,” said Rumisa, aware her own dream to go to a college might also be shattered soon.

Her cousin, Masida Begum, also stopped going to school after the land where the shanty her family called home once stood was devoured by the Brahmaputra. Masida was in Class IX then. Her family is desperately looking for a groom now.

Fakirpara and the other chars on the Brahmaputra are known for rampant child marriages and teenage pregnancies. The crackdown launched by the Government of Assam on child marriages and arrest of over 3000 men since January 24 for marrying girls aged below 18 years or for being involved in facilitating such weddings have of late brought the villages under focus.

Also Read: Child marriage crackdown in Assam: Pregnant teens avoid hospital, resort to abortion fearing arrests

"You will find minor mothers in every households here," said Reeta Brahma, a programme manager with North East Research and Social Work Networking (NERSWN), a non-profit, which, along with Nedan Foundation, has been running a campaign – Champions for Girl Education – to save girls from child marriages and discourage them from dropping out from school.

The climate change aggravated the problem of displacement due to erosion in the riverine islands. “As the glaciers are melting more due to global warming, currents of our rivers in the Himalayan region have increased and many are changing their courses frequently. This causes more erosion on the riverbank resulting in displacement and poverty," said climate activist Rituraj Phukan. "Poverty caused by erosion and lack of schools are the main factors responsible for rampant child marriages in the villages," said Reeta.

Abdul Kasem, a local panchayat member, who graduated in 2013, told DH that most of the girls dropped out before they could reach Class X and no girl in Fakirpara and the 12 other nearby villages, home to over 5000 people, could graduate till today. “There are a few male graduates as boys can take the trouble of crossing the river daily for schools or colleges,” he said.

A campaign against Muslims?

The ruling BJP is often accused of indiscriminately branding all Bengali-speaking Muslims of Assam as infiltrators from neighbouring Bangladesh. Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, said although the crackdown was not against any community or religion, most child marriages were reported in the 10 districts, where Muslims were either the majority or constituted a large chunk of the population. The child marriage, however, is also rampant among tea plantation workers of the state.

"We are against child marriage. But the way the BJP-led government is targeting the Muslims is nothing but communal," Akhil Gogoi, an MLA, said soon after the arrests started.

Also Read | ‘Child-centred approach must to deal with child marriage’

Rafiqul Islam, an anti-child marriage activist in Barpeta in western Assam, however, said that the drive might look like a move against the Muslims as people of the community were more in numbers among the people who were arrested. "It is an obvious fact that child marriage is rampant among the marginal people, of which Muslims from a huge bulk," Islam told DH. "Laws of the land are being implemented for the best interest of our girl children. The families and relatives are also involved in child marriage. So, by enforcing the laws, a strong message is being sent out that child marriage is a criminal offence, not merely a social issue," he said.

"Girls' wishes, health and well-being have never been a priority in our patriarchal society, particularly among the Muslims in Assam. But now, after the series of arrests, the families would try to save their sons from legal action by avoiding child marriage," Islam said. "But the government should also keep watch on the police at the ground level in order to check harassment of such people," he said.

The chief minister said that the crackdown would continue for the health and welfare of the girls as teenage pregnancy in the state was alarmingly high at 16.8%.

The pleas for more schools in the chars fell on deaf ears though. Over 600 adolescent girls, including some from the riverine islands, recently sent postcards to the chief minister with requests for setting up adequate number of schools in order to check dropouts and child marriages. The postcards were sent on January 24, a day after the Government of Assam decided to launch the "Karnataka-like crackdown" against child marriage. The arrests started a week later.

Assam has a teenage pregnancy rate at 31% and 16.8% respectively at present.

Islam said that apart from the legal action and awareness, rooting out the menace of child marriages would require more schools, hospitals and livelihood support for people being displaced by erosion. “Only legal action will be treating the symptoms and not the disease," he told DH.