'End to child marriage': Himanta govt repeals Assam Muslim Marriages Act

The Assam Cabinet has decided to repeal the Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules 1935 vide the Assam Repealing Bill 2024, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Thursday. He said it was a significant step to ensure justice for our daughters and sisters by putting additional safeguards against child marriage. 

The Bill will be placed before the next Monsoon Session of the Assam Legislative Assembly for consideration. The Assam Cabinet has also directed that suitable legislation be brought for the registration of Muslim marriages in the state, to be considered by the next session of the Assembly.

The development comes a day after Sarma claimed that the Muslim population in Assam had now risen to 40 per cent. He said demographic change is a "big issue" in the northeastern state. "I come from Assam and demographic change is a big issue for me. Muslim population in my state is 40 per cent now, which was 12 per cent in 1951. It is not a political issue for me, but a matter of life and death," Sarma, BJP’s Jharkhand election co-in charge, said on the sidelines of a party meeting in Ranchi.

However, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi countered the Assam chief minister, saying the Muslim population was 24.68 per cent in 1951. "In 1951, the Muslim population was 24.68 per cent. He (Himanta) is a liar, and he hates Muslims of Assam.  In 1951, there was Assam...Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya were not there," the AIMIM chief said. 

Owaisi further said that in 2001, the Muslim population was 30.92 per cent and in the 2011 census, 34.22 per cent. "Due to his lies, the entire administration hates the Muslims," he claimed. 

During a press conference in Ranchi, Sarma alleged that the number of Bangladeshi infiltrators is rising in tribal areas of Jharkhand. The BJP would include a strong action plan against infiltrators in its manifesto for the upcoming Jharkhand assembly election, he said.

In a scathing attack on Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Sarma accused him of turning Jharkhand into a “mini-Bangladesh”. “The infiltrators come to Jharkhand and marry tribal girls to grab their land. I call for a law in Jharkhand that should have a provision that tribal girls cannot marry infiltrators,” he said. 

(With inputs from PTI)