Several minor girls in Kamrup district of Assam have reportedly become victims of child marriage after being allegedly trapped in a ‘love net’. This has been stated by an official of the Childline unit of Kamrup district. The NGO Childline has rescued around 17 girls from different locations of the area since June this year and they suspect the trend is related to trafficking of girls. The police also aired similar views.
A report appearing in the The Times of India quoted Mukleswar Rahman, a Childline worker, as saying, “In most cases, the minor girls were found to have been swayed by their lovers and encouraged to elope. After receiving several inputs, we along with police and Village Defence Parties (VDPs) have launched a drive. We suspected that a human trafficking racket might be involved in trapping these young girls in their love net, giving them promises of marriage before taking them out of the State.”
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The report further stated that a thorough probe into the cases revealed that some ‘fake kazis’ were involved in arranging these child marriages and making them look real and all for the lure of the lucre.
“They fake the whole marriage with the help of those gurus or kazis. Believing in these marriages seriously, these girls move to other places with their ‘husbands’ without any hesitation, only to find themselves in a human trafficking racket thereafter,” said police sources.
“A section of people who claim to be religious leaders were performing child marriages, particularly in the interior areas where the literacy rate is very low and people live in abject poverty. In many cases, they also perform these marriages only to earn cash,” a Childline volunteer said.
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