Last Updated: January 28, 2023, 4:15 PM IST
Guwahati [Gauhati]India
Assam CM Sarma said women who have not married yet should do it soon. (File photo: PTI)
(File photo: PTI)
The Chief Minister also iterated his government’s commitment to stop underage marriages and motherhood
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday advised women to marry at an early age citing complications in embracing motherhood. He also said the “appropriate” age for motherhood is 22 years to 30 years.
“Women should not wait too long to become mothers as it leads to complications. The appropriate age for motherhood is 22 years to 30 years. Women who have not married yet should do it soon,” he said.
“We have been speaking against early motherhood. But at the same time, women should not wait too long either as many do … God has created our bodies in a manner that there is an appropriate age for everything,” he added.
Speaking at a government function in Guwahati, the Chief Minister iterated his government’s commitment to stop underage marriages and motherhood.
“Thousands of husbands will be arrested in the next five-six months as it is a crime to have sexual relations with a girl below 14 years of age, even if he is her legally wed husband,” Sarma said.
“The legal age for the marriage of a woman is 18 years and those who marry younger girls will also be brought to book. Many (men who marry girls) could face life imprisonment,” he said.
The Assam cabinet on Monday decided to book men who marry girls below 14 years of age under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Those who marry girls in the age group of 14-18 years will be tried under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
Informing about the action, Sarma had said the decision was taken to curb the high rate of maternal and infant mortality in the state. An average of 31 per cent of the marriages in the state are in the prohibited age group, he had said.
(With PTI inputs)
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