Assam has recorded a nearly 98 per cent drop in child marriage cases since the state government launched a crackdown in early 2023, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.

Sarma posted on X: “Due to the concerted efforts of our govt, we have been able to significantly reduce cases of child marriage and overall crime rates in Assam.”

According to a graphic uploaded with the post, child marriage cases have dropped this year to 122 (till June) from 5,410 cases in 2023, a drop of 97.76 per cent.

The Sarma-led state government, which launched the crackdown in February 2023, has vowed to end the child marriage cases by 2026.

In the first round of the statewide crackdown, over 4,000 people were arrested for allegedly either marrying underage girls or facilitating such marriages, triggering concern and protest by a section which felt the move targeted the Muslim population. Most of those arrested included Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The second round saw the arrest of over 1,000 carried out in October that year while the third statewide crackdown in December 2024 led to the arrest of 416 individuals.

The Assam Assembly had also passed the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages & Divorces Bill, 2024, according to Sarma, which was required to bolster the government’s efforts “to fight the social evil of child marriage”.