Assam, India – As Saidul Islam stares at rows of wilted cauliflowers and cabbages, the 33-year-old is unable to decide what is more frightening – his dying crop or weeks of imprisonment.
The patch of land where Islam grows his vegetables was not watered for two weeks while the vegetable grower from Assam’s Dalgaon village, about 100km from state capital Dispur, was bundled into jail on charges of marrying an underage girl seven years ago. His bride was then 15.
On February 3, the police in Assam – ruled by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – went on an arrest spree as part of a mass crackdown against child marriage. Within 24 hours, more than 2,000 people, including grooms, their family members and religious leaders allegedly involved in underage marriages of girls were imprisoned in makeshift jails.
More than two weeks later, the number of arrested people stands at more than 3,000, including 93 women.
‘We were a happy couple’
Islam was one of them. He told Al Jazeera he managed to secure bail after spending two weeks in jail. “I engaged one lawyer and spent a lot of money to get bail. I was already poor, now I am poorer,” he said, adding that over that fortnight, his health deteriorated drastically. “I have become very weak and so has my wife.”
On Saturday when Al Jazeera visited Islam’s house, his wife, Noorjahan Nissa, fainted because of “weakness”. She recovered after a while.
Assam has registered more than 4,200 cases – with 6,707 people accused – under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in cases where a girl below 14 was married. For those married between the ages of 14-18, it has invoked the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
In Islam’s village, Al Jazeera found that police had arrested people from at least 15 homes. Most of those arrested are fathers-in-law of the women as their husbands are working outside the state.
This story was originally published in aljazeera.com. Read the full story here