Child marriage is banned in India and violation of the legal age — 21 for men, and 18 for women — attracts punishment whenever such incidents are caught. A decade later, Hindus numbered 19,180,759 while the Muslim population rose to 10,679,345. The Assam government’s draft policy seeks to increase the punishment for child marriages from imprisonment for two years to four years in jail. People will be asked if parents of more than two children or anybody marrying before the legal age should be barred from becoming members of urban and rural civic agencies. Assam will become the second state in the country after Rajasthan to have rules separate from the national population policy of 2000.

Source: Hindustan Times April 09, 2017 14:35 UTC