
India
More than 1,000 people were arrested in northeastern India on Tuesday during a major police operation targeting child marriage. “Arrests have been made of both parents and people who have conducted marriages and appointments for betrothals involving children,” said Himanta Biswa Sarma, the minister responsible in the state of Assam. According to UN figures, there are more than 220 million child brides in India. However, the number of child marriages has been drastically reduced in recent decades. Under Indian law, a person has to be 18 years old to get married, but millions of children are forced into marriages much earlier, especially in poor rural areas. Many parents marry off their children to improve their financial situation. This can have devastating consequences for girls who are taken out of school to clean and cook, and who are often injured or ill from childbirth when they are very young. In a landmark ruling in 2017, a leading court in India ruled that sex with a wife who is too young is rape. /ritzau/AFP