Guwahati, Jan 28 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Saturday said women should embrace motherhood at the “appropriate age” between 22 and 30 years as it otherwise leads to medical complications.
\nSpeaking at a government function here, Sarma iterated his government’s commitment to stop underage marriages and motherhood.
\nHis comments come in the backdrop of the state government deciding to bring stringent laws and evoking the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to check child marriages and underage motherhood.
\n“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.
\nThe 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.
\nSpeaking about motherhood, Sarma said, “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”.
\nWomen who have not married yet should do it soon, he said with a smile.
\n“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.
\nThe Assam cabinet on Monday decided to book men who marry girls below 14 years of age under the 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.
\nThe decision was taken to curb the high rate of maternal and infant mortality in the state, whose primary cause is child marriage, Sarma had said after the cabinet meeting.
\nAn average of 31 per cent of the marriages in the state are in the prohibited age group, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guwahati, Jan 28 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Saturday said women should embrace motherhood at the “appropriate age” between 22 and 30 years as it otherwise leads to medical complications. Speaking at a government function here, Sarma iterated his government’s commitment to stop underage marriages and motherhood. His comments come in the backdrop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-north-east"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}