Technology to fight child marriages | Fusion - WeRIndia

At a time when social media sites are being misused and abused for their harmful potential, some youths in Assam are instead using it for its helpful potential and making it a tool to break up child marriages.

Facebook and WhatsApp have become a considerable threat for those in support of child marriage. The main body of this movement consists of members of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union, or AAMSU, along with others from groups also working to curb this social crime, such as police and various NGOs.

However, although the general secretary of the AAMSU, Ainuddin Ahmed, is happy with the results so far, he wants more active participation from the government for even further improvement in the area.

The journey has not been easy for these young people, despite the aid of these groups. Supporters of child marriages beat up many of the activists, and took their wrath out on the youths as well.

Ashraful Hussain, one of the activists, when he and his fellows tried to stop a child marriage once, were attacked by a mob from the groom’s family and held captive until midnight, until finally being rescued by the police and their friends.

Most of their work takes place in the Darrang district, one of the most backwards areas of the state of Assam, and many cases like Hussain’s have occurred.

Sometimes they note that police action does not live up to standard in dealing with these situations, and Ahmed notes that a change in the police force will also be necessary to eliminating this practice.

However, use of their Facebook and WhatsApp pages have kept these people moving forward. By using these sites, they can keep track of what is going on around.

If someone posts a problem to them, the activists give that person an immediate response. They have organized awareness camps in different locations, as well as live on Facebook, and have gotten massive responses and awareness gain.

The group notes that the issue of child marriage tends to be most prominent among Muslims and tribal people, especially with marrying off young girls, since many still see a female child as a burden.

The figures collected from the state also note the breaking of the Child Marriage Restraint Act from 1929.

They note that the main problem lies in lack of education, and are prompting for more educated people to rise up and stop the problem of child marriage completely.

Image Reference: TheBetterIndia, IndiaTV