Assam: Child marriage will bar people from govt jobs

Guwahati: The Assam government while notifying the “Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam” has made it clear that not only two children norm is mandatory for government job but persons — both male and female — who violate the legal age of marriage, will not be eligible for any employment or employment generation scheme of the government.

The government notification stated, “Therefore, no person shall be eligible for appointment to any service and post under the government of Assam if the person has married in violation of ‘The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (Act 6 of 2007). In Section 2(a) of this Act, a ‘Child’ is defined as “a person who if a male, has not completed 21 years of age; and if a female, has not completed 18 years of age. Section 2 (b) of this Act defines ‘Child Marriage’ as “a marriage to which either of the contracting parties is a child.”

The notification of the “Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam” further stated that no person having more than two living children on or after January 1, 2021 from a single or multiple partners shall be eligible for appointment in any services and posts under the state government.

However, some exception has also been made with respect to certain conditions like if an applicant has only one living child from an earlier delivery but more than one child are born out of subsequent delivery, the children so born, shall be deemed to be one entity while counting the number of children. “Moreover, a person having more than two living children before January 1, 2021 shall not be ineligible so long as the number of children he/she has before the mentioned date does not increase on after that date.”

The applicant for any state government job will have to submit a declaration in a specified form and append it with his/her application for appointment to the effect that he/she fulfils the set criteria.