KOCHI: Even anti-terror agencies agree that forced religious conversions in the guise of marriage are a reality in the country, claimed Mizoram Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai. He was speaking after inaugurating a webinar on ‘Welfare State and Effect of Unlawful Conversions on Women’s Rights’ organised by the state unit of Bharatheeya Abhibhashaka Parishad.
Alleging that even the Christian community was facing this threat, Pillai said it was in the wake of these events that many state governments decided to pass anti-conversion laws. These laws will protect the women who are the real victims of such marriages, he said, adding that though conversion itself was not illegal, it becomes so when it is done by force or deceit.
Delivering the keynote address at the conference, Suman Chauhan, national secretary of the ABAP, demanded that there should be a central law regulating religious conversions in the name of marriage. Such conversions have a civil consequence as far as India is concerned, she said.