GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said women should embrace motherhood at the appropriate age of 22-30 years. “These days, I have been saying that underage girls should not become a mother. But women should not wait too long either to embrace motherhood. It causes medical complications. The appropriate age for it is 22-30 years. It should not be before or after that,” Sarma said at a government event here.
“Some people wait but God has created the body (of a woman) in such a way that she should give birth at 22-30 years... So those who are single, get married early,” he said with a smile.
Sarma added that the state government has decided to strongly deal with men who marry minors. “Thousands of husbands will be arrested, possibly within the next 5-6 months. Some will get life term. If you touch a girl aged below 14 years, even if she is your wife, the punishment is life imprisonment,” he said.
He added marriage before 18 years is not legal, and if the state government could thwart child marriages, it would achieve success against maternal and infant mortality.