Assam government’s bid to punish the culprits of child marriage is in conformity with legal provisions and also in sync with the ground realities in the state. While the intent of the government is appreciable, the approach adopted in the ongoing crackdown is heavily flawed and will most likely result in a backfire. The initiative has already rendered many underage women vulnerable to socio-economic vagaries. The crackdown, at best, is a hollow attempt and will create more problems than solving the existing ones. Before everything, one must understand that the problem of child marriage and related ills are most real in Assam. Even a cursory glance at the state-wise comparisons made in National Family Health Survey (NFHS) would reveal that Assam is glaringly one of the worst faring states when it comes to gender-related crimes. The North-eastern state has high maternal and infant mortality rate — child marriage being one of the prime reasons for the same. Shockingly, an average of 31 per cent of marriages registered in the state are in the prohibited age! It is against this background that the state police have, by recent estimates, arrested 2,211 persons in cases related to child marriage. In total, 4,074 cases have been registered across Assam and 8,134 people have been identified as accused. Assam’s Chief Minister has asserted that the crackdown against child marriages would continue in the coming days. He has also directed the police to act with a ''spirit of zero tolerance against the unpardonable and heinous crime on women.'' One must note that the ongoing crackdown on child marriages is a punitive action. What is required instead to tackle a deep-seated problem like child marriage is preventive action. In this context, it can be said that while the state government, all of a sudden, has started singling out culprits and punishing them, it is also partly responsible for not preventing those marriages in due time. In a way, the crackdown represents government’s own failure in tackling the problem of child marriage. These child marriages ought to have been prevented from occurring, which was largely a responsibility of the state government. The respective state governments in Assam have been complicit in the culmination of the rout by their conspicuous silence. All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU), which has been working towards ending child marriage in the state, has claimed that they have submitted several memoranda to the government in this regard but could not get any response from the authorities. It won’t be wrong to say that the state governments in Assam have failed to create the much-required awareness among people over decades. In fact, as per news reports, kins of some arrested people have cited lack of awareness around the legal consequences of child marriage. Now, the state government has apparently encountered a new awakening and decided to adopt a heavy-handed approach. This abrupt awakening has unleashed grave plight on the citizens of the state — particularly on the young girls whom the initiative tends to safeguard. As a result, many married girls are out on the streets protesting against the government’s crackdown. Additionally, as news reports suggest, kins of some of those arrested have claimed that the birth date of the bride was registered incorrectly in the Aadhar card, something which the state police might be relying on to trace the culprits. Whatever be the case, it remains a fact that families, including the wives of the arrested, will suffer from the government’s brazen act. The state government should come out in the open and chart out a detailed plan to ensure that the young girls don’t fall to harsh social realities. Law is formulated to streamline society in a better way. It cannot be implemented or interpreted in a way that creates chaos in society. To put it more simply, law operates in society and it cannot ignore social realities altogether. Even if the state government decides to go full throttle with its new design of arresting husbands of underage girls, it should, in the first place, take concrete decisions around their safety, security and accommodation. Apart from this, the government, in the long run, will have to create awareness among the people to bring about a positive change in society. Deterrence and awareness must go hand in hand.