Amid "Love Jihad" Row, Assam To Make It Compulsory For Couples To Reveal Religion, Income

The Assam government is planning to introduce a law that will make it compulsory for the bride and groom to declare their religion and income in official documents a month before the wedding.

This comes at a time when several BJP-ruled state, including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, among others have announced strict laws to tackle cases of "love jihad" in the state.

The Assam Government however has said that with the new marriage law, the aim is to "empower our sisters".

State Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said his government's law was not similar to the ones in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, but would be similar, NDTV reported.

"One shouldn't get married if there's no transparency between husband-wife. Disclosure's important-my religion, what I do for a living, what's my income. I am not saying that you should disclose not only your religion, you should also disclose your income and job," the Assam Minister said.

"Assam's law is a not against 'love jihad'. It would be inclusive of all religions and would empower our sisters by bringing transparency...One will have to disclose not only religion, but earning source. Complete family details, education etc. Many a times even in same religion marriage we have found that the girl later finds that the husband is in an illegal business," Sarma said.

"The proposed law will make it compulsory for the man and the woman to disclose their source of income, profession, permanent address and religion in a government-prescribed form a month before the wedding, failing which legal action would be taken," the minister said.

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