Shackled Youth

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"Dear God, she's sad! Why is she sad?" I thought to myself. She's just a child. Her life is barely unfolding. The scrawny young girl about 11 years old sat next to me on a wooden box in the back of the bus. There was a certain sadness in her gaunt face and those wide eyes that shyly glanced at me. I smiled and her mouth upturned a bit as she restrained a smile. But her inner sadness and torment was transparent. The man she traveled with, who I assumed was her father, grumbled something in their foreign tongue and handed her a few things to hold on to. There was something odd and depressing about her and I couldn't place it. I looked once again at her face, searching, then looked at her colorful saree and then to her toothpick like arms then gasped, a little to loudly, I'm afraid, for my face shot back to her face and she looked at me with the same sad look, but her eyes registered something like a child caught doing something bad. But it wasn't her fault. I knew it. It wasn't even her choice and her face admitted it. Those bracelets, those dreaded bracelets that was supposed to symbolize love and eternal happiness, but to the women in this society or in this case, this young CHILD, they were shackles. "No! No! No! It can't be!" I silently pleaded. I glanced at the man she came with. He must be about twice her age. I closed my eyes, hoping it was a dreaded dream then seconds later opened them.

"These are special bangles," said Anu, a month earlier, "my sister will wear them for the first few months as a symbol that she is newly married," she told me as she caressed them lovingly, a few days later, her sister was married off.

In Hindu society, when a girl is married off, she will be sent off to spend the rest of her life with her husband and her inlaws. She becomes, more often that not, somewhat their property, whose purpose is to help with daily chores and as the means to produce, hopefully, a son and a grandson, to carry the family name. In this part of the world, a daughter is seen as a financial burden since a dowry will need to be presented for marriage, yes it still exists in some places, which has sent families into debt. Poor families do not send their daughters off to be educated, since she will be married off and will live with her inlaws, and in most cases become a maid or a helper. A son is seen as a godsend, who is treated much differently than the daughter. He will be catered to and he will be sent off to be educated, for even after marriage, he will live with his parents forever. In a society where retirement funds are nonexistent, the son replaces this income and will care for them in their old age. Worst still, in the highest castes of Hindus who are cremated once they expire, the son is the only one who can perform certain rituals, such as lighting the funeral pyre.

The bus stopped suddenly and brought me back to reality. I checked again, her sticklike arms dangled with ruby red and ebony white bangles clanging against each other like blood shedding on innocent bone. She is undeniably and unhappily married to the man whom I thought was her father. She probably hasn't even started her menses. I resisted the urge to take her in my arms and comfort her the way I would when my younger sisters were going through a rough time. I resisted the urge to whisk her away to somewhere safe and tell her that life didn't have to be this way. But how do you explain that in a society where child marriages, I find out later, is the norm. I looked away, gripping my hands together tightly, willing my tears not to fall. "Dear God! She's just a child! She is J-U-S-T---A---C-H-I-L-D! !!!

Note: I was able to take only 1 photograph of her and due to her close proximity, I wasn't able to photograph her as a whole, instead, I captured her face. Maybe I was still in denial, which explains why I didn't photograph her bangles.