Young Tushar on Roshni’s child marriage
The story takes place in the summers of 2015. A young lad, Tushar is just shy of reaching his 18th birthday.
Tushar, born in August 1997 was a normal Indian kid. He lived in an old area of Moradabad and studied in the same English medium school since the age of 3. He has just completed his 12th class and is eyeing to take admission in the prestigious Delhi University. Albeit, a science student, Tushar aims for civil services later in his life, as he is naturally interested in reading modern Indian history and Social Reforms against Orthodoxy. He is a big critic of crimes against women and speaks against them overtly. As a multiple time champion of the Annual Debate Competition of his school, he loves to slams orthodoxies of Indian Society like Dowry, Child Labor, Girl Child Discrimination, Casteism, and Child Marriage. Some of his aunts and uncles think of him as a spoiled brat who is egoistic and does not know, that one should not argue with adults.
However, he is a star in the eyes of his favorite Lata aunty. Lata aunty has been taking care of Tushar since the age of 8 when his mom joined a local school to teach mathematics. She cooks food for the entire family of 3, Tushar, his mom, and dad.
About Lata, she is the best maid you can find in the small city of Moradabad. She is treated like a family member wherever she works. Her tales of loyalty and honesty are famous beyond the town of Moradabad. Her father died when she was just 7. Thus, from the tender age of 13, she had constantly been helping her mother with finances by doing “jhaadu-bartan” in households. She is only 8th pass and was not able to continue her studies beyond that.
Lata has two kids, Roshni, born in October 1998, and Ritik, born in January 2000. Her husband had an affair with another woman and one day left the house, taking her only gold earrings and all the cash. This happened somewhere around the winters in 2004–05. Since then, she has been working hard to meet the family needs and educated her two kids. Both Roshni and Ritik, from their childhood, have not shown much knack for studies, and barely pass the classes.
As Lata works from 9am-8pm every day, even no Sunday offs, she seldom gets to spend quality time with her kids. Ritik is mostly seen flying kites in the daytime, while Roshni has an extra fondness for makeup, fashion, and Bollywood. In short, both of them are spoiled and do not care for their futures. Roshni after failing twice in 8th class left school and joined as a salesgirl in a small jewelry shop. She is paid 3000 per month for 6 hours of working every day. Lata earns about 5000 per month and is desperately in need of those 3000. But Roshni, given the spoilt brat she is, spends all that money on herself and does not give a single dime to her mother. Many local loafer boys have started eve-teasing Roshni for her looks and well-hit puberty. One day, someone tried to physically grab her hand as well. But, Lata being a single low earning mother, in this conservative locality, there was a little she could have done to stop this, except asking Roshni to avoid them.
Now coming, back to Tushar. It’s the exact date of 18th June 2015. Today is the day of Roshni’s wedding. She is nearly 17. The legal age of marriage for girls in India is over 18. Tushar read it in his book. For further clarification, he also read a 15-page Indian Penal Code Rulebook specifically against child marriage, not once, not twice, but six times in the last week. He even highlighted the important parts.
As of now, he is standing in front of Moradabad Police Station and his parents are at home, dressing up for the wedding. As he read in the rulebook, if he goes tothe Police Station right now, his beloved Lata Aunty, her relatives, and even his mother & father can face a jail term. In the last few days, he has unsuccessfully tried to convince his mom and dad to stop the wedding, as it is morally as well as legally wrong. Considered, the best debater of his school, he felt so insignificant in winning this argument. But, as his late grandfather preached him, one should always do the right thing, and abide by the law.
His emotions were contradicting his rationality. He was unaware of this wedding, for the most part, apart for the last 10 days when his mother mentioned to him on one night. It took him a whole lot of courage to come at the police station and will require many-fold to even enter. Somehow, he gathered the courage, but with trembling feet, he enters the police station. Walking straight, he goes to an inspector and tells him about the situation. The inspector’s name was Mr. Subodh Agarwal. With tears in eyes, Tushar narrated the whole incident to him, asking repeatedly to not give punishment to anyone but stop the wedding, as it was illegal. After listening to the whole incident, Mr. Subodh smiled. He asked whether the bride’s name was Roshni? Tushar snapped. This guy, who is actually an enforcer of law and knows about this child marriage, is still not acting to stop it. Tushar started arguing with him, making allegations like bribery and threatened Mr. Subodh that he will complain to the district magistrate if he doesn’t take any action. Hearing this, Mr. Subodh asked him to calm down and politely said that let me tell you something, and after that, if you say I will do an FIR, and take the action. Mr. Subodh told him that Lata does “Bartan” at his brother’s house, one day he visited him, and there he learned about Roshni and her situation. The situation was very complex, and he started narrating it to Tushar.
As a few neighbors told Lata, Roshni is often seen with Babu Ghoshi’s son Shankey. Babu Ghoshi is a local goon who has a bad reputation in the locality. Shankey is a smaller goon himself. He is around 23–24 and has a reputation of “spoiling” many girls of her neighborhood, by promising marriage and having sex with them, only to leave them afterward. In some cases, he even shot some objectionable photos on his new Micromax smartphone.
Some progressive folks, like you, must be thinking that sex before marriage is okay. But the locality in which Lata lives isn’t so progressive. Just last year Shivani, a girl spoiled by Shankey, tried committing suicide after 18 rejections of marriage. Though, she was saved by her mother who saw her trying to hang herself with a saree.
Lata warned Roshni many times that she should not meet Shankey, but repeatedly Roshni met him. One day, when Lata was returning to her home a little early around 5 pm, she saw Shankey leaving from her house, specifically her floor and the single room her whole family lives in. She ran as any mother would, and reached her room, and saw Roshni adjusting her half worn suit. It was sure, that they did what she was afraid of.
When she grabbed the hand of Roshni in anger and asked her, what did Shankey do to you? Roshni smiled and said, this was not her first time, she has done this couple of times before. Lata , with tears in her eyes, slapped Roshni, for the way she talked. Roshni, who had just turned 16, could not stand it and slapped Lata back with an unimaginable force. The slap hurt more of the shock and disbelief, and less of the impact. Lata and Roshni barely talked after that day for months.
From that day, Lata started searching for grooms for Roshni. Roshni initially refused but after repeated fights and arguments, she finally agreed one morning, but only on one condition, that it is going to be Shanky. Lata smiled and told, if Shanky agrees, she can marry him. After that Lata left for work. When she came back, she saw Roshni bruised with probable slaps on her face, crying in one corner. Lata understood and told Roshni that she will look for a great husband for her.
At last, she found a groom, he happened to be Mr. Subodh’s cook from his village. He was an orphan when Mr. Subodh’s father, brought him for the daily work at home. He is now 20, started a promising Chinese fast food cart and wanted to start a new life. So, Lata from her mere savings and advances from her ‘Bhabhis’, fixed a wedding which is today.
Mr. Subodh said that he was just leaving for the wedding and asked Tushar whether he wants to stop the wedding now or accompany him to the venue. After all, Roshni was like a sister to him as well.
Tushar, who is nearly 18, stood there in shock. Child marriage, by logic, seems to be unacceptable. Also, the elected representatives formed these laws which are scientifically validated as well. There are a thousand reasons, why child marriage should be illegal. But, here is this an exception? Or the whole world is conspiring against his rationale?
Young Tushar asked Mr. Subodh, not to tell anyone that he had come here. Moving slowly, with his legs getting heavier with each step. He wiped his tears and washed his face with water from a hand pump in between the police station and his home. After reaching home, her mom scolded him that he got them late, but Tushar insisted that he doesn’t want to go as he was feeling unwell. After a couple of minutes, his parents left for the wedding.
That night, around 3 am, he fell asleep. A whole lot of existential crisis was going in his mind, if all these laws are so vague, should he even think of becoming an IAS. He missed his late grandfather, who was his preacher in his thoughts of dilemmas.
He realized the world is not simple binary, everything can’t be purely right or wrong. Perhaps, he turned 18 as well on that day.
Inspired by real events in the writer’s life.
Rishabh Jain, an old soul.
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