JY
I am Advika. I am only 11 years old, but I am married to Ishaan, a 35-year-old man. While other children my age around the world are still enjoying their childhood and the affection of their nurturing parents, I have become a wife to a paedophile who is older than my parents.
Before I was married to Ishaan, I lived with my family in abject poverty. We were heavily in debt to the loan sharks. Pita-ji owed them a large sum of money. If we did not pay them back, the debt collectors from the loan sharks were going to kill my pita-ji.
After much consideration, my parents decided that I should marry Ishaan so that they could get a bride price of 5,000 rupees to repay the loan. I was awfully shocked at the news, and pleaded with Pita-ji and Maa not to let me marry at such a young age, but they didn’t listen to me.
I only met my old groom during the marriage ceremony on the wedding day. At first glance, he looked like a kind person. I thought that it wouldn’t be so bad after all, but I was wrong, dead wrong. It was going to be the worst decision that my parents had ever made for me; it was the beginning of a horrendous nightmare.
Ishaan revealed his true colours after only a week of marriage; he is a really abusive and vulgar man. I am mistreated and raped daily. He gives me scars, bruises and black eyes every single day. I can’t even recognise myself when I look into the mirror.
I am also severely malnourished. My meals are meagre and disgusting leftovers. My bed is a piece of thin and tattered cardboard at the corner of the kitchen. At night, rats would come to disturb my rest and bite me.
I am physically, emotionally and mentally abused as a child bride. I have so many questions to ask those who are in authority.
Surely no girls should be made to suffer the fate of child brides? Why isn’t this horrible and inhuman custom abolished? Why are old men allowed to marry and rape little girls? Why don’t girls have rights in this country? Why can’t I go to school like a normal kid? And most IMPORTANTLY, when is my ordeal going to end?
2bitsworthofthoughts 