Chaya
age 16, married at 15 in India
She was given in marriage to her 19-year-old first cousin whom she had known all her life; they used to play together as children. Still, Chaya wasn’t happy about getting married. “I just wanted to finish school; it’s very important to me.”
Chaya’s family felt mounting pressure to move wedding plans along quickly. For one thing, her cousin had other prospects. If not Chaya, he would marry someone else—and soon—because his father was ill. So he, too, was under pressure to start his own family and provide a wife who would eventually care for his mother.
Chaya and her mother make bread
A family of meager means, Chaya’s parents could not afford the traditional dowry or bride payment to a groom’s family. By marrying her cousin, the dowry would be waived. There was little time to ponder the decision.
Five hundred guests attended the wedding. Her son, Kardik was conceived shortly after at the in-laws insistence “to bind things up.” But in a move uncharacteristic for in-laws, hers say she can return to school once her son gets a little older. Still, many local villagers want Chaya to work in the fields like everyone else. Community pressure to abide by long-established traditions can be strong.
Chaya and her family
“I feel that getting married is definitely not an advantage for me; it interferes with my plans to get educated. But I feel lucky because I don’t have any major problems in my life. I don’t mind being a wife and mother at my age.”
More About Chaya
A Typical Day
Chaya gets up each day at 6:00 a.m., cooks, sweeps, washes clothes by hand and fetches water. At nightfall, she dutifully repeats these chores.
Before her son, Kardik, was born, she also worked in the field with her husband and
in-laws on their two acres of farmland where they grow sorghum, cotton and millet. Now, she stays at home and provides care for her son and her ailing father-in-law.
Continuing Education
If a young girl is still in school by the time she weds, her child marriage almost always signals the end of her education. But in Chaya's case, her in-laws say she can return to school when her baby is older.
In fact, Chaya says, her in-laws want her to complete secondary school, get a loan to start a small business, and manage the family's affairs. And Chaya has thought a great deal about the kind of business she might start. There is no flour mill in her village. Perhaps she could get a loan and start one. There is no tailor either. If she purchased a sewing machine, she says, she could work at home while taking care of her son and father-in-law.
