A Culture that Kills

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I am 23, will soon be turning 24, I still think I'm a kid. I make stupid decisions, do crazy things. Almost two years after my bachelor's, a teacher now, I still don't know what I really want to do with my future, with my life. Not everyone has this privilege. Countless many kids don't even get a shot a childhood. Their dreams are snatched away even before they realise the meaning of the word "dream". When, down the line, finally they understand the essence of the word, they have their flesh and blood crying and struggling for life on their laps. And the cycle continues. 

16 year old Sapana(name changed) is to be married on the 8th of this month. An innocent girl reading in 8th grade who is yet to find her calling is now being prepared, with pomp and joy, to be sent away to a man she barely knows. She will be accompanied to this strange household of the people she knows nothing about with possibly a huge debt in her family's name. Her father dares to take massive loan to send his daughter but no! education is too expensive. 

15 year old Inshiya's (name changed) childhood met an untimely demise sometime last week. A shy girl— not unlike Sapana, Inshiya was fairly regular in class. She might not have been a " brilliant " kid or not even "average" but what's that got to do with any of this? This might just be my insecurity speaking, my inability to notice their considerable absences over the duration of the last month, but shouldn't every child have a right to childhood? But sadly, Inshiya had to "earn" it. And Kathmandu doesn't care. They are busy fighting for, frankly, irrelevant issues as far as Nepal is concerned. Come on "feminists" and "feminazis" and equalists and all you NGOs mushrooming in the valley, help save these lives, not just the odd ones here and there for your yearly reports. 

16 year old Priya is back "home" after a year of drunken beatings and hail pullings. With a false promise of allowing, yes ALLOWING! her to study. She was snatched away from her childhood by a culture that sees her as an object ,a worthless burden, a machine to produce kids and cook meals. She was in grade 7.

These are not isolated cases. You see dead dreams in every other household in Dhanusha. This is the norm, a culture. A culture that kills children. 







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