The driver, Shyam, a young man, looked a teenager, yet was twenty two. He studied until matriculation and now had a steady job as a driver and good at it he was.
He has a daughter, eighteen months old. Nothing remarkable until learning he was married at fourteen. His bride was twelve. Child marriage has been frowned on in India for many years yet it still happens. Bihar has the highest rate of childhood marriage with a recent UNICEF report citing it sitting at 67%. The classification is marriage under eighteen.
Bihar is a 'poor State' in relative comparison to most. Interestingly it also has some of the highest taxes and is reportedly one of the most corrupt. The Naxalites still have strong presence here and people don't venture too far of an evening for fear of being robbed. In Bodhgaya itself there is the presence of many police and military personnel.
Whilst it is viewed as a human rights violation impoverished conditions encourage continuation of the practise. Especially for the families with a daughter as the dowry is cheaper and should there be more, then the tradition of dowry, or 'gifts' to the grooms family, can drain the finances and place the family in a big debt spiral. This does not excuse the practise just places it in a perspective.
In this case the newly wed groom and bride continued to live in their respective family homes until the bride was eighteen when she moved into Shyam's family home. What impact it had on her for six years I do not know.
I asked him if he was happy and he beamed with pride and broke out a big smile showing me a pic of his child.
Two sides to every story. Personal cultural perspective and life privilege colour vision. In a country where arranged marriages are still the cultural norm and female education qualifications add to marriage eligibility, the female continues to be objectified.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite
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