“Barely two weeks into our marriage, he started coming home drunk, assaulting me, and forcing himself on me. When I got pregnant, the abuse got worse,” recounts Sabita.
Sabita, 14, is six months pregnant. Until nine months before she was married to 21-year-old Ganga in December 2020, she had been a Class 7 student at an ashramshala (residential school) in Odisha's Jajpur district. She will discontinue her education to bring up her child.
***
“I was in love and did not know what was right for me. I made a mistake. Now I don’t know what to do,” rues Asha.
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