Marriage at 16?

I am Neha (Name Changed) from Gujarat. I was born and raised in a family of 6 children and I am the 2nd. From a young age, I was made to learn all the chores of a woman to cook, to sweep, to go for shopping to take care of a man and a lot of others. I was sent to a school thankfully till my 6th standard and then I had to leave because there was no one to take care of my siblings at home and mom could not do all the work at home. I was not enjoying the work but then I had to do it.

I learned English from the school I went to, the teacher was very good. A year later my father suggested me to go to a school near my house which is a walking distance from home so I continued my studies there. My father was my greatest support. In my 8th standard, there was a guy named Sudheer (Name changed) who asked my parents to get married. So, my parents asked about his work and his financial background which is very much common in our place. So Sudheer and I got married when I was 16 years.

After 4 years of our marriage, Sudheer said that we are going to shift to a new place. So, I had no choice but I didn’t know where he would take me as well. We got permission from our community and moved to Bangalore. I was very excited to be here because I had never seen a place outside our state in my entire life. I was nervous at first because I was about 7 years younger than Sudheer. He and I never had any kind of major problems in our house. We had 2 children and they started going to school here in Bangalore.

Sudheer suggested that I completed my education so that I could search for a job. I completed my Bachelor’s degree. Today I am working in a government position and I am thankful to my husband. I am currently pursuing my master’s as well in an open university and wish to get into higher positions to help society build so that we can make a better place to live in.

The message I want to give on this platform is that no matter how difficult decisions you get yourself, there is always a way in and a way out of that problem. I think people might have thought of a sad story at the beginning but thankfully there is not. I am a happy wife with an awesome husband and 2 sweethearts.

Thank You

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