India's Daughter

Note from author - In the first chapter, we met Nidhi Sinha, an 18 yr- old Indian girl, blessed with looks as well as brains. We tried to understand how the socio-cultural environment she was brought up in left her in a limbo between modernity and tradition.

Before we start the story proper, I feel it is necessary to first explain a bit about the various aspects of Indian life, which will have a bearing on the story.

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Along with the Egyptians and the Greeks, India is believed to be one of the oldest civilizations of mankind. A glorious history, scientific innovations, one of the ancient world's oldest and best-known universities and untold riches. There are countless reasons for 21st century India to be proud of its ancestry.

Hidden behind this glorious past is a social order full of prejudices and archaic customs. One such inheritance is what is known as the 'caste system'. Basically, this refers to classification of social groups into a rigid order with inflexible boundaries. For example, a person belonging to caste cobbler, was supposed to be nothing but a cobbler. Over the centuries, this created a situation wherein so-called 'higher' castes came to dominate and exploit the so-called 'lower' castes.

With the objective of ridding the nation of this terrible ill, India's Constitution writers chose to introduce something which would go on to become just as disastrous to India's social fibre...Quota. This aims at reservation of upto 50% of school, college and university seats as well as government jobs for those belonging to the 'lower' castes.

Far from ridding the society of caste, Quota has created immense bitterness even in those who would otherwise not have been at all interested in a person's caste. The use of quota even by well-off 'lower' castes leaves the 'upper' castes feeling cheated of their rights. At the same time, those in actual need of Quota go without benefits. Incidents of intercaste riots, "honour" killings of intercaste couples and other medieval atrocities continue unabated, particularly in the rural areas. While not perhaps as visible, strong casteist overtones continue to colour urban behaviour as well.

Another legacy of the past is the concept that the girl child is no more than a burden to her parents. This has created, through female foeticide and infanticide, a highly skewed sex ratio. Even those who never dream of killing their daughters, however, have a fundamental, ingrained belief that a parent's duty to his daughter consists chiefly of making a good match for her in marriage. And as with all patriarchal societies, this naturally emphasises the importance of a girl's virginity. A girl indulging in pre-marital sex is a fallen girl. Finding a good rishta (marriage) for her is considered next to impossible. A good girl, therefore, must be a girl completely devoid of sexual urges.

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This is the society into which Nidhi Sinha and her ambitions were born... and but for fate, would most likely have perished like millions of others. As we learned in the previous chapter, Nidhi was an extremely smart and equally ambitious person. Ever since she first visited her family doctor for flu, as a 5 yr old, the medical profession fascinated her. As she grew older, Nidhi could not imagine herself as anything other than a doctor. Her doting family, as in everything their 'good girl' attempted, gave her their full support, always with the subconscious belief that a good education would help them find a better groom for her.

Navigating the complex web of entrance exams and Quota is no simple matter even for someone as smart as Nidhi. So when she overcame these obstacles and managed to secure admission in a reputed medical college in Kalwa, on the outskirts of Mumbai, just an hour from home, it was a day of unqualified celebrations in the Sinha household. She was showered with praise and gifts by everyone from her parents to some distant barely known relations. As with everything she was involved in, Nidhi was the center of all attention.

Having secured admission so close to home, her family hoped that Nidhi would stay at home and do the 'up-down' (a phrase, used in India to particularly denote travelling back-and-forth daily by public transport, usually train). Nidhi, however, had other plans. As obedient and dutiful as she was, as much as she loved her family, Nidhi was sometimes jealous of the freedom some of her friends enjoyed. She wished to experience what it felt like to live independently, without her parents waiting anxiously at the door every time she was even 15 minutes late. Not that her intentions were too rebellious.

Nidhi had, upto that point, never tasted alcohol, never smoked a single cigarette. She had decided that she would wait till marriage to lose her virginity. This latter was partly because she was afraid of being a disappointment to her partner due to her complete lack of experience, and felt safer putting it off till some unknown time in the future when she would be married. All Nidhi wished for was the opportunity to go out with her friends and stay out till late, hitting the clubs and dancing, which was one of her favorite things in the world. She wished to go on a few dates and experience what it felt like to have a boyfriend.

With this in mind, Nidhi used all her convincing powers to persuade her parents that it would be much simpler if she stayed at the college hostel itself. In this endeavor, the chaotic 'Mumbai local' trains (the equivalent of, say, the Metro) came to her rescue. After many rounds of discussion, and not a few tears from her mother, Nidhi finally had her parents convinced.

So it was that, on July the 31st, a day before the start of term, and just 5 days after her 18th birthday, Nidhi Sinha shifted into room no.114 of the girl's hostel at her new college.

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