by Megha's World

Final Goodbye-Megha Sood

This poem is part of the series on the Global Exploitation of Women.

This poem is based on the social evil of Child marriage where a young child (usually a girl below the age of fifteen) is married to an adult man. This poem encompasses the feeling of that child bride being devoured by this evil.

Gender inequality, social norms, perceived low status of girls, poverty, lack of education, safety concerns about girl children and control over sexuality are considered to be reasons for the prevalence of child marriages. Girl children in rural areas are more affected than their urban counterparts.

Child marriage is prohibited in India as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 but as other social evil, it still continues to exist in the rural areas due to poverty and lack of awareness.

Child-Brides.jpg

That streak of vermilion
donning her forehead
and parting her hair
has forever
created a big chasm
an unending abyss between
her marigold colored dreams
and her
pain stricken future;

A joyous day,
a celebration for everyone
is met with the
dichotomous truth
her mourning heart
is hiding
behind her;

Incessant sobbing
the giving away
and atoning of his sons
by his father
seems to her like
getting rid of her,
a sin to be burdened with
a love so meager;

Her mother fails the
a feeble attempt
to stifle her emotions
and
wears an empty smile
dispensing all the lessons
of life to her
in last few moments of her freedom
an effort, too futile;

She feels no joy
in being stripped
from boxes of dollies
and few broken toys
fear and agony have
rolled into a
single emotions
when they waved
that “little bride”
a goodbye.

Picture credit: Google.com

38 thoughts on “Final Goodbye-Megha Sood”

  5. A disgusting tradition. I wish there was no need to write about such topics. This is why I detest religion for most of these traditions are born out of some twisted ideology that women are objects for men’s pleasure. Ethiopia is riddled with such disgusting traditions, too.

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