Back to 'Her' Story

I first met Meena, when she was completing 10th standard in her high school village in India. This is a remarkable accomplishment, for a boy or girl in any community. Inspired by her educators, Meena dreamed of continuing her education and becoming a teacher. However, as per the traditional role of a young woman in rural India, Meena was soon engaged to be married. The marriage took place under the auspicious gaze of the stars, and the next day Meena was given away with a traditional dowry. Drums of wheat flour, corn flour, a bed and mattress, armoire, and suitcases of clothing, were attractively placed on the land where her family’s cattle normally grazed. Historically, a dowry was given in exchange for lifting ‘the burden of a girl child’. Today, a dowry is given in exchange for a girl’s ‘freedom’, and the grand gesture made by parents is a plea for their daughter to be honored, protected, and loved.

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After a year of marriage, Meena had yet to conceive a child. Both her parents and her in-laws urged me to take Meena and her husband for medical advice. We learned that at a young age, Meena suffered from tuberculosis, which as a result of poor primary health-care was left untreated. (In rural India alone, 42% of patients infected are not diagnosed, leading to a daily death toll of over 750 casualties.) In Meena’s case, her tuberculosis spread to her genital tract…causing infertility.
In silence we made the return back to their village. Meena’s traditional role as a wife and daughter-in-law was breaking my heart. The dream of being able to start their own family…was breaking theirs.