A Child Bride’s Journey from Being Wedded to Capturing a Wedding 

For a 17-year-old child bride in Rajasthan, it is almost unimaginable for any art form, let alone photography, to serve as a divine intervention in her life. But Krishna Rawat, daughter of two daily wage construction workers in Bhavani Kheda near Ajmer, changes the lens of a DSLR camera as swiftly as the sun rises.

The frame of Krishna’s life along with her other companions like Bhagwati was transformed through the medium of photography. The work of a photographer is to offer a perspective that evades the ordinary eye, a lesson that Krishna has imbibed quite early in her journey, “Whenever I go out, talk to people and click their photos, their stories always seem more gripping, I find myself empathizing with them more than I would otherwise” the world through the viewfinder looks more intriguing to her than it does without it.

As tradition goes in most parts of India’s largest state, Krishna, the fifth  of her six sisters, was promised to a man she had never seen at the tender age of seven. Some six years later she, along with two of her sisters, had to confront the shock of being wedded to her stranger of a fiancé immediately after the passing of their paternal grandfather. “This custom of marrying off girls right after an elder’s death in the family is known as ‘mosser’, and it is done to save up on separate expenses of a wedding and post-death rituals”, explains Krishna.

As the senior secondary school was two to three kilometers from her residence, getting educated after her wedding was an uphill battle as her family members expressed their apprehensions about letting her continue her studies post-10th standard. They insisted she discontinue her education altogether because it would put their societal standing in jeopardy along with her marital status. “I had gone to take the transfer certificate from school on my family’s direction, but instead I enrolled myself in class 11th”,  after her rebellious decision, Krishna had to fight tooth and nail to convince her family to let her continue her studies. She was permitted to complete her 12th on the condition that she would have to move to her in-laws once it was finished. While in 12th, she began playing football and got selected for state-level tournaments the two times she partook in trials.

The state-level football player came across the ‘Digital Sakhi’ program launched by Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti via her elder sister and enrolled in it to learn to operate the camera. She turned a new leaf by making a documentary on female football players in the nearby villages and understood the deep-rooted gender discrimination and patriarchal mindset in society. “Villagers would staunchly oppose girl players wearing short clothes and traveling while there was no such objection for boys,” remarked Krishna. Krishna’s adoption of photography goes beyond personal aspirations, it is a stand against the patriarchal institution.

She learned the technicalities of the camera under her mentor Rain. Her first-ever photography assignment was to cover MJAS’ several tech centers in Ajmer’s Kekdi village, an experience that she described as being as daunting as it was empowering. “My hands were trembling out of the fear of shooting in front of so many women, I was perplexed about what to shoot but finally the fear encouraged me to stride forward.  I thought to myself if I get so nervous taking photographs of women, how scared will I be taking pictures of men?”

With the camera’s strap around her neck, Krishna has been breaking the barriers one after the other, the 19-year-old earns for herself while working with another organization called Nirantar and supports her mother in meeting household expenses. “The camera has become my identity now. People recognize me for my accomplishments and associate me with photography. Moreover, girls my age have also begun taking interest in the art form and that makes me hopeful of things slowly changing.”

As her journey continues, Krishna wishes to make photography her permanent source of livelihood and is on the lookout for greater learning avenues and opportunities. Ever since her first click Krishna has covered several events, including a wedding in Kishangarh. The beauty of this irony is that the bride specifically requested Krishna and Bhagwati Devi to cover her wedding because she wanted only female photographers. The most striking part of Krishna’s story has been finding the strength to rise above her obstacles by creating bonds with other women with similar experiences. Today, she finds herself in a position where she can raise her voice against the injustices done to other girls; today, she has the courage to never let the same fate befall her younger sisters; today, Krishna has become the person who would have stood up for her 7-year-old self as well.”

Indira Pancholi, the founder of MJAS explained how the development of skills like photography has helped women battle against child marriage “We have about 17-18 women in MJAS like Krishna and Bhagwati who want to pursue photography as a professional career.”  She also emphasized on the need for the government to curate comprehensive development schemes, “only legal provisions are not sufficient to eradicate child marriage, the government needs to provide employment opportunities to women so that they can realize their agency and dream about lives that do not center around being married.” Further, she remarked how child brides in the organization have put forward their aspirations and fought for them after they stopped believing in the centrality of marriage.

Image (c): Himanshu Vyas
Caption: Krishna working on her photo-story in Khadekdi village