Vani, a bright little girl, would rise early in her village home to complete her household work and walk 5 km to reach her school on time. This was her routine; she would never miss her school, even on rainy days. After she passed her 7th grade and was waiting to start her 8th-grade classes, her world turned upside down.

On the day she attained puberty, her mother decided that it was time to get the girl married off. Being a girl child, she needed “protection” and a “secured life” under the care of a man, the mother felt. Before even realising that her dreams were fading quickly, that her life would never be the same, Vani got married. Before her 22nd birthday, she was a mother to four children.

Did she give in quickly? No, she cried for many weeks leading up to her wedding day. She cried even after her wedding day but her voice was unheard and her cries for help were ignored. She did have a dream that was now shattered. Stuck in an unhappy marriage, she was staring at a long road to nowhere.

Like Vani, there are millions of girls who are stopped short of their rightful access to a life of their choice. They all have dreams, their own paths to explore but their wings are clipped, by parents, life partners or children. For many of them, life halts in the face of this disappointment. They don’t dare to dream again but for some, dreaming on is not a matter of choice — they just have to do it because it’s their only way out. .

Poornima Krishna was a catalyst at kanthari and mentor to Anumuthu, in the 2017 batch. She visited Snehan, Puducherry, to meet and engage with people at the organisation. She spoke with women in Snehan for about two hours — the conversations were anchored in the importance of following dreams and the mental fortitude to tide over challenges to those dreams.

The women opened up about their personal lives with Poornima and shared with her the struggles that have defined their lives. Poornima said she was inspired by the manner in which these women were finding their way back to life, after years of abuse and hardships. She also motivated them to regain their long-lost joys and revisit their unfulfilled dreams.

We thank Poornima and her son, Mihir, for their time at Snehan and all the feedback and suggestions.

A woman comes back home, hungry and exhausted after a long day of work. Two of her kids are also hungry and crying for food. A little while later the mother opens her cupboard to pick up some money to buy provisions for a family meal but she finds only the empty money purse. Can the money be safe, if you live with an alcoholic person? What would be the priority for a drug addict, family, or his happiness?

Pondicherry is a tourist place, where people come to enjoy their holidays with cheap and best food and liquor. The more affected ones are the local men. Thousands of family women suffer all through their life because of their husbands who are addicted to alcohol. The family women are pressured to survive along with their kids. They can’t feed their kids, have no proper clothes nor shelter, huge struggle in giving education, many kids are school dropouts. These men coolly drink and drink and die before their time. The victim is the family woman and her kids. Who will take care of them?

Helping and empowering the women’s community is always a vital activity of Snehan. A huge number of families in India live in separation, poverty, and unemployment because of alcohol addiction by men. The women who are completely dependent on their husbands for their survival and their kids are left in wants for every little need. They don’t have a voice in the family, always overpowered and beaten by their husbands. Such kinds of women are selected and trained carefully in income generation activates such as tailoring, embroidery, and screen printing, the neediest ones are giving employment in Snehan income-generating activities, and others are left in independence to earn. Snehan is happy to proclaim that in-spite of great calamity and long lockdowns still, we managed to train 6 women, left them empowered in their family and in the society, especially two girls getting married with skills and self-confidence is great.