Smriti Irani consoles girl

An 18-year-old choked up while recounting her child marriage horror. Smriti Irani took her hand in hers to encourage the young woman to go on.

Transcript

00:00You manage money, but you didn't get a cake for a fat minister.

00:24Hello, everyone.

00:26My name is Gulabshah Parveen.

00:28I am from a small village in Bihar called Masauri.

00:32When I was 15 years old, my grandparents forced me to marry a 55-year-old man.

00:46I was already married and had 8-10 children.

00:50The next day, my in-laws started abusing me.

00:58They started torturing me in many ways.

01:02When I told my family about this, they said,

01:06you are married now, we can't help you, you have to stay there.

01:11When I couldn't take it anymore, I left my in-laws' house and went to a central home.

01:19I was starting a new life there, I was studying there.

01:23I was made the director of the central home for a day.

01:28I told them about the safety of the children and their future.

01:41When I was 18 years old, the central home called my family and sent me home.

01:49When I went home, things were already so bad.

01:53My family started to talk to me about my whereabouts.

02:03They started to abuse me.

02:06When I couldn't understand anything, I informed Rashmi ma'am and Shani didi.

02:14They told me about Hello Small LLP.

02:18I talked to Neha and invited her to my home.

02:25I went with them.

02:27After going there, I got to know about the world.

02:31I got to see a new world.

02:33I got a new name, which people know me as Dara Sandaliya.

02:39I studied there, did a computer course, learned how to drive, how to do accounting.

02:52There are 28 girls in our organization, who are in different positions.

03:00One of them is the manager of a factory and the other one is the manager of a factory.

03:05Some of the girls work in a factory and some in a soybean factory.

03:10I am one of the five girls who have created a shop.

03:18I am the manager of that shop.

03:26I manage everything there.

03:30You manage money, but you didn't bring a cake for the minister.

03:34If I get a chance, I will bring a cake for him.