Episode 4: Those footsteps behind you: girls, crime and punishment in the heartland

The time 20-year-old Gudiya’s husband threw hot oil on her face and tried to cut off her nose with a sickle, it was because Shiv Prasad was outraged that she had not cooked his dinner that evening. Instead, she asked him to cook himself and also mind the children. Shiv Prasad was infuriated; he wanted Gudiya to behave like a woman if she wanted a place under his roof: “aurat jaise, aurat ban ke rahegi toh hum rakhenge”. For Gudiya’s elderly parents in Banda’s Girvan block, a legal case was just not an option. They did not have the resources to take on a legal battle, and even if they did, it would achieve little. We put Gudiya in touch