After the gang rape incident, the elders in the family had decided it was time to get Dipu Yadav married because, Amit explained, “usske bigadne ke chances the.”* Marriage is perceived as a settling, corrective agent in a rogue boy’s life—whether for the loving influence of a woman, the millstone of responsibility or, simply, the promise of regular sex. (The various forms of the word ‘sudharna’ have no perfect translation into English, ‘straightening out’, perhaps?) But how would they get anyone to give their daughter to the remarkably ineligible Dipu, with no prospects and this time- and
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