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Gowsalya’s journey from victim to crusader against honour killings
On March 12, 19-year-old Gowsalya Shankar was heading to Komaralingam village, near Udumalpet, in Tirupur district, for the first anniversary of the brutal and sensational murder of her husband Shankar, which falls on March 13.
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Gowsalya will take part in events by various organisations in the village. On her way, the young widow who is now a revenue assistant, in the Ministry of Defence, took time to share her journey so far as a living example for women empowerment.
“Nobody should say that I lost life because of my love marriage. I will keep rising even if I am pushed down and trampled upon”, she told DTNext. When she was just 18 years old, Gowsalya Shankar has undergone what others of her age would not have imagined. She has also done more than what a girl of age could have done despite her situation. Thanks to the tireless efforts of dozens of organisations and activists who showed her that she has got more reasons to life.
“I have no regrets for whatever has happened. I am living my dream and that of my husband and have a long journey to travel”, she said. Gowsalya hails from a Caste Hindu Thevar community and married Shankar, a Dalit final year engineering student, against her parent’s will.
Just eight months after the marriage they were brutally attacked by hirelings of her family at Udumalpet bus stand under broad daylight on March 13, 2016. The couple who faced lot of threats from her family was returning home after shopping that evening when thugs armed with sickles hacked them. This horrifying incident that was recorded in a CCTV camera went viral in the social media.
The duo was taken to Udumalpet Government Hospital and referred to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH). Gowsalya who was 18-yearsold at that time watched her husband die on their way to CMCH.
The traumatised girl also got 36 stitches for a deep cut on her head and was hospitalised for ten days. On her discharge, she returned to her husband’s house and stayed with her in-laws. Unable to bear her husband’s loss she consumed poison on May 12, but recovered.
Now the empowered teenager is attending trail before the court and playing the role of a daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, employee, motivational speaker and aggressive campaigner against casteism. Gowsalya has spoken on stage at more than 25 places in Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore and Madurai on women empowerment, against honour killings and for caste abolition and won appreciation of leading political leaders, activists and film stars, leading political leaders, activists and film stars.
Lingering memories of her days with Shankar
Gowsalya was a first-year student in a private college in Pollachi, where Shankar was in his third year.
“It was an one-and-a-half-hour journey to college by college bus from my house at Palani. I was to first to get into the bus and on the way to college Shankar used to get in”, she said. She saw Shankar for the first time on the third day to college, when he volunteered to talk to her only to check if she was in love with someone.
“I said no. The next day, he proposed me and I advised him to try someone else as my parents would not agree. He respected my privacy and did not insist on it. Later we started talking as friends”, she recalled. Gowsalya said that they used to talk for 140 minutes a day while traveling.
“We also talked over phone during the breaks between classes and soon we fell in love”, she said and added that her family came to know about their love on July 10, 2015, when a bus conductor spotted me with Shankar in bus and told my parents.
The next day she left her house and Shankar and Gowsalya got married in a temple. She discontinued engineering studies in the second year and the couple started living in Shankar’s hut. Shankar however continued studies and got a job in a private company through campus placement. He was all set to appear for the exam when the terrible incident took place.
“I have stored all the text chats we had from the first day till our marriage. Whenever I feel like talking to him I read those chats and laugh as I used to always bully him”, she said and looks at the picture she took with him as a couple that she has got as her mobile’s screen saver. Over the recent days a few youths have asked her hand in marriage. “I am not interested now. I want to be of more use to the society as a role model for women”, she concluded.
The couple’s picture which Gowsalya has set as her mobile wallpaper
Teenager who started life afresh after losing the love of her life
On her return to Shankar’s home after getting treated for her suicide bid in May, last year, the girl who dropped out of engineering studies got motivated to restart life.
One of those who counselled and motivated her was Elangovan of Chennai. He asked her to apply for the post of revenue assistant in the Ministry of Defence. She applied and was preparing for the exam at home.
Meanwhile, she started taking free tuition for children of the village and more than 20 students from Classes 1 to 11 came there every day. “It helped me relax”, she told DTNext. On November 5, she was among more than 600 applicants who took the typing test for the three vacancies in Ministry of Defence. Gowsalya was among the 40 who got qualified for the written test.
“This was where tuitions helped me as I emerged first in the test and got the job”, she chuckled. She had to join duty on November 7. But she had to appear for the cross questioning before the court at Udumalpet on November 9, as she is a crucial witness for the murder of her husband. She joined work the next day. Things did not go well initially as her colleagues were annoyed as see was escorted by police personnel.
On learning her story, they avoided talking to her for more than a month. Later they told me that they were afraid that my family would harm them because they spoke to me”, she laughed loud. On getting the job with her own effort, she passed on the government job under compassionate ground (for the honour killing of Shankar) to her father-in-law C Veluchamy (50).
Veluchamy works as a cook in the Adi Dravida department earning Rs 12,000 a month. With the Rs 5.5 lakh the family got from the government for the murder of her husband and Rs 3.5 lakh she got from various organisations and philanthropists, Gowsalya ensured that the first dream of her husband of building a proper house came true.
“His next dream was to make both his brothers study”, she said. Gowsalya’s first brother-in-law Vigneshwaran (19) is in his final year B Sc Computer Science while the second, Yuvaraj (17), is writing his plus two exams.
“I don’t give money to them. But get them new dresses when I go home. I am also saving money for their future”, she said. The teenager is also equipping herself with various skills. She is also pursuing B Sc Computer Science in Bharathiar University through distance education mode.
“I want to study MSW and play an even more active role as an activist,” she added. She is learning to play the traditional instrument parai and Karate.
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