This is one of three photographic essays that were submitted to Panos Pictures recently. It details some of the issues Garwhali women face in the rugged Himalayan region of India.

The Garwhal is a rugged mountain range at the foot hills of the Himalayas in India’s northern state of Uttarkhand. It is peppered with deep gorges, ravines and high mountains over 20,000 feet.

Garwhal landscape Uttarkhand

The hilly terrain and rough weather makes road connectivity a problem and even where there are roads they can be damaged or cut off by snow, landslides or monsoon rain throughout the year.

Hilly terrain, Garwhal

Employment, infrastructure and literacy are common problems in the region. While women often act as the backbone to families in a region where hand-to-mouth survival is prevalent, and toil long and hard in the fields sometimes when the men are off working in towns and cities, they are generally considered subordinate to men.

Garwhali village

Woman working in the fields near Dhanoulti

Girls are commonly married in their mid teen years and the weddings are traditionally arranged through matching horoscopes, caste systems and the status of the family.

Garwhali woman, Dhanoulti.

Once this has been arranged the next step is for the groom to collect the bride. In Dhanoulti one May, during the traditional wedding period, a young groom was being prepared for celebrations which included a hair cut and having his hands painted.

Groom getting his hands painted for the wedding ceremony.

Groom having hand painted for wedding ceremony

He was then carried away in a dandie across the hills to collect the bride, a distance of a few hours. The procession was led by a white flag and followed by a traditional band.

Groom going to collect the bride near Deosari

Much later in the day the marriage procession returned carrying a red flag to represent the bride. Ceremonies had been held in her village which commonly include the nose ring or nath ceremony and plenty of food.

The procession returns.

By this stage the men were drunk and swayed the dandies precariously along the mountain paths, stopping to sing and dance. The pipers had given up and a battery-powered portable radio was belting out some tinny Hindi tunes.

Groom's friends with a portable radio.

The men opened the curtain on the bride’s dandie to show her off and she appeared frightened and crying and barely about 15 years old.

The young bride in tears.

On arrival in the village, pujas and other ceremonies were performed. Other women who had gone through the process themselves years previously and had now settled into life in the village watched on from a distance while the men continued their celebrations late into the night, drinking and partying.

An older Garwhali woman near Deosari.

A Garwhali woman bringing in hay for the cattle.

Some recalled their own traumatic wedding experiences but had by now settled down into life in the village, working the agricultural plots, tending livestock and raising children that would one day go through the same process. Bred resilient the women of the Garwhal have to be tough and learn to adapt.

A pregnant woman washes the family clothes.

Young girls in Dhanoulti.

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