*Names of the women and children have been changed to protect their identity.
Indian women are being sold in Kashmir for as little as $35 by traffickers for forced marriages against their free will.
One of these victims, a 29-year-old woman (Nazima Begum), accompanied by her youngest son just 5 months old, shared that she lives in a single room with her 3 children including a 7 and 10-year-old.
Her husband died from heart disease 4 months ago, and although she is still going through a tough time, she is trying to show herself as a stronger individual for her children.
Rifat Fareed/Al Jazeera
Nazima’s* marriage is unlike the ones we hear of, it was neither arranged nor love, it was a forced marriage. She had been kidnapped from her home in the state of West Bengal and transported 1,600km (1,000 miles) to Kashmir, where she was forced to marry a man 20 years her senior who had paid her traffickers $250 for a bride.
After his death, she was forced to look after the children on her own without any support. This is just one of the many stories AlJazeera had uncovered.