![]() RASCOE: Well, so it sounds like the safe house may not have been so safe for them after all. And I also started to hear different versions of life in that shelter, versions that I found pretty troubling. And a couple of months later, I started to hear from them, and I heard, you know, even more dramatic versions of their escape stories and violence that they faced. RASCOE: I mean, what did the couples there tell you?įRAYER: Some of them had these dramatic escape stories. You wait weeks, sometimes months for the Commandos to get you a marriage license, register that marriage license with police and get you police protection if you need that, and only after they're confident that you will be safe on the outside do they let you go. Part of the deal of this shelter protection is you put your safety in these men's hands so they confiscate your cell phones. Some of them hadn't been outdoors in two months, they said. It is our base shelter, base shelter of the Love Commandos.įRAYER: Inside the shelter, I met couples. And we pull up next to this nondescript four-story building, and he opens the door to this secret safe house. And this is a Delhi neighborhood that's famous for backpacker hotels. We did, like, five or six turns so we would lose track of where we were going, and eventually we end up at the heart of Paharganj. I hop in an auto rickshaw with my producer, and he literally does everything short of, like, blindfolding us so we wouldn't see where we were going. RASCOE: Yeah, his name is Sanjoy Sachdev.įRAYER: And he wouldn't tell me where the safe house was. I met the head of the Commandos on a street corner outside of a metro stop in Delhi. And in the summer of 2018, I went to this secret safe house in Delhi. The group also manages their marriage paperwork, helps them get a marriage license, register their marriage, gives them a place to stay in a safe house in Delhi to start their life as newlyweds away from threats from their families. LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: This is a group that helps people escape and elope with a person of their own choice. It's about love, marriage but also secret notes, a threat of suicide and a vigilante group that goes by the name of Love Commandos. My colleague Lauren Frayer spent five years as NPR's India correspondent, and she's reported a new series for NPR's Rough Translation podcast. Now a younger generation is pushing back, sometimes leading to fractured families or violence at home. ![]() Parents usually find spouses for their children based on caste or religion. In the world's most populous nation, which is now India, with more than 1.4 billion people, arranged marriages are normal.
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