With millions more men than women in India, many wonder about the state of bachelorhood in India
.
. The gender ratio keeps plummeting, and you don’t have communities going into panic saying “We need to find a woman for sex and reproduction!!” Why is this economic/ “women as commodity” theory not working out the way it was assumed it would?
Perhaps because Indian men indeed view women as “commodity!” And since there is a shortage of “female commodity” the users have found other methods of procuring women! They are now BUYING, SELLING, AND RECYCLING! It is another response to “commodity shortage”, and is essentially the Indian version of DOMESTIC SEX-TRAFFICKING. This is a practice in India that is as old as female gendercide, and there are reports that it existed even as early as the 1900s. Only now, with plummeting gender ratios, the practice is out in the open and increasing rapidly. It is often referred to as ‘BRIDE-TRAFFICKING.’
Much of this sex-trafficking is in the guise of ‘marriage.’ Each family, community and people involved call it a ‘marriage.’ The girl or woman is sold as a ‘bride’ to a man. She may be married to one man in a family but is used for sex and reproduction by the other men within the same family. She is then re-sold again as a ‘bride’ to another family. Some women are sold and resold up to four times, and there are indications that there are thousands of such ‘brides’ being trafficked in the name of ‘marriage.’ Most of these girls are 15 years or younger and often kidnapped and sold into “bride-trafficking”.
Government officials explain their lack of action against this form of sex-trafficking with, “”If they are legally wedded, what can we do.”
However, from many rural areas, families will often sell their daughters to a commercial “agent” for as little as U.K. £15
There is one report of a man beheading his “bought” wife for refusing to sleep with his brothers.
Munni who was forced to have sex with her husbands brothers, has had three sons from them. It is interesting that all her children are boys, no girls. It is believed that there may be many more women like Munni in the region. Here is Munni’s story in her words:
“My husband and his parents
said I had to share myself with his brothers…
They took me whenever they wanted – day or night.
When I resisted, they beat me with
anything at hand…Sometimes they threw me
out and made me sleep outside or they poured kerosene over
me and burned me.”
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHERS: Claire Pismont and Delphines are members of The 50 Million Missing Campaign’s Photographers Group on Flickr. supported by more than 2400 photographers from around the world. To see more of each of their works, please click on the pictures.