Borrow Wife Tradition Caused Decreasing Number of Women

Baghpat, India, Indians tend to prefer boys, so the female population continues to shrink because it is often aborted in the womb. The result appears to lend each other the practice of wife because not all men could be the couple themselves.

Such practices can be found in the district of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh state, located in the northern region of India. One of the victims were Munni, women's 40-year-old who daily have to serve up to three men.

Munni is not a sex worker, he was ordinary housewife like women in other parts of the world. The difference, in addition to serving her husband she also had to be his two brothers-in-law who all had no luck getting his own wife.


As the wife of the loan, Munni also must give satisfaction to both inner and outer brother-in-law and served as her own husband. Therefore in one day, he must act as the wife of three men at once despite its status only as a loan.

"My husband and his parents told my brother-in-my second serve, day and night and whenever they want. If I refused to hit," said Munni who already has 3 children of her husband's cooperation, as quoted by Reuters on Wednesday (2/11/2011 ).

Believed, the case of Munni also experienced many other women in Baghpat's just no one dared to report on the region's because women are forbidden out of the house alone. Munni had just dared to share their stories after visited by social workers.

According to social workers who now accompany Munni, wife lent traditions prevalent in poor areas like Baghpat. The trigger was the waning female population, due to the practice of abortion is often performed on female fetuses.

This assumption is reinforced by the latest census data that the local government. In 2011, the sex ratio in Baghpat district recorded only 858 women per 1,000 men while the national ratio is 940 women per 1,000 men.

Birth rate of women in this region also recorded less and less from year to year. Throughout the year 2011 there were only 837 female births, whereas 10 years earlier ie in 2001 the figure was still reach 850 female births.

"We have witnessed the worst effects of the shrinking population of women in some communities," said Bhagyashri Dengle, executive director of Plan India, a social organization assisting victims of Munni and tradition lend other wives.

In the tradition of some communities in India, the birth of a baby boy was thought to bring luck and blessings for the parents when it began to enter old age. Because of this widespread practice of illegal abortions carried out, particularly to female fetuses.

No wonder the female population in the region waning. As a result not bring good luck, this condition creates misery for the men who did not get the couple nor the women who are forced to be his wife a loan.

"In every village there are at least 5-6 bachelors who did not get a pair. Even in other regions, in one family can have 3-4 boys who never married. It's a very serious problem," said Shri Chand (57 years), a retired policeman in Baghpat.