Sold like cows and goats’; India’s slave brides

Decades of sex selection favouring male babies have left some Indian states with vastly more men than women, creating a lucrative and growing market for traffickers. In the patriarchal and feudal state of Haryana where there’s a shortage of women to marry, it’s normal for men to buy young girls trafficked from other states.

Known as “paros”, a term implying they can be purchased, they are regularly raped, forced into marriages and made to work as bonded labour. Their uneducated families are often tricked into agreeing to send them away, lured by the idea of a happy marriage for their daughters. But tragically, there is no “happily ever after”.

Article, Video Courtesy_ Al Jazeera