Drought Causing India Farmers to Sell Wives

Faced with starvation and complete financial ruin, farmers in the drought-ridden region of Bundelkhand are being forced to sell what is often times their only remaining “possession”: their wives.

The area of central India straddling the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh suffered from one of the worst droughts in recent memory this summer. Planted seeds died while waiting for the life-giving rain that arrived weeks too late. Even worse than the failed crops was the death of cattle from lack of drinking water. In India, cattle provide milk, plow fields, and can even be rented out. Without cattle, families lose a fundamental asset.

So farmers, without any source of income, sought loans from private money lenders to provide the most basic needs for their families.

…One farmer in Jhansi, named Kalicharan, told The Telegraph that he had borrowed money to buy a water pump. When the money lender came for the repayment, he took his wife and three children.

ABC