Even I don't need a wife this badly

Ishaq Kala laughs nonchalantly. "Give us 5,000 rupees and we can get you a girl," he says. The 32-year-old Kala's own teenage bride cost him a bit more — 6,000 rupees, the equivalent of $160 Canadian — but now he smiles with the confidence of a newlywed. His wife, 15-year-old Memoona, is a tiny figure who sits nervously on the rooftop terrace of their home in the village of Jogipur in India's northern Haryana state. She fiddles with her fingernails and refuses to look up, another silent victim in India's flourishing trade in girls. Her feet dangle over the edge of the charpoy bed, not quite touching the floor, while her mother-in-law sits next to her. When the teenager finally speaks, she does so in her native tongue of Assamese — a region that straddles India's northeastern border with Bangladesh, more than 1,200 kilometres from Haryana state. "I was brought here from Assam a month ago by a woman called Amina," she says. "I was told I would be married in Haryana .... I did not know what my husband's name would be. "When I came here, I was sold to a man called Kala for 6,000 rupees, my rate was fixed. Since then I have been here. There has been no wedding ceremony." Her story — that of a young girl lured into marriage with promises of wealth and a kind husband — is not unusual. Memoona is yet another trafficked girl, one of thousands of victims of India's acute shortage of wives. The shortage of women in India has increased tenfold, from 3.5 million in 1901 to 35 million in 2001, according to census figures, and the country's average gender ratio is 1,072 males per 1,000 females. That puts India at the bottom of the pile compared with neighbours China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The problem is particularly severe in Haryana, according to the Shakti Vahini organization, which works to aid trafficked females in northern India. The preference for sons among India's families, regardless of religion, ethnicity or economic background, has been well chronicled. But in addition to the tradition of selective abortion is an equally unpalatable truth: Years of gender-based abortions have led to an increase in the trafficking of females for men who can't find wives. Memoona spends her days in her new home with her in-laws, helping with the cooking and cleaning. She has yet to learn to speak Hindi and has had no contact with her family since she left Assam. Her husband admits her relatives have no idea where she is. "I won't allow her to contact her family," says Kala, a land-owning farmer who insists Memoona's age is 25. "If I had her contact her family, she would try to get away. My wife tells me, `Send me back to Assam' and I tell her, `Give me 6,000 rupees and I will send you back.'"

***What a crazy situation.