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Baghpat: Trafficked Brides Suffer Rape and Abuse

Baghpat has a low sex ratio, and women from other states--many who are trafficked--are married off to men here, face several forms of abuse.

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Baghpat - Trafficked Brides Suffer Abuse

Baghpat: Trafficked Brides Suffer Rape and Abuse | Illustration by Jigyasa Mishra

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Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh: “It was a happy marriage for the initial few weeks, but eventually it turned into a nightmare,” says Shamita (name changed). “I was waiting for my husband to return from work, when his elder brother entered my room and closed the door. He raped me,” the 29-year-old who lives in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh says.

Located 40 km from Delhi and sharing a border with Haryana, Baghpat has 861 women to every 1,000 men compared to the national sex ratio of 940, as per the 2011 census.

The district had a child sex ratio (in the age group 0- 6 years) of 841. For children born in the last five years, the child sex ratio was 818 in 2019-21 against 763 in 2015-16, according to the National Family Health Survey.

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A normal gender ratio at birth is between 102-106 boys per 100 girls, which would be equivalent to 943-980 girls per 1,000 boys, according to a report by organisations working on gender issues, as IndiaSpend reported in August 2017. This ratio is not 1,000 boys for every 1,000 girls because it is nature's way of balancing a higher risk of death for boys as they grow older, according to the World Health Organisation.

Decades of forced female foeticide complemented by illegal sex determination tests has led to a situation where many men in the district do not find brides. Devendra Kumar Dhama, founder of local non-profit Chetna Kalyan Samiti, which works for gender rights, tells IndiaSpend, “Due to the root cause of patriarchy, several immoral and illegal practices are commonly seen in the district. They begin with female foeticide, and later on they end up buying girls for their sons, causing trauma to that girl and her family in the entire process.”

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The story of Baghpat is the story of trafficked brides falling prey to abuse and wife-sharing, and forced female foeticide, all of this compounded by a failed law.

Generations-old torture

“My in-laws were in the house,” Shamita, who was married in 2017, recalls of her rape. “

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