Men rent out wives in India

2006-06-19 12:48

New Delhi - Some husbands in western India are renting out their wives to other men, cashing in on a shortage of single women available for marriage, say reports.

The reports said Atta Prajapati, a farm worker who lived in Gujarat state, leased out his wife, Laxmi, to a wealthy landowner for $175 138 a month, citing unidentified police officials.

According to reports, Laxmi was expected to live with the man, look after him and his house, and have sex with him.

Officials unwilling to comment

The reports said that this was not an isolated incident in the western state, and that several men rented their wives to other men on a month-by-month basis.

Gujarat officials were unwilling to comment on the report. The male-female ratio was becoming increasing skewed across India because many parents aborted female foetuses, preferring sons to daughters.

Female children must be married off, and to achieve that a daughter's parents usually had to pay the groom's family a dowry of cash and gifts - often a massive burden on the parents' resources.

Wealthy families hire housekeeping staff

Dowries were outlawed in 1961, but the practice was still common and the law ill-enforced. According to the 2001 national census, the nationwide number of girls per 1 000 boys declined from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001.

But in wealthy Gujarat state, the census showed 828 females for every 1 000 males, although officials said the number could be as low as 700 girls per 1 000 boys in parts of the state.

It was not unusual for wealthy families to hire housekeeping staff in India, but prostitution was illegal.

The lack of marriageable girls in Gujurat had also led to booming business for bride brokers, who were paid to find a woman for a man to marry.

- AP