India

With a little help from my friends: the social lives of married women in rural India

Tuki, Sakhri and Bhaagi (L to R), the wives of Sakharam Bhagat, stand as they prepare to go out to fetch water from a well outside Denganmal village, Maharashtra, India, April 20, 2015. In Denganmal, a village in Maharashtra state, some men take a second or third wife just to make sure their households have enough drinking water. Becoming what are known as "water wives" allows the women, often widows or single mothers, to regain respect in conservative rural India by carrying water from the well quite some distance from the remote village. When the water wife, who does not usually share the marital bed, becomes too old to continue, the husband sometimes takes a third and younger spouse to fetch the water in metal pitchers or makeshift containers. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYPICTURE 13 OF 29 FOR WIDER IMAGE STORY "WATER WIVES OF MAHARASHTRA"??SEARCH "WATER WIVES" FOR ALL IMAGES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - GF10000117050

India is a strongly patriarchal society. Image: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Eeshani Kandpal
Research Economist, World Bank
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IndiaGender InequalityEducation
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