PARODESI | Tale of a Trafficked Bride

March 02, 2022
By Jyoti Jangra

Suman (name changed) was trafficked from Kolkata city to a village in Haryana state to be married to a man. With the sex ratio of 911 females per 1000 males, as per the National Family Health Survey-5 (2020-2021), Haryana has more than 130,000 trafficked brides who come from impoverished parts of India. Locally called Paros, which means stolen, they are not accepted as members of the family and are grossly mistreated despite the marriage. Can they not just return to their homes, as they are not physically chained?