Preface
"They see women as water pipes or tanks!"
In 2016, the Times of India condemned the actions of certain Indians.
Although immoral, in fact, the "water wife" is a very common kind of "wife" in some parts of India.
The water wife needs to take on the hardest and most tiring work in the family, and she also needs to drink her husband's footwashing water to express her heart.
The status of the "water wife" is low, and it is even inferior to the maid in ancient China.
But even the water wives have a lot of beautiful Indian women vying to do it.
So what is a "water wife"? Why should Indian women rush to do it?
1. Indian "Water Wife"
As the name suggests, "water wives" are related to water, their main job is to "carry water", and their secondary work is to undertake the hardest and most tiring work in the family.
That's right, in some areas of India where water is scarce, Indian men will take several wives to fetch water.
These "water wives" need to wade through mountains and rivers for hours with aluminum cans to fetch water from the water source.
After that, the jars are stacked on top of your head and the water is transported home.
What we see in Indian movies is a group of beautiful women stacking jars on their heads, and these are the water wives.
A large jar can hold 15 litres of water, and they need to transport two, or 30 litres, in one trip.
It often takes hours for them to deliver water, even in the scorching sun.
They need to make three or four trips a day to keep the family water.
The aluminum cans are piping hot in the sun.
Many water wives have been permed to slow the growth of their hair because they have been wearing aluminum cans in high temperatures for a long time, and they have slowly become women with sparse hair on the top of their heads and dark and rough skin, but they have no choice.
If you can't complete the task, you may not have anything to eat, and you may even be beaten by your wife.
The status is so low that they are called "servants", which can be regarded as promoting them, because servants are at least individuals, and they don't even have an identity.
If one water wife is not enough, the man may marry more.
It's just that whether these women can "sleep" or not still needs the consent of the eldest wife.
But even if the eldest wife agrees to let them sleep, they are generally not allowed to give birth to children.
So the life of a water wife is so difficult, why are there still many Indian women vying to do it?
2. Why do some people rush to be "water wives"
This is actually related to the Indian system.
In India, if a woman does not marry, she is considered "unclean".
Therefore, Indian women must marry themselves off early, no matter what.
If the unfortunate woman dies her husband or is abandoned by her ex-husband, if they do not marry themselves off quickly, then they will be disqualified from religious beliefs and cannot participate in religious activities.
Even worse needs to be "buried".
Therefore, these Indian women who have married can only be "water wives", at least they can "live".
Therefore, for these women who have been married, it is a good destination to be able to become "water wives".
However, there are also some girls who are forced to become "water wives" because their families cannot afford a dowry.
Because in the eyes of Indians, giving birth to a girl is to give birth to a "burden", and they urgently need to get rid of this "burden", so many girls need to marry when they are only 12 or 13 years old.
It doesn't matter if this person is an old man.
His willingness to take in their daughter is already a "good man".
So in order to thank this "benefactor", the girl's parents need to prepare a "dowry".
Some people with a solid background, or those who love their daughters, may be more generous, and only hope that the man will be better to his daughter, but whether it is good or not depends on the man's morality.
There are also some men who marry a wife as long as they have no money, and even divide their status into three, six, nine and so on according to their dowry, and the one at the bottom needs to grovel to everyone in the family.
Some netizens may wonder, who can do to me if I am not married?
In India, if a woman is not married, she has no social status, they can't even have the opportunity to work, and naturally they can't support themselves.
So it's better to be a "water wife" than to starve to death on the street.
Because of this, these "water wives" are generally very happy that they can get married.
But in India, it is obviously monogamous, why do many men choose to "break the law" and take in poor women?
3. Why do Indian men marry "water wives"?
It turns out that because of India's geographical location, their country often falls into water crises.
There is a small village in Mahalla, India, where there is almost no infrastructure, where people are relied on to get around, and there is not a single well or a single tap.
So they chose to "marry a wife" to solve the water problem.
A 70-year-old Barggett shared his story with a reporter from CNN.
He was a farm helper, and he married a total of three wives in his life, but he did not do it for the sake of children, or for the dowry of these wives, but simply because the family needed someone to work.
When Baggat was 18 years old, he married his eldest wife home, and at first she was in charge of household chores and fetching water, and each time she had to walk for hours to fetch water.
But because the family is not very large, it is enough to fetch water once or twice a day, and the rest of the time can also do some housework.
But when the two children are born, the eldest wife needs to add an additional child to the work project.
When she went to fetch water, there was no one to take care of the children at home, plus housework and other problems, the eldest wife was too busy.
Baget, who had no choice, had to marry another wife at the age of 25, and this wife was responsible for fetching water, and the eldest wife did housework and took care of the children.
However, the second wife was very thin, and after a period of water, her body was a little unbearable.
So Baggat married three more wives, the second and third were responsible for fetching water, and when he had time, he was responsible for some household chores at home.
Although Bhaggat is just one example, we believe that Bbagut is a true portrayal of millions of water-scarce families in India.
epilogue
Although the Indian government has been focusing on water issues over the years, it seems that sanitation is the only priority they have discussed, and the only way they have discussed how to combat drought seems to be the "water wife" solution.
Let these "water wives" rely on manpower to transport water again and again, after all, this is the most cost-effective solution.
So these "tanks" or "taps" will be there in India for a while.
Sources of information in this article:
[1] China Youth Daily, 2019-05-29, "In India, water shortage has given birth to a group of water wives"
[2] China News Network, 2015-06-08, "It is popular to marry a "water wife" in India's arid areas to fetch water for her husband's family"
(Disclaimer) The process and pictures described in the article are from the Internet, and this article aims to advocate positive social energy and no vulgar and other bad guidance. If it involves copyright or character infringement issues, please contact us in time, and we will delete the content as soon as possible! If there is any doubt about the incident, it will be deleted or changed immediately after contact.